A college professor had his sociology class go into the Baltimore slums to get case histories of 200 young boys. They were asked to write an evaluation of each boy's future. In every case the students wrote," He hasn't got a chance." Twenty-five years later another sociology professor came across the earlier study. He had his students follow up on the project to see what had happened to these boys.With the exception of 20 boys who had moved away or died, the students learned that 176 of the remaining 180 had achieved more than ordinary success as lawyers, doctors and businessmen. 

    The professor was astounded and decided to pursue the matter further. Fortunately, all men were in the area and he was able to ask each one," How do you account for your success?" In each case the reply came with feeling," There was a teacher."  

    The teacher was still alive, so he sought her out and asked the old but still alert lady what magic formula she had used to pull these boys out of the slums into successful achievement. The teacher's eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a gentle smile. "It's really very simple," she said. "I loved those boys." 

    一個大學教授在上社會學課的時候，讓他的學生去巴爾的摩貧民窟找200個男孩的歷史記錄，并且要求寫出對每個男孩未來的評估。對每個孩子，學生都這樣評價著：“他這輩子完了。”25年以后另外一個社會學教授發現了這個早期的研究，并讓他的學生繼續探究這個研究，看看這些男孩到底怎么樣了。這些男孩中除了已經去世或者遷居的20位以外，學生發現，剩下的180人中有176人都獲得了比普通人更大的成就，他們中有律師，醫生，還有商人。

    教授大吃一驚并決定進一步地探究下去。幸運的是，這些長成人的孩子還都在這個地區，因此教授有機會挨個去問他們：“你是如何獲得你的這些成就的？”很讓人感動的是，他們的回答如出一轍：“因為我有一位好老師。”

    這個老師還健在。當教授找到這位年邁但仍不失機警的婦人，問她到底有什么魔法能讓這些貧民窟的孩子都獲得如此成就的時候，這位老師眼里閃耀著光芒，她的嘴唇露出一抹溫柔微笑，“很簡單，”她說，“因為我愛這些孩子。”