The second misunderstanding concerns what makes for happiness. The aims of our present-day culture are avowedly ease and material well-being: shorter hours; a shorter week; more return for less accomplishment; more softsoap excuses and fewer honest, realistic demands. In our schools this is reflected by the vanishing hickory stick and the emerging psychiatrist. The hickory stick had its faults, and the psychiatrist has his strengths. But the trend is clear.Tout comprendre c'est tout pardoner (To understand everything is to excuse everything). Do wereally believe that our softening standards bring happiness? Is it our sound and considered judgment that the tougher subjects of the classics and mathematics should be thrown aside, as suggested by some educators, for doll-playing? Small wonder that Charles Malik, Lebanese delegate at the U.N., writes: "There is in the West" (in the United States) "a general weakening of moral fiber. (Our) leadership does not seem to be adequate to the unprecedented challenges of the age."
第二种误解涉及什么会带来幸福的问题。我们公开宣称我们当代文化的目标是追求舒适和物质享受：每天工作的时间越来越短；每周工作的天数越来越少；成绩越来越少，报酬却要越来越多；姑息宽容的借口越来越多，正当而实际的要求越来越少。这一误解在我们学校中的反映便是教鞭的消失和精神病专家的出现。过去的教鞭自有它的缺点，现在的精神病专家自有他的优点。但趋势是明显的。理解一切即原谅一切。难道我们真的相信我们降低了标准就能带来幸福？难道像某些教育学家所建议的那样，把古典文学和数学这些难学的科目弃之一边，而代之以一些像耍玩偶一样轻松的课程，是我们经过深思熟虑的正确判断？难怪黎巴嫩驻联合国代表查尔斯·马立克写道：“在西方(在美国)道德品质正在普遍削弱。（我们的)领导面对时代提出的种种前所未有的挑战似乎显得无能为力。”
The last misunderstanding is in the area of values. Here are some of the most influential tenets of teacher education over the past fifty years: there is no eternal truth; there is no absolute moral law; there is no God. Yet all of history has taught us that the denial of these ultimates, the placement of man or state at the core of the universe, results in a paralyzing mass selfishness; and the first signs of it are already frighteningly evident.
最后一种误解是在价值观方面。下面列举的是过去五十年中在师范教育方面影响最大的几项原则：没有永恒的真理；没有绝对的道德准则；没有上帝。然而全部历史告诫我们，否认这些基本原理，把个人或国家置于宇宙的中心，就会致使整个世界陷于瘫痪的、无处不有的自私自利；这方面最先表现出来的迹象已经十分明显，达到了令人吃惊的地步。