Spilt (打翻的) Milk
I recently heard a story about a famous scientist who had made several very important medical achievements. He was asked why he was so much more creative than the average person。
He responded that it all came from an experience when he was about two. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip (紧握) and it fell, spilling (打翻) the milk all over the floor.
When his mother came into the kitchen，instead of yelling at him, or punishing him，she said,“Robert, what a wonderful mess you have made! Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?”
Indeed, he did.After a few minutes, his mother said, “Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge ( 海绵) or a towel. Which do you prefer?” He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilt milk.
His mother then said ,“You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let' s go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it" The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands，he could carry it without dropping it.
The scientist remarked that it was then that he knew he didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead, mistakes were. just opportunities for learning something new，which is, after all, what scientific experiments are a1l about. Even if the experiment“doesn’t work,”we usually learn something valuable from it.