The French Punishment(法式惩罚)

（图片来自高原石头的博客）

Frenchmen attach great importance to education as a rule. They regard the cultivation of children as a social obligation. However, as the most romantic nation in the world, French education mixes warm romantic humor into its careful and severe education. I have ever heard such a story.

It took place in an ordinary French family. One day, the boy played basketball in the living room after school. When he was playing in high spirits, his basketball hit a vase off the shelf by accident. The vase dripped on the floor with a trump, its mouth knocked off a large piece. What made him more upset was that the vase was not a common ornament but an antique, which was handed down through generations from Bourbon Dynasty. To cover the great trouble he caused, the boy glued the pieces together hastily and put the vase back to its place panic-stricken.

As she herself clean the dust on the vase every day, his mother noticed the change on it. At dinnertime, she asked her boy if he broke the vase. Being scared of punishment, the boy said by a sudden inspiration that a wild cat jumped in from the window and couldn’t be drive away no matter how hard he tried. It jumped up and down in the living room and finally knocked the vase off the shelf. His mother was quite clear that her son was lying, for all the windows were closed before work and opened after work by her each day. However, before the cowardice eyes of her boy and the suspicious look of the other family members, his mother just remained calm and said, it seemed it was her carelessness not to have the window tightly closed.

Before going to bed, the boy found a note on his bed, on which his mother asked him to go to the study at once. The boy thought he had gotten by under false pretences, but then felt he couldn’t dodge the misfortune. Now that he had already lied, he made up his mind no matter what his mother said, he would disavow to the end, so that she could have no other way even if she was angry.

In the study, the jacinth light spread softly. Calmly bathed in the light, his mother’s face appeared no tint of anger. On seeing her son push open the door and enter in fear, she took a chocolate box out of a drawer and gave one piece of the chocolate to her so. “Baker, this chocolate is reward for you, for you created a cat that could open the window, with your special imagination. So you can surely write a good detective novel.” Then, she put another chocolate in his hand. ”This chocolate is a reward for your topping ability to restore. Though you restored with glue, the cracks were fitted almost perfectly. But remember, the glue you used is for restoring paper materials; to restore a vase needs not only more powerful glue, but also higher special technique. Tomorrow, let’s bring the vase to the artists, to see how they made a craftwork intact as it was.” With that, his mother took the third chocolate, “The last chocolate stands for my deep apology to you. As your mother, I shouldn’t have laid a vase in a place where it could so easily fall down, especially when there is a boy absorbed in sports. I wished you hadn’t been smashed or scared, my little sweetheart.”

“But, Mum, I… “The boy’s previous rebellious thought had already flown away. He tried to make something clear, he awkwardly uttered nothing but some words. His mother put her finger on his lips. “My chocolate box has been empty, so our talk is over, too. Now, go to bed! Good night, Baker! She gave a soft kiss on his forehead and walked out of the study.

The following days were the same as before. The only change was that the boy had never told a lie since then. Because once he intended to lie, the three chocolates would flash before him right away.

No scolding, no embarrassment. Obviously, he made a mistake, but got three chocolates as reward. It looks unimaginably queer. In fact, it is the very three chocolates that exhort the boy to be honest. They are the alarm in the boy’s heart all the time. Sometimes, no punishment itself is a kind of punishment.

法式惩罚

法国人向来很重视教育问题，他们把孩子的培养当作一种社会义务。但是，身为世界上最浪漫的法兰西民族，法式教育在细致严格的同时往往又掺入了温馨而浪漫的幽默色彩。以下是我听到的一个真实的故事。

    故事发生在一个普通的法国家庭。一天，孩子放学后在客厅里玩篮球。正玩得起劲的时候，篮球不慎打落书架上的一个花瓶，花瓶“咚”地一声重重摔到地板上，瓶口顿时摔掉一大块碎片。更令孩子大为惊骇的是，这个花瓶不是普通的摆设品，而是家里祖辈世代相传的那件波旁王朝时期的古董。为了掩盖自己闯下的弥天大祸，孩子慌乱地把碎片用胶水粘起来，胆战心惊地放回原位。

    由于每天都会亲自擦拭花瓶上的灰尘，所以当天晚上，细心的母亲就发现了花瓶的“变化”。吃晚餐时，她问孩子 : 是不是你打碎了花瓶。害怕受到惩罚的孩子灵机一动说，一只野猫从窗外跳进来，怎么赶也赶不走，它在客厅里上窜下跳，最后碰倒了架子上的花瓶。母亲很清楚，孩子在撒谎，因为每天都是她在上班前把窗户一扇扇关好，下班回来再一一打开的。然而面对孩子胆怯的眼神和家人疑惑的目光，母亲只是不动声色说，看来是我疏忽了，没有关好窗户。

    就寝前，孩子在床上发现了一张便条，母亲让他马上到书房去。本以为蒙混过关的孩子顿时心里一沉，看来还是难逃一劫。既然已经撒了谎，他打定主意，无论母亲怎么说什么，都拒死不承认，这样她就是发再大的火也拿他无可奈何了。

书房里，橘红色的灯光柔柔地弥散开来，母亲的脸平静地沉浸在光晕中，没有一丝波澜。看到孩子忐忑不安地推门进来，她从抽屉里拿出一个巧克力盒子，把其中一块巧克力递给孩子 : “贝克纳德（孩子的名字），这块巧克力奖你，因为你运用神奇的想象力创造出一只会开窗户的猫，以后你一定可以写出很好看的侦探小说。” 接着，她又在孩子手里放了一块巧克力 : “这块巧克力奖给你杰出的修复能力，虽然用的是胶水，但是裂缝吻合得几乎完美无缺呢。不过记住，你用的胶水是用于修复纸质物品的，修复花瓶不仅需要更强力的胶水，还需要更高的专业技术。明天我们把花瓶拿到艺术家那里，看看他们是怎样使一件工艺品完好如初的。 ”母亲一边说着，一边又拿起第三块巧克力 : “这最后的一块巧克力代表我对你深深的歉意，作为母亲，我不应该把花瓶放在那么容易摔落的地方，尤其是当家里有一个热衷体育的男孩子的时候。希望你没有被砸到或者吓到，我的小甜心。”

    “可是，妈妈，我……”孩子之前那颗叛逆的心早就飞到了九霄云外，他努力解释些什么，然而只笨拙吐出几个单词。母亲用手指轻轻挡在孩子唇上 : “我的巧克力盒子已经空了，所以我们的谈话也结束了，现在去睡觉吧，晚安贝克纳德。” 她温柔地吻了吻贝克纳德的前额，然后走出书房。

    之后的日子，一切照旧，唯一的变化是，孩子再也没有撒过一次谎，每当他不由自主地想要撒谎时，那三块巧克力就会立即浮现在眼前。

     没有一句责骂，没有一点非难，明明犯了错误，却得到了三块巧克力的奖励。表面看起来匪夷所思，实际上正是这三块巧克力告诫孩子做人要诚实，它们时时刻刻都是孩子心灵上的警醒。