Baskadia

「京大医学部４名合格講師」による受験対策講座（５４）

  A man only learns in two ways, one by reading and the other by association with smarter people.              (Will Rogers)

  このアメリカの作家の言うことは正しい。この smart という言葉は学力だけを意味しない。しかし、知恵と学力の相関はかなり高いので学力と考えても大きな間違いではない。ここで書かせてもらっている名言の多くは学者、作家、政治家、軍人、芸能人など一芸に秀でた人ばかり。その多くは勉強家だ。

　私は中学校の同級生に会うと

「高木クンは勉強がよく出来たよね」

　と言われる。なぜか。それは、彼らが中学校を卒業してから smart な人に会っていないからだろう。

　私は四日市高校に入学したら自分より才能のある同級生にたくさん出会った。でも、私の中学校から四日市高校に合格できるのは毎年2人か３人だ。だから、大多数の中学校の同級生は私の出会った全国で５番に入ったOくんのような同級生を知らない。

　私が通学でいつも一緒だった同級生は、京大医学部、東大経済学部、名大工学部などに合格していった。名古屋大学の同級生にも驚異的な秀才がいた。私はそういう同級生から多くを学べたと思っている。

　This American writer is right. The word smart does not mean only academic ability. However, it is not a big mistake to think of it as academic ability because the correlation between wisdom and academic ability is quite high. Many of the quotes I am allowed to write here are from people who excelled in one art, such as scholars, writers, politicians, soldiers, entertainers, and so on. Many of them are studious.

　When I meet my junior high school classmates, I always say to them

"You were a good student, weren't you, Mr. Takagi?

　I wonder why. Why? It is probably because they have not met anyone smart since they graduated from junior high school.

　When I entered Yokkaichi High School, I met many classmates who were more talented than me. However, only two or three students from my junior high school are accepted to Yokkaichi High School every year. Therefore, the majority of my junior high school classmates did not know classmates like Mr. O, whom I met and who was ranked fifth in the nation.

　The classmates I always went to school with were accepted into Kyoto University's Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Economics, and Nagoya University's Faculty of Engineering. Some of my classmates at Nagoya University were also phenomenally gifted. I believe I learned a lot from them.