TEACHING QUOTES II
quotations about teaching
O ye! who teach the ingenious youth of nations,
Holland, France, England, Germany or Spain,
I pray ye flog them upon all occasions,
It mends their morals, never mind the pain.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
JOHN STEINBECK
"...like captured fireflies"
For rigorous teachers seized my youth,
And purged its faith, and trimm'd its fire,
Show'd me the high white star of Truth,
There bade me gaze, and there aspire.
MATTHEW ARNOLD
"Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse"
Q: How many teachers did you have? A: Myself.
BABA HARI DASS
The Yellow Book
Life is amazing: and the teacher had better prepare himself to be a medium for that amazement.
EDWARD BLISHEN
Donkey Work
Just when you think the masters of the universe who run the corporate reform movement can't be even more clueless, you catch wind of the newest effort to turn education into a profit-generating endeavor--this time, a hare-brained scheme to evaluate student teachers, by ... and I swear I'm not making this up ... observing them as they pretend to teach ... wait for it ... a fake "classroom" of avatars, in a virtual reality environment. Avatars. Avatars! AVATARS!!!!!!
MITCHEL ROBINSON
"The 'Brave New World' of Teacher Evaluation", Eclecta Blog, May 22, 2017
I almost stopped teaching entirely. The worst thing for me is contact with students. I like universities without students. And I especially hate American students. They think you owe them something. They come to you ... Office hours!
SLAVOJ ZIZEK
"Slavoj Zizek: I am not the world's hippest philosopher!", Salon, December 29, 2012
Teaching is one of the noblest of professions. It requires an adequate preparation and training, patience, devotion, and a deep sense of responsibility. Those who mold the human mind have wrought not for time, but for eternity.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
speech, July 4, 1924
As well as providing the greatest challenge, the greatest joy we have within teaching is that we are working with young people.
SIMON SMITH
"Evidence is important, but great teaching is still an art", TES, May 12, 2017
Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown propos'd as things forgot.
ALEXANDER POPE
An Essay on Criticism
Since human beings are highly adaptable it may be possible for an individual with any sort of competence to learn, in the end, according to any teaching strategy. But the experiments show, very clearly indeed, that the rate, quality and durability of learning is crucially dependent upon whether or not the teaching strategy is of a sort that suits the individual.
GORDON PASK
Learning Strategies and Individual Competence
Only crazy people teach in heels. You're on your feet all day. Sometimes you have to chase a kid. It's true that heels sound really impressive on the linoleum when you're walking down the hall, but how are you ever going to sneak up on anybody?
CAPTAIN AWESOME
"6 Ways in Which Teaching Is Nothing Like the Movies", We Are Teachers, December 4, 2015
It's the student who makes the teacher, not the other way around.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn
When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Life of Galileo
The good pupils are often brilliant, and they keep you on your toes and take you to the limits of your knowledge. The worst pupils provide a unique insight into the criminal mind.
JOHN LE CARRÉ
interview, The Paris Review, The Paris Review
No man is so learned but he may be taught; neither is any one so illiterate but he may teach.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY
Proverbs
No man can instruct more than half-a-dozen students at once. The whole problem of education is one of its cost in money.
HENRY ADAMS
The Education of Henry Adams
It might sound like a cliché to say that teaching is a stressful job. But behind the cliché lies a grim reality: Overburdened teachers dealing with a variety of issues in the classroom, including unaddressed mental health needs, often resort to punitive measures that alienate kids from school and feed the "school-to-prison" pipeline. This reality is the result of a failure to give teachers the resources and support they need to respond differently.
OCTAVIO MARTINEZ JR.
"Mental health in schools is at a tipping point. Here is what needs to happen", Fort Worth Star Telegram, May 26, 2017
A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.
WALTER BAGEHOT
"Hartley Coleridge", Literary Studies
We love the precepts for the teacher's sake.
GEORGE FARQUHAR
The Constant Couple