quotes

2. Build an "inclusive narrative" that goes beyond race, class, religion, etc., so that all may participate in the "the great debates".

3. Beware of "grandfalloons" and "foma". A "grandfalloon" is a proud and meaningless association of human beings. "Foma" are harmless truths intended to comfort simple souls.

4. Where the old (education) initiated, the new merely "conditions." The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly: the new deals with them more like the poultry keeper deals with young birds--making them thus or thus for purposes of which the birds know nothing. In a word, the old was a kind of propagation---men transmitting manhood to men: the new is merely propaganda.

6. A good teacher is not someone on whom the young can lean. A good teacher is the one who makes leaning unnecessary.

8. Every type of learning requires knowledge (grammar), understanding (logic), and creativity (rhetoric). ibid.

9. This stage is often termed "dialectic," referring to the way these intellectual skills were taught: by dialogues, that is, questions and answers in a back and forth discussion. ibid.

10. As the name "liberal arts" implies, it is designed specifically to be liberating. ibid.

11. Elementary school can encourage such high standards by using classical education to teach children to think. (The headmaster) also stresses the importance of helping students understand what it means to be human. ibid.

12. ...Classical education emphasizes the liberal arts, which are designed to offer a transcendent perspective of culture, enabling the individual to avoid becoming a slave to culture.

13. "Through the humanities we reflect on the fundamental question: what does it mean to be human?" ibid.

15. "What we have learned is that teacher and scholars need to work collaboratively so that new and developing knowledge in the disciplines can be available for teachers to use. Teachers need to think of their jobs--and be rewarded for so thinking of them-- as a life of continuous inquiry and study. They need to think of their classrooms as places in which thinking adults, thinking students, and the texts combine to form the basis for thought...Such classrooms would be places where important work is done by the students themselves." ibid.

16. "You've been cheated," I said. "Rich people learn the humanities; you didn't. The humanities are a foundation for getting along in the world, for thinking, for learning to reflect on the world instead of just reacting to whatever force is turned against you."

17. "We would use the Socratic method, which is called maieutic dialogue. Maieutic comes from the Greek word for midwifery." ibid.

19. Dr. Inclan found that the students' self-esteem and their abilities to divine and solve problems had significantly increased; their use of verbal aggression as a tactic for resolving conflicts had significantly decreased. And they all had notably more appreciation for the concepts of benevolence, spirituality, universalism, and collectivism."

20. Research since the mid-80's has consistently found that big schools exacerbate antisocial tendencies. ibid.

21. The ideal size of school, according to Meier, is one small enough so that all the teachers can go into one room and gather in a circle. When they do that, the school is in a position to take initiative, refine its methods, and develop a distinctive character." ibid.

22. "We took low-budget sports facilities for granted. What mattered was that students who would have been relegated to spectator status at a big school got the thrill of contributing at little Wesleyville." ibid.

23. "The professionals turned out to be the agents of bureaucratic entanglement...People need things that bring meaning to their lives." ibid.

24. "Supporters of consolidation have often contended that bigger schools are more cost-effective. That claim often is correct when measured in cost per student...A better measure is the cost per graduate." ibid.

25. "As long as students continue to be herded into big schools, other approaches to school reform are...like rearranging the desk chairs on the Titanic." ibid.

26. "But good teaching is all about urging those we teach to accept what we believe to be true and worthy of their acceptance. Bad teaching imposes values, too, and schools that are incoherent are not neutral or ‘value free.’ Cynicism, indifference to truth, disinclination to carry out tasks thoroughly, and a disrespect for others--all of these can be learned in school."

From "The Teacher's Muddle," by Charles Glenn, in The Wilson Quarterly, Autumn, 1999

27. "People can only empower themselves; this happens when they have an internalized sense of self confidence that generates purposeful action on their own behalf. School failure is seldom, if ever, the child's fault. When one engages in a thorough investigation of the child's environment, intellectual or emotional failures often are found to be the result of undercurrents between the child and adult and/or the institution wherein the child feels unloved, unchallenged, and disempowered."

Not to disown what one has learned from others, but to refer candidly to the true parent

The middle tone of voice is best, neither so low to be inaudible, nor ill bred from its high pitch

One should reflect first on what one is going to say, and then give it utterance

29. No university ought to be merely a national institution….The universities should have their common ideals, they should have their common obligations toward each other. They should be independent of the governments of the countries in which they are situated. They should not be institutions for the training of an efficient bureaucracy, or for equipping scientists to get the better of foreign scientists; they should stand for the preservation of learning, for the pursuit of truth, and in so far as men are capable of it, the attainment of wisdom….

30. The aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought….The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likable, disgusting, and hateful.

31. The well-nurtured youth is one who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with a just distaste would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receiving it into his soul and being nourished by it, so that he became a man of gentle heart…..

32. These are the things I learned: share everything, play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw some and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day. Take a nap every afternoon, and, when you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

34. What we need from you is your moral courage….Trust in your judgment and act bravely.

36. Children can scarcely be fashioned to meet with our likes and our purpose. Just as God did us give them, so must we hold them and love them, nurture and teach them to fullness and leave them to be what they are.

38. Education is, in fact, for nothing less than helping to make you a fully human being and to preserve the ways of civilization.

39. The making of adaptable, curious, open, questioning people has nothing to do with vocational training and everything to do with humanistic and scientific studies.

40. Too much apparatus, like too much bureaucracy, only inhibits the natural flow (of teaching and learning). Free human dialogue, wandering wherever the agility of the mind allows, lies at the heart of education. If teachers do not have the time, the incentive, or the wit to provide that; if students are too demoralized, bored or distracted to muster the attention their teachers need of them, then that is the educational problem which has to be solved --- and solved from inside the experience of the teachers and the students.

42. The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own States. Wishing to order well their States, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

43, Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

44. The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.

45. I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge. I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.

46. There were four things which the Master taught --- letters, ethics, devotion of soul, and truthfulness.

47. The superior man seeks to perfect the admirable qualities of men, and does not seek to perfect their bad qualities. The mean man does the opposite of this.

"A good education is not so much one which prepares a man to succeed in the world, as one which enables him to sustain a failure."
-- Bernard Iddings Bell, chaplain, University of Chicago

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."
-- Malcolm X

"As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit."
-- Seneca (B.C. 3-65 A.D.)

"Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion."
-- Henry Steele Commager (Historian)

"Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure."
-- Henry David Thoreau, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Walden, 96

"Many college text-books, which were a weariness and stumbling-block when I studied, I have since read a little with pleasure and profit."
-- Henry David Thoreau, 19 February 1854, Journal VI: 130

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
-- Albert Einstein

"It's not that I'm so smart it's just that I stay with problems longer."
-- Albert Einstein

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."
-- Albert Einstein

"If A equals success, then the formula is: A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
-- Albert Einstein

"Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality."
-- Albert Einstein

"The cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research."
-- Albert Einstein

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
-- Albert Einstein

"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten."
-- B F Skinner

"I may have said the same thing before... But my explanation, I am sure, will always be different."
-- Oscar Wilde

"By fixing public education, I mean this: Send the Washington bureaucrats home, and send their money to the states, the classrooms and especially to parents, in the form of HOPE scholarships for the children. Let parents decide which school is best for their children. College-age students with scholarships can use the HOPE scholarships at the college of their choice. If a federal HOPE scholarship is good enough for an 18-year-old, it is good enough for a six-year-old."
-- Issues 2000, Lamar Alexander's stand on public education.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the U.S.

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."
-- Chinese Proverb

"A love affair with knowledge will never end in heartbreak."
-- Michael Garrett Marino

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward."
-- Vernon Law

"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
-- Mark Twain

"Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog."
-- Mark Twain

Ain't it funny how the factory doors close
Round the time that the school doors close
Round the time that the doors of the jail cells
Open up to greet you like the reaper
--"Ashes in the Fall"

Confucius, from "The Analects" (Confucius Speaks by Tsai Chih Chung)

___________________________________________

The Six Defects:

To love benevolence but not love learning is to slip into foolishness;

To love wisdom but not love learning is to slip into vagaries;

To love sincerity but not love learning is to encounter harm;

To love forthrightness but not love learning is to become rash;

To love courage but not love learning is to invite disaster;

To love strength but not love learning is to become wild.

The Nine Considerations:

There are nine considerations a gentleman should keep in mind:

When looking, be mindful of clarity,

When listening, be mindful of acuity,

For facial expressions, be mindful of geniality,

For demeanor, be mindful of deference,

When speaking, be mindful of sincerity,

When acting, be mindful of reverence,

When confused, be mindful of inquiring,

When angry, be mindful of the consequences,

When seeing the chance for gain, be mindful of what is right.

From the poem "To Alphabetize" (from the book On the Front Line, poetry from the Salvadoran civil war)

_____________________________________________

...We taught the alphabet with

revolutionary togetherness

sharing everything when there was nothing

thus we learned the word "companion."

We learned the alphabet with

silent stubborn teachers

and with errors

through rivulets, pathways, roads and trails

and thus we learned the word "GUINDA"*

Today, August 14, 1984, we teach the alphabet

for the first time with pencil and paper

and we learn all the words

we have thus far carried in our hearts:

"Victory," "Love."

-- Karla, health worker and literacy teacher

(*GUINDA: massive withdrawal of civilian population in the face of an army "search and destroy" mission.)

From A Scattering of Jades: Stories, Poems and Prayers of the Aztecs

____________________________________________

[There was] a sowing, there was a scattering.

This was said of a royal orator,

who gives good council to the people.

After he spoke,

after the oration had been delivered,

they understood its truth,

and they told him:

The people have been enriched,

they have become wealthy,

there has been a sowing, a scattering of jades.

--from the Florentine Codex

From Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen

___________________________________________

Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat the 11th grade.

--the author

It would be better not to know so many things than to know so many things that are not so.

--Felix Okoye, The American Image of

Africa: Myth and Reality

There is not one Indian in the whole of this country that does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears.

--Rupert Costo, in Wasserman's

Demystifying School

The history of a nation is, unfortunately, too easily written as the history of its dominant class.

--Kwame Nkrumah, Consciencism

As long as you are convinced you have never done anything, you can never do anything.

--Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik el Shabazz

(film)

There is no other country where there is such a large gap between the sophisticated understanding of some professional historians and the basic education given by teachers.

--Marc Ferro, The Use and Abuse of History

The future of mankind lies waiting for those who will come to understand their lives and take up their responsibilities to all living things.

--Vine Deloria, Jr., God is Red

From Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner

_____________________________________________

Once you have learned to ask questions--relevant and appropriate and substantial questions--you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.

From Who Said It?

_____________________________________________

I am for children first, because I am for society first, and the children of today are the society of tomorrow.

--Judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey

"Pay attention--it's cheap."

L. Brandon Stone, (http://www.lbstone.com/)

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

--Chinese proverb

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

--Rev. Jesse Jackson

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

--Jimi Hendrix

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

--Will Durant

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

--Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for
any one age. `Tis much better to do a little with certainty, and leave the
rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things."

Isaac Newton

"...from the same principles, I now demonstrate the frame of the System of
the World."

Isaac Newton

"Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve
other problems."

Rene Descartes