Some years ago, a colleague gave me a wonderful little book called Teachers Have Class, edited by Mary Rodarte and published in 2001 by Ariel Books. It is a collection of some 375 quotations about teachers and teaching by great thinkers from Aristotle to Andy Rooney.
I have kept this volume on my desk ever since and found it to be both a source of inspiration and encouragement, particularly during those days when I wonder why in the world I am doing this. All teachers have days like that. I am fortunate that I have had very few in my long career in the classroom. The quotes in this book have often helped to get me through those difficult days by reminding me why I am doing what I am doing.
So here are some of my favorite quotes from this book. I hope that they will help to inspire others as they have inspired and motivated me!
"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." - Mark Van Doren
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." - Albert Einstein
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." William Arthur Ward
"By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn." - Latin Proverb
"What great or better gift can we offer the Republic than to teach and instruct our young." - Cicero
"Teachers are more than any other class the guardians of civilization." Bertrand Russell
"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater." - Gail Godwin
"If we succeed in giving the love of learning, the learning itself is sure to follow." - John Lubbock
"To teach is to learn twice." - Joseph Joubert
"I touch the future. I teach." - Christa McAuliffe
"A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron." - Horace Mann
"Theories and goals of education don't matter a whit if you don't consider your students to be human beings." Lou Ann Walker
"When a teacher calls a boy by his entire name it means trouble." - Mark Twain
"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"To often we give children answer to remember rather than problems to solve." - Roger Lewin
"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon." E. M. Forster
"What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child." - George Bernard Shaw
"The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do." - John Stuart Mill
"Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means." - Albert Einstein
"The secret of education is respecting the pupil." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"An education is not a thing one gets, but a lifelong process." - Gloria Steinem
"Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education." John F. Kennedy
"Learning without thought is useless. Thought without learning is dangerous." - Confucius
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats
"Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best." Bob Talbert
"The highest result of education is tolerance." - Helen Keller
"Only the educated are free." - Epictetus
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams
And finally this quote from Andrew Rooney:
"Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives."
Feel free to leave a comment below with your own favorite quote about teachers and teaching!
I have kept this volume on my desk ever since and found it to be both a source of inspiration and encouragement, particularly during those days when I wonder why in the world I am doing this. All teachers have days like that. I am fortunate that I have had very few in my long career in the classroom. The quotes in this book have often helped to get me through those difficult days by reminding me why I am doing what I am doing.
So here are some of my favorite quotes from this book. I hope that they will help to inspire others as they have inspired and motivated me!
"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." - Mark Van Doren
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." - Albert Einstein
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." William Arthur Ward
"By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn." - Latin Proverb
"What great or better gift can we offer the Republic than to teach and instruct our young." - Cicero
"Teachers are more than any other class the guardians of civilization." Bertrand Russell
"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater." - Gail Godwin
"If we succeed in giving the love of learning, the learning itself is sure to follow." - John Lubbock
"To teach is to learn twice." - Joseph Joubert
"I touch the future. I teach." - Christa McAuliffe
"A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron." - Horace Mann
"Theories and goals of education don't matter a whit if you don't consider your students to be human beings." Lou Ann Walker
"When a teacher calls a boy by his entire name it means trouble." - Mark Twain
"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"To often we give children answer to remember rather than problems to solve." - Roger Lewin
"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon." E. M. Forster
"What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child." - George Bernard Shaw
"The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do." - John Stuart Mill
"Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means." - Albert Einstein
"The secret of education is respecting the pupil." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"An education is not a thing one gets, but a lifelong process." - Gloria Steinem
"Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education." John F. Kennedy
"Learning without thought is useless. Thought without learning is dangerous." - Confucius
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats
"Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best." Bob Talbert
"The highest result of education is tolerance." - Helen Keller
"Only the educated are free." - Epictetus
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams
And finally this quote from Andrew Rooney:
"Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives."
Feel free to leave a comment below with your own favorite quote about teachers and teaching!
3 comments:
I believe that teachers deserve more respect for their work. They are tasked with properly raising the future of our country. Every president to every rocket scientist at one point has been dependent on a teacher.
I think it's great that you have a book to cheer you up after rough days as a teacher.
A quote I found:
"A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others."
I think this quote sums up the work of teachers pretty nicely!
Hey Mr. Magg. I actually found some of those quotes inspiring my self. I totally agree with the fact that teachers some times have off days because everyone does. Students probably get more off days when they just don't feel like doing anything education related for a full day or maybe even longer than that. My favorite quote about teaching is "a gifted teacher is as rare as a gifted doctor, and makes far less money".
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