controversial education quotes

30(+1) Thought-Provoking and Controversial Educational Quotes to get you Thinking

After School Africa

May 24, 2012

In a previous post I shares 101 motivational quotes for students and learners. Today I want to share with you 30 thought-provoking and controversial educational quotes. Since the institution of education and spoken words, as old as time, there has been diverse school of thought regarding the impact of formal and self education to individual lives. With economic recession, high graduate unemployment and the general perception of higher education, some of these quotes will challenge you to approach and threat your education from a different perspective.

Ponder over these educational quotes and see how it relates to your current educational status. But before you get reading, remember the Chinese proverb; If you believe everything you read, better don’t read at all.

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1. This is the mark of an educated mind: to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

2. Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

G.K. Chesterton

3. I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

4. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma Gandhi

5. You can never be overdressed or overeducated

Oscar Wilde

6. You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.

Brigham Young

7. [Kids] don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.

8. Whatever the price of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.

Walter Cronkite

9. Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

Robert Frost

10. You know sometimes kids get bad grades in school because the class moves too slow for them. Einstein got D’s in school. Well guess what, I get F’s.

Bill Watterson

11. Education is not to teach you but to awaken you.

12. Education: the part from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.

13. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

14. Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education.

Martin Luther King Jr.

15. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.

Fran Lebowitz

16. Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.

Leonardo da Vinci

17. The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

Augustine of Hippo

18. Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

19. Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

Charlotte Bronte

20. Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this; “ You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself – educating your own judgments. Those that stay must remember, always and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into narrow and particular needs of this particular society .

Doris Lessing

21. The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

22. Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all

23. The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.

Michel Legrand

24. Children must be taught how to think and not what to think.

Margaret Mead

25. A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.

Nelson Mandela

26. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

27. Education consists mainly of what you have unlearned.

28. Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on

Terry Pratchett

29. Marriage can wait; education cannot.

Khaled Hosseini

30. Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.

31. The man who reads nothing is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

Thomas Jefferson

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You Want to Teach What?

• Posted February 2, 2022
• By Emily Boudreau
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Moral, Civic, and Ethical Education
• Teachers and Teaching

Many teachers worry about bringing controversy into the classroom because it could spark conflict between students or result in reproaches from administrators or parents, but addressing and thinking through divisive issues is necessary for children who are learning to live, participate, and empathize with diverse perspectives in a democracy.

University of San Francisco professor  Judy Pace , an alum of Harvard Graduate School of Education, has studied the predicaments and possibilities of tackling charged topics in class. In her recent book, Hard Questions: Learning to Teach Controversial Issues , she explores how preservice programs prepare teachers to include controversial issues in their teaching . 

What Is a Controversial Issue?

Importantly, Pace notes that controversial issues are not the same as controversial topics, which are polarizing subjects that some stakeholders argue should not be taught. Instead, controversial issues “have to do with open questions  that are significant in terms of society or the past on which it is important to explore different perspectives that have legitimate sources of information,” says Pace. “We’re not talking about something like, ‘Do humans contribute to climate change?’ because that’s a settled question.” For example, open questions that introduce controversial issues and promote critical thinking could range from, “Should we lower the voting age?” to “What kinds of reparations should be paid to the descendants of enslaved people?”

Preparing Teachers for Controversy in Classrooms

Of course, generating these kinds of questions and leading students through open and fair discussions requires skilled teachers. To better understand how educators learn to teach controversial issues, Pace conducted a series of interviews with and observations of four teacher educators — instructors who teach people how to be teachers — and 15 preservice teachers in three different countries including the United States, Northern Ireland, and England.  

While the preservice teachers often worried about the risks associated with teaching controversial issues, Pace noted that the teacher educators acknowledged these anxieties and taught specific strategies to help address these concerns, rather than ignoring them. “In these methods courses, [teacher educators] encouraged [preservice] teachers to explore controversial issues using a variety of pedagogical approaches” that contained the risks, says Pace. Preservice teachers, she found, were often able to adapt the strategies they learned to fit their teaching contexts and their own identities as teachers. “I think [contained risk-taking] provides a way forward in this incredibly contentious political climate we’re trying to navigate.”

Controversial issues "have to do with open questions that are significant in terms of society or the past on which it is important to explore different perspectives that have legitimate sources of information. We’re not talking about something like, ‘do humans contribute to climate change?’ because that’s a settled question.”

Here, Pace provides a few instructional resources, strategies, and practices educators can use when teaching controversial issues:

• Know your students and understand the community.  “I’d hope every teacher from day one would start developing a culture of trust and respect,” says Pace. A supportive environment provides a foundation for a classroom where students feel they can express themselves and explore ideas. Drawing on existing research , Pace recommends teachers use preliminary surveys to get to know where students stand on issues and what issues they care most about to prepare for discussions and know what voices and perspectives to bring into the conversation.
• Communicate clearly.  Teachers should be transparent about their rationale for teaching a particular issue and explain how they’re approaching it — the goal is not to get students to adopt a particular stance but to get them to think critically. Parents and administrators should also have an awareness of what’s going on. “I think when teachers are transparent about why and how they’re doing this and keep the lines of communication open, that makes people feel less threatened and less likely to jump to conclusions about what’s going on in the classroom,” says Pace.
• Be thoughtful when selecting issues.  Again, controversial issues are not the same as controversial topics. They should be related to the curriculum, draw from valid information sources, and should be framed as open questions. Additionally, teachers shouldn’t lead with the most charged discussions but gradually build up student capacity for these issues as the year progresses. Resources like Civic Online Reasoning can help.
• Structured academic controversy , where students take turns understanding different perspectives presented by sources before coming to a compromise or consensus.
• Town hall meetings , where groups of students present differing viewpoints and then answer questions before reflecting on their own position.
• Walking debates , where students physically identify whether they agree or disagree with a particular statement before discussing.
• Leave room to reflect.  Try to leave time, if not at the end of the class at the end of the week, for students to address emotions, reflect, and debrief. Use writing as a vehicle for individual reflection. This is beneficial not just for students but for teachers as well. Teachers should also find colleagues they can process and reflect with. Additionally, be aware of your own limitations, blind spots, or biases. Actively seek out professional development to provide additional support and to build facilitation skills.

More on teaching controversies from Pace's website.  

Additional Resources

• Teaching Hard Histories
• Civics in Uncivil Times
• Harvard Ed Cast: Teaching Across a Political Divide
• Teaching Controversial Issues (EdSource Podcast)
• Teaching Controversial Issues When Democracy Is Under Attack (Brookings)

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10 Revealing Remarks About Education in 2017

A roundup of 10 quotes on teaching and learning from the past year

This year, education often dominated the national conversation. New appointments in the Education Department and escalating debates on college access brought school-related issues further into the public eye. It can be easy to get lost in the ever-changing news cycle, so to look back on the year, we’ve selected ten of the most compelling quotes about schools and learning from this year’s education coverage in The Atlantic .

It’s hard to just say: Pretty please, treat our children well . My parents brought me up to be gracious, to ask nicely, but it’s hard to get the bureaucracy to listen, and it’s hard to get the political powers that be to listen and deliver, without mobilizing and standing on the steps of City Hall and demanding.                                   —Eva Moskowitz

Eva Moskowitz, one of the country’s most infamous charter-school reformers , published a memoir this year that told the tale of her role in building up the New York City charter-school system. Moskowitz spoke with The Atlantic about her memoir and the controversies surrounding her work.

I will refer back to Senator Enzi and the school he is talking about in Wyoming. I think probably there, I would imagine there is probably a gun in a school to protect from potential grizzlies. — Betsy DeVos

Betsy DeVos’ appointment as the Education Secretary aroused the kind of controversy that isn’t usually seen in the world of education. Statements she made during her hearing—including this notorious quote, in which she responded to a question about whether guns belong in schools—made her the laughingstock of late-night comedy and were ridiculed across social media. In this moment, DeVos drew on a story Republican Senator Mike Enzi had told about a school in Wyoming that had fences around it to protect from grizzly bears.

There was very much a standard opinion you had to have [about RAR], otherwise people would look at you funny, and some people would say stuff to you—a lot of people were called “race traitors.” — Sophomore at Reed College

This year, college-student activism and free-speech issues continued to stir intense controversy. Chris Bodenner’s piece on student activists at Reed College—and the fellow students who oppose them— resonated with many readers who felt that the school serves as a kind of microcosm for the debates playing out on campuses across the country.

I am only writing and speaking to liberals at this point. I'm trying to get people who say they believe in equality and integration but act in ways that maintain inequality and segregation to live their own values.                    — Nikole Hannah-Jones

The renowned journalist Nikole-Hannah Jones spoke with The Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic Interview about the hypocrisy of white liberals when it comes to school integration. She talked about the long road ahead to achieving full integration and the immorality she sees at the core of the current system.

It’s not our fault. — Jacob Rosales, graduate of Red Cloud Indian School

Legend goes that shortly before his death in the late 1800s, the Oglala Sioux leader Crazy Horse predicted that a cultural renaissance would come about with the birth of the Seventh Generation. Now, this generation is graduating from high school, and they’re holding on to this legacy as they fight against the many social and economic barriers in their way and work toward their educations and futures. Alia Wong, The Atlantic ’s education editor, traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to hear the voices of these students.

High school cannot be the end. — Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago

The Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel laid down a mandate last spring that every public-school student in Chicago must have a destination in order to get their high-school diploma. This attempt to mitigate unemployment among high-school graduates was controversial, with critics saying the rule would put yet another obstacle in the way of students getting their high-school diplomas. An Atlantic feature article explored the decision’s complexities.

This is it? These are the most egregious kids in New York City? I just realized they were a lot like my own sons. They are teenagers. And everybody deserves a second chance. — Tim Lisante, an assistant principal at Rikers Island

New York’s treatment of youth in the criminal-justice system has long been a subject of controversy. A principal at a school for youth at the prison complex Rikers Island spoke with The Atlantic ’s partner, Chalkbeat , about what he wants the world to know about his students.

Coming from a rural community, everybody knows who you are. I literally knew nobody on campus. Going to the other side of the state with people from the Chicago area and bigger places, it’s just kind of intimidating. — Dustin Gordon, student at the University of Iowa

This year’s Atlantic education coverage deepened the conversation around a group of students often left out of debates about access to college. Rural students excel in high school, yet they are less likely to enroll in college than their suburban and urban counterparts. One of the many factors that play a role in this trend is the kind of cultural challenge described by the rural student Dustin Gordon in this quote: the simple fact of going from a place where everyone knows your name to the big world of college.

Come graduation time, who is responsible for the graduates who made it to the finish line? And, more importantly, who is responsible for those who did not? — Anne-Marie Slaughter

Anne-Marie Slaughter posed hard questions about college access in a piece this past May. It was a month when, as she put it, “audiences for [graduation] ceremonies are proudly watching their friends and family members receive their degree—but for those who don’t graduate, their debt loads and dashed hopes paint a much darker picture of American higher education.”

No teacher can ‘break’ a student’s story, his understanding of his life, and replace it with her own. — Arthur Evenchik and James Forman Jr.

The Atlantic reviewed a memoir, Reading With Patrick , about a teacher whose experience with her student deconstructs the teacher-savior narrative and replaces it with something much more nuanced and real. Michelle Kuo, the author of the memoir, describes it like this: “... it must mean something for two people to have passed time together, to have put work into each other and into becoming more fully themselves.”

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50 of the Best Quotes About Education

Learn as if you were to live forever.

Being an educator is not always the easiest job, but knowing you have made an impact on students’ lives can be so rewarding. Through all of the good times and bad, you continue to persevere and provide education to students of all backgrounds and abilities. We collected 50 of the best quotes about education to celebrate the best parts of teaching, learning, and the impact they have on the world.

Our Favorite Quotes About Education

“education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.” — malcolm x.

“Education is one thing no one can take away from you.” — Elin Nordegren

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” — Malcolm Forbes

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” — Sydney J. Harris

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” — Abigail Adams

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. … Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“A person who won’t read has no advantage over a person who can’t read.” — Mark Twain

“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” — Unknown

“Education is the key to unlock a golden door of freedom.” — George Washington Carver

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” — Herbert Spencer

“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.” — John F. Kennedy

“The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.” — George Santayana

“The roots of education … are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle

“Education must not simply teach work, it must teach Life.” — W.E.B Du Bois

“Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.” — Horace Mann

“I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.” — Steve Irwin

“Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.” — Sidney Hook

“All real education is the architecture of the soul.” — William Bennett

“Education is the key which will unlock the door of opportunity for you.” — Gordon B. Hinckley

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” — Maya Angelou

“Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.” — Bill Nye

“The highest result of education is tolerance.” — Helen Keller

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” — Aristotle

“To teach is to learn twice.” — Joseph Joubert

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” — Plutarch

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” — Confucius

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” — Mark Van Doren

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” — Margaret Mead

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” — Henry Ford

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” — Henry Brooks Adams

“They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — Carl W. Buehner

“A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard.” — Eliphas Levi

“One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai

“Teachers are the one and only people who save nations.” — Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” — Isaac Asimov

“Real education must ultimately be limited to one who INSISTS on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.” — Ezra Pound

“Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.” — Marian Wright Edelman

“It is only the ignorant who despise education.” — Publilius Syrus

“A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.” — Gwendolyn Brooks

“I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.” — William Morris

“Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer; into a selflessness which links us with all humanity.” — Nancy Astor

“It makes little difference how many university courses or degrees a person may own. If he cannot use words to move an idea from one point to another, his education is incomplete.” — Norman Cousins

“The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.” — John Ruskin

“Education is our only political safety. Outside of this ark all is deluge.” — Horace Mann

“Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.” — Daniel J. Boorstin

“Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only with life. A child is given to the universe to be educated.” — Frederick William Robertson

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of the schoolmaster, we must raise those of the recruiting sergeant.” — Edward Everett

Like these quotes about education? Check out these team-building quotes for classrooms and schools .

Come share your favorite motivational quotes about education in the we are teachers helpline group on facebook .

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100 Unconventional Quotes About Curiosity, Learning and Education

As a highly energetic and creative person, having to sit in a classroom all day often felt like being in a prison. While I love to learn, I found the whole model of schooling to be backwards and impractical for my needs.

The factory-style education system is oriented toward a certain kind of individual and the more creative, risk-taking and entrepreneurial oriented people often don’t fit very well in traditional schools.

Sitting in a classroom or working in a typical corporate office all day certainly isn’t for everyone.

For those who want to do creative work and become an entrepreneur, the rote learning model in our standardized school system isn’t very good preparation for life.

Reimagining Education For The 21st Century:

The fast-changing 21st century world requires a passion-driven learning system in which students can develop intrinsic self-motivation.

I strongly believe to solve the massive problems we face today, we will need a complete reimagining of our education system where students are exposed to people of all ages, take some risks where they might fail publicly and work to solve real problems that exist in their communities.

Over the last few years, I’ve been collecting quotes in my Evernote from a wide range of history’s greatest thinkers about how to facilitate better learning experiences that inspire curiosity and encourage students to get more involved in their communities.

Here is the full collection of inspiring learning and education quotes:

Lifelong Learning Quotes:

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

― Eric Hoffer

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

― Henry Ford

“In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: forget about it. Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it. One day, you will glance up at your collection of Japanese literature, or trip over the solar oven you built, and it will hit you: learning was there all the time, happening by itself.”

― Grace Llewellyn

“Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?”

― Erich Fromm

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”

― Chinese Proverb

“All of the top achievers I know are life-long learners. Looking for new skills, insights, and ideas. If they’re not learning, they’re not growing and not moving toward excellence.”

― Denis Waitley

“I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.”

― Stanley Kubrik

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

― Albert Einstein

Creativity Quotes:

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.

― E. O. Wilson

“Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”

― Napoleon Hill

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”

― Edward de Bono

“Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”

― Ken Robinson

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

― Steve Jobs

“Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”

― Arthur Koestler

“I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.”

“The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.”

― Antony Jay

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

― Source Unknown

“Every artist was at first an amateur.”

― Ralph W. Emerson

“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“Creative work and critical thought, which produces new knowledge, can’t be conditioned; indeed, conditioning prevents these things from ever happening.”

― John Taylor Gatto

Learning By Doing Quotes:

“One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty, until you try.”

― Sophocles

“I hear and I forget.  I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

― Benjamin Franklin

“Don’t learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world.”

― Samuel Butler

“People learn more quickly by doing something or seeing something done.”

― Gilbert Highet

“Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime.”

Genius Quotes:

“I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.”

“Do not train children in learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”

“It is as true now as it was then that no matter what tests show, very little of what is taught in school is learned, very little of what is learned is remembered, and very little of what is remembered is used. The things we learn, remember, and use are the things we seek out or meet in the daily, serious, non-school part of our lives.”

― John Holt

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into ole age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.”

― Aldous Huxley

“Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.”

― Arthur Rimbaud

“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”

― Aristotle

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

― Calvin Coolidge

Holistic Learning Quotes:

“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

― Leonardo da Vinci

“The highest function of education is to bring about an integrated individual who is capable of dealing with life as a whole.”

― Krishnamurti

“What makes people smart, curious, alert, observant, competent, confident, resourceful, persistent – in the broadest and best sense, intelligent – is not having access to more and more learning places, resources and specialists, but being able in their lives to do a wide variety of interesting things that matter, things that challenge their ingenuity, skill, and judgement, and that make an obvious difference in their lives and the lives of the people around them.”

― John Holt

“Only the development of his inner powers can offset the dangers inherent in man’s losing control of the tremendous natural forces at his disposal and becoming the victim of his own achievements.”

― Roberto Assagioli

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialisation is for insects.”

― Robert A. Heinlein

“Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.”

― William Haley

Leadership Quotes:

“Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them. “Leadership qualities” are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. They include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, stubbornness, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head, even when things are going badly. True leaders, in short, do not make people into followers, but into other leaders.”

“Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges. It should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die.”

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

― Mark Twain

“The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.”

Growth Mindset Quotes:

“We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.”

― Carol Dweck

“The competitive advantages the marketplace demands is someone more human, connected, and mature. Someone with passion and energy, capable of seeing things as they are and negotiating multiple priorities as she makes useful decisions without angst. Flexible in the face of change, resilient in the face of confusion. All of these attributes are choices, not talents, and all of them are available to you.”

―  Seth Godin,  Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

― Helen Keller

“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.”

― Mary Kay Ash

“Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.”

“You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.”

― Abraham Maslow

“After seven experiments with hundreds of children, we had some of the clearest findings I’ve ever seen: Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance. How can that be? Don’t children love to be praised? Yes, children love praise. And they especially love to be praised for their intelligence and talent. It really does give them a boost, a special glow—but only for the moment. The minute they hit a snag, their confidence goes out the window and their motivation hits rock bottom. If success means they’re smart, then failure means they’re dumb. That’s the fixed mindset.”

Curiosity Quotes:

“All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.”

― Martin H. Fischer

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. ”

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

― Pablo Picasso

“We should not teach children the sciences but give them a taste for them.”

― Jean Jacques Rosseau

“Learning never exhausts the mind.”

― Leonardo Da Vinci

“No matter how he may think himself accomplished, when he sets out to learn a new language, science or the bicycle, he has entered a new realm as truly as if he were a child newly born into the world.”

― Frances Willard

“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”

― Lloyd Alexander

“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.”

― Thomas Huxley

“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

― Oscar Wilde

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young, but becomes constantly more valuable regardless of physical capacity.”

― Harvey Ullman

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

― Isaac Newton

Schooling Quotes:

“Don’t let anyone tell you that standardized tests are not accurate measures. The truth of the matter is they offer a remarkably precise method for gauging the size of the houses near the school where the test was administered.”

― Alfie Kohn

“Just as eating contrary to the inclination is injurious to the health, so study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.”

– Leonardo da Vinci

“There were no sex classes. No friendship classes. No classes on how to navigate a bureaucracy, build an organization, raise money, create a database, buy a house, love a child, spot a scam, talk someone out of suicide, or figure out what was important to me. Not knowing how to do these things is what messes people up in life, not whether they know algebra or can analyze literature.”

– William Upski Wimsatt

“The system manufactures students who are smart and talented and driven, yes, but also anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose: trapped in a bubble of privilege, heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it.”

― William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep

“Nothing bothers me more than when people criticize my criticism of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn maths and spelling, they are places where children learn a vaguely defined thing called socialization. I know. I think schools generally do an effective and terribly damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent, intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own developmental capacities.”

– Seymour Papert

“Think of the things killing us as a nation: narcotic drugs, brainless competition, dishonesty, greed, recreational sex, the pornography of violence, gambling, alcohol, and — the worst pornography of all — lives devoted to buying things, accumulation as a philosophy. All of these are addictions of dependent personalities. That is what our brand of schooling must inevitably produce. A large fraction of our total economy has grown up around providing service and counseling to inadequate people, and inadequate people are the main product of government compulsion schools.”

– John Taylor Gatto

“Education itself is a putting off, a postponement; we are told to work hard to get good results. Why? So we can get a good job. What is a good job? One that pays well. Oh. And that’s it? All this suffering, merely so that we can earn a lot of money, which, even if we manage it, will not solve our problems anyway? It’s a tragically limited idea of what life is all about.”

– Tom Hodgkinson

“The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don’t know how to be submissive, and so on – because they’re dysfunctional to the institutions.”

– Noam Chomsky

“What is the purpose of industrial education? To fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence? Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States and that is its aim everywhere else.”

– H. L. Mencken

“The anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don’t know.”

– John Holt

“What we call education and culture is for the most part nothing but the substitution of reading for experience, of literature for life, of the obsolete fictitious for the contemporary real.”

– George Bernard Shaw

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”

― B. F. Skinner

“What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.”

– Henry David Thoreau

“The school system … is the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing.”

–  Marshall McLuhan

“Our job is obvious: we need to get out of the way, shine a light, and empower a new generation to teach itself and to go further and faster than any generation ever has.”

– Seth Godin

“What rewards and punishments do is induce compliance, and this they do very well indeed. If your objective is to get people to obey an order, to show up on time and do what they’re told, then bribing or threatening them may be sensible strategies. But if your objective is to get long-term quality in the workplace, to help students become careful thinkers and self-directed learners, or to support children in developing good values, then rewards, like punishments, are absolutely useless. In fact, as we are beginning to see, they are worse than useless—they are actually counterproductive.”

“Home-based education is not an experiment. It’s how people learned to function in the world for centuries. And there is no reason to think people today can’t do the same thing. School is the experiment… And that experiment is in trouble.”

– Wendy Priesnitz

“The old system where every child who locked away and set into nonstop, daily cutthroat competition with every other child for silly prizes called grades is broken beyond repair. If it could be fixed it could have been fixed by now.”

“Schools have not necessarily much to do with education… they are mainly institutions of control where certain basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.”

– Winston Churchill

“Much of education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.”

― John W. Gardner

“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.”

― Robert M. Hutchins

“In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give students a brick of information, followed by another brick, followed by another brick, until they are graduated, at which point we assume they have a house. What they have is a pile of bricks, and they don’t have it for long.”

“Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting. Most people learn best by being “with it,” yet school makes them identify their personal, cognitive growth with elaborate planning and manipulation.”

― Ivan Illich

“Education: free and compulsory – what a way to learn logic!”

― Frank van Dun

“What we call education and culture is for the most part nothing but the substitution of reading for experience, of literature for life, of the obsolete fictitious for the contemporary real.”

― George Bernard Shaw

“Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society…But for me, education means making creators…You have to make inventors, innovators, not conformists.”

― Jean Piaget

“Artificial learning takes what is simple and natural and turns it into a complex array of objectives, goals, measurements, administrators, supervisors, counselors, and transportation experts. Natural education requires only a guide providing direction, and a learner ready to discover and create goals and values that are personally meaningful.”

― Linda Dobson

Classical Liberal Education:

“We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application–not far far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech–and learn them so well that words become works.”

“The central virtue of a liberal education is that it teaches you how to write, and writing makes you think. Whatever you do in life, the ability to write clearly, cleanly, and reasonably quickly will prove to be an invaluable skill.”

― Fareed Zakaria

“Because of the times we live in, all of us, young and old, do not spend enough time and effort thinking about the meaning of life. We do not look inside ourselves enough to understand our strengths and weaknesses, and we do not look around enough – at the world, in history – to ask the deepest and broadest questions. The solution surely is that, even now, we could all use a little bit more of a liberal education.”

“In a properly automated and educated world, then, machines may prove to be the true humanizing influence. It may be that machines will do the work that makes life possible and that human beings will do all the other things that make life pleasant and worthwhile ”

― Isaac Asimov,

“It could be said that a liberal education has the nature of a bequest, in that it looks upon the student as the potential heir of a cultural birthright, whereas a practical education has the nature of a commodity to be exchanged for position, status, wealth, etc., in the future. A liberal education rests on the assumption that nature and human nature do not change very much or very fast and that one therefore needs to understand the past. The practical educators assume that human society itself is the only significant context, that change is therefore fundamental, constant, and necessary, that the future will be wholly unlike the past, that the past is outmoded, irrelevant, and an encumbrance upon the future — the present being only a time for dividing past from future, for getting ready.

But these definitions, based on division and opposition, are too simple. It is easy, accepting the viewpoint of either side, to find fault with the other. But the wrong is on neither side; it is in their division…

Without the balance of historic value, practical education gives us that most absurd of standards: “relevance,” based upon the suppositional needs of a theoretical future. But liberal education, divorced from practicality, gives something no less absurd: the specialist professor of one or another of the liberal arts, the custodian of an inheritance he has learned much about, but nothing from.”

―  Wendell Berry,  The Unsettling of America

“The liberal arts do not conduct the soul all the way to virtue, but merely set it going in that direction.”

“Practical utility, however, is not the ultimate purpose of a liberal arts education. Its ultimate purpose is to help you learn to reflect in the widest and deepest sense, beyond the requirements of work and career: for the sake of citizenship, for the sake of living well with others, above all, for the sake of building a self that is strong and creative and free.”

Comfort Zone Quotes:

“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.”

― Thomas Szasz

“Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.”

― Dr. David M. Burns

” Always do what you are afraid to do.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

“Too much credit is given to the end result. The true lesson is in the struggle that takes place between the dream and reality. That struggle is a thing called life!”

― Garth Brooks

“Worry is misuse of the imagination. ”

― Mary Crowley

”Life can only be understood backwards but you have to live it forward. You can only do that by stepping into uncertainty and by trying, within this uncertainty, to create your own islands of security….The new security will be a belief that …if this doesn’t work out you could do something else. You are your own security.”

― Charles Handy

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding line, and no way of knowing how near the harbour was. “Light! Give me light!” was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

21st Century Education Quotes:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

― Alvin Toffler

“Our rapidly moving, information-based society badly needs people who know how to find facts rather than memorize them, and who know how to cope with change in creative ways. You don’t learn those things in school.”

― Wendy Priesnitz

“Educators – like musicians, journalists, carmakers, and bankers before them – won’t know what hit them. But as sure as change is overtaking every other sector of society, it will overtake education – as well it should. Our cookie-cutter, one-pace-fits-all, test-focused system is not up to the task of teaching the creators of the new Googles.

Call me a utopian but I imagine a new educational ecology where students may take courses from anywhere and instructors may select any students, where courses are collaborative and public, where creativity is nurtured as Google nurtures it, where making mistakes well is valued over sameness and safety, where education continues long past age 21, where tests and degrees matter less than one’s own portfolio of work, where the gift economy may turn anyone with knowledge into teachers, where the skills of research and reasoning and skepticism are valued over the skills of memorization and calculation, and where universities teach an abundance of knowledge to those who want it rather than manage a scarcity of seats in a class.”

― Jeff Jarvis in Hacking Education

“I imagine a school system that recognizes learning is natural, that a love of learning is normal, and that real learning is passionate learning. A school curriculum that values questions above answers…creativity above fact regurgitation…individuality above conformity.. and excellence above standardized performance….. And we must reject all notions of ‘reform’ that serve up more of the same: more testing, more ‘standards’, more uniformity, more conformity, more bureaucracy.”

― Tom Peter, “Re-Imagine”

“‘The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.”

― William Gibson

“The “real world” that parents worry unschooling kids won’t be able to cope with is not the “real world” of the future; it’s one designed to churn out obedient workers and consumers. But times – and the economy — are changing.”

Question Everything:

“Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.”

― Vilfredo Pareto

“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.”

― Jacob Bronowski

“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it . . . or because it is tradition, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conductive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings – that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.”

― Gautama Buddha

“Knowledge that is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”

​“Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.”

― Francis Bacon

“There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.”

― John Locke

“It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreak and ruin. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.”

Social Change:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

―  Margaret Mead

“There is no neutral education. Education is either for domestication or for freedom.”

― Joao Coutinho

”Educating the masses was intended only to improve the relationship between the top and the bottom of society. Not for changing the nature of the relationship.”

― John Ralston Paul, “Voltaire’s Bastards”

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

― Abraham Lincoln

“Since every effort in our educational life seems to be directed toward making of the child a being foreign to itself, it must of necessity produce individuals foreign to one another, and in everlasting antagonism with each other.”

― Emma Goldman

“Much that passes for education is not education at all but ritual. The fact is that we are being educated when we know it least.”

― David P. Gardner

“Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.”

― Laurence J. Peter

“The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers rather than to fill it with the accumulation of others.”

― Tyron Edwards

“Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there’s your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more. School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?”

― Kurt Vonnegut

“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”

– Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

“All I am saying can be summed up in two words: Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple, or more difficult. Difficult because to trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.”

“It is among the commonplaces of education that we often first cut off the living root and then try to replace its natural functions by artificial means. Thus we suppress the child’s curiosity and then when he lacks a natural interest in learning he is offered special coaching for his scholastic difficulties.”

― Alice Miller

“Students get the message about what adults want. When 4th graders in a variety of classrooms were asked what their teachers most wanted them to do, they didn’t say, “Ask thoughtful questions” or “Make responsible decisions” or “Help others.” They said, “Be quiet, don’t fool around, and get our work done on time.”

“If we taught babies to talk as most skills are taught in school, they would memorize lists of sounds in a predetermined order and practice them alone in a closet.”

― Linda Darling-Hammond

“Because schools suffocate children’s hunger to learn, learning appears to be difficult and we assume that children must be externally motivated to do it. As a society, we must own up to the damage we do to our children…in our families and in our schools. We must also be willing to make the sweeping changes in our institutions, public policies and personal lives that are necessary to reverse that harm to our children and to our society.”

“I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience.”

― Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s Teacher

“It is among the commonplaces of education that we often first cut off the living root and then try to replace its natural functions by artificial means. Thus we suppress the child’s curiosity and then when he lacks a natural interest in learning he is offered special coaching for his scholastic difficulties.”

― Alice Duer Miller

“Children are born passionately eager to make as much sense as they can of things around them. If we attempt to control, manipulate, or divert this process… the independent scientist in the child disappears.”

“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.”

― Dr. Maria Montessori

“Kids who are in school just visit life sometimes and then they have to stop to do homework or go to sleep early or get to school on time. They’re constantly reminded they are preparing for real life. While being isolated from it.”

― Sandra Dodd

“What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.”

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.”

― Rabindranath Tagore

“Again, the most effective (and least destructive) way to help a child succeed—whether she’s writing or skiing, playing a trumpet or a computer game—is to do everything possible to help her fall in love with what she’s doing, to pay less attention to how successful she was (or is likely to be) and show more interest in the task. That’s just another way of saying that we need to encourage more, judge less, and love always.”

“Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb. Brooks to wade, water lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets; and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education.”

― Luther Burbank

Modern Alienation:

“The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one’s mind, is the condition of the normal man. Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal.”

― R.D. Laing

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

“The function of high school, then, is not so much to communicate knowledge as to oblige children finally to accept the grading system as a measure of their inner excellence. And a function of the self-destructive process in American children is to make them willing to accept not their own, but a variety of other standards, like a grading system, for measuring themselves. It is thus apparent that the way American culture is now integrated it would fall apart if it did not engender feelings of inferiority and worthlessness.”

― Jules Henry

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

“Public education reflects our society’s paternalistic, hierarchical worldview, which exploits children in the same way it takes the earth’s resources for granted.”

“It doesn’t make much difference what you study, so long as you don’t like it.”

― Finley Peter Dunne

“Euripides long ago said, ‘who dares not speak his free thought is a slave.’ I nominated myself as an ‘infidel’ as a challenge to thought for those who are asleep.”

Self-Education Quotes:

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.”

― Isaac Asimov

“If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.”

― Carl Rogers

“Actually, all education is self-education. A teacher is only a guide, to point out the way, and no school, no matter how excellent, can give you education. What you receive is like the outlines in a child’s coloring book. You must fill in the colors yourself.”

― Louis L’Amour

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

“Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.”

“Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardour and diligence.”

― Abigail Adams

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember amateurs built the ark, but professionals built the Titanic.”

“Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered. It is something molded.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence.”

“All things good to know are difficult to learn.”

― Greek Proverb

“Through the power of self-education you can be anything you want to be or do anything you want to do. Self-education power does not require money, fixed time or fixed life style. Options are extremely flexible. Rewards are unlimited. You can control your destiny.”

“Learning of the highest value extends well beyond measurable dimension. It can’t be fit into any curriculum or evaluated by any test. It is activated by experiences which develop our humanity. It teaches us to be our best selves.”

― Laura Grace Weldon

“The Hunter who chases two rabbits will catch neither.”

― Ancient Proverb

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”

― Joseph Brodsk

“When you replace “why is this happening to me” with “what is this trying to teach me?” Everything shifts.”

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”

― Roy H. Williams

“I am concerned that too many people are focused too much on money and not on their greatest wealth, which is their education. If people are prepared to be flexible, keep an open mind and learn, they will grow richer and richer through the changes. If they think money will solve the problems, I am afraid those people will have a rough ride. Intelligence solves problems and produces money. Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone.”

– Robert Kiyosaki

Any More Unconventional Learning Quotes to Add?

Have any favorite learning quotes that you’d like to add to the list? Feel free to add them in the comments.

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The 10 Education Issues Everybody Should Be Talking About

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What issues have the potential to define—or re define—education in the year ahead? Is there a next “big thing” that could shift the K-12 experience or conversation?

These were the questions Education Week set out to answer in this second annual “10 Big Ideas in Education” report.

You can read about last year’s ideas here . In 2019, though, things are different.

This year, we asked Education Week reporters to read the tea leaves and analyze what was happening in classrooms, school districts, and legislatures across the country. What insights could reporters offer practitioners for the year ahead?

Some of the ideas here are speculative. Some are warning shots, others more optimistic. But all 10 of them here have one thing in common: They share a sense of urgency.

Accompanied by compelling illustrations and outside perspectives from leading researchers, advocates, and practitioners, this year’s Big Ideas might make you uncomfortable, or seem improbable. The goal was to provoke and empower you as you consider them.

Let us know what you think, and what big ideas matter to your classroom, school, or district. Tweet your comments with #K12BigIdeas .

No. 1: Kids are right. School is boring.

Out-of-school learning is often more meaningful than anything that happens in a classroom, writes Kevin Bushweller, the Executive Editor of EdWeek Market Brief. His essay tackling the relevance gap is accompanied by a Q&A with advice on nurturing, rather than stifling students’ natural curiosity. Read more.

No. 2: Teachers have trust issues. And it’s no wonder why.

Many teachers may have lost faith in the system, says Andrew Ujifusa, but they haven’t lost hope. The Assistant Editor unpacks this year’s outbreak of teacher activism. And read an account from a disaffected educator on how he built a coalition of his own. Read more.

No. 3: Special education is broken.

Forty years since students with disabilities were legally guaranteed a public school education, many still don’t receive the education they deserve, writes Associate Editor Christina A. Samuels. Delve into her argument and hear from a disability civil rights pioneer on how to create an equitable path for students. Read more.

No. 4: Schools are embracing bilingualism, but only for some students.

Staff Writer Corey Mitchell explains the inclusion problem at the heart of bilingual education. His essay includes a perspective from a researcher on dismantling elite bilingualism. Read more.

No. 5: A world without annual testing may be closer than you think.

There’s agreement that we have a dysfunctional standardized-testing system in the United States, Associate Editor Stephen Sawchuk writes. But killing it would come with some serious tradeoffs. Sawchuk’s musing on the alternatives to annual tests is accompanied by an argument for more rigorous classroom assignments by a teacher-practice expert. Read more.

No. 6: There are lessons to be learned from the educational experiences of black students in military families.

Drawing on his personal experience growing up in an Air Force family, Staff Writer Daarel Burnette II highlights emerging research on military-connected students. Learn more about his findings and hear from two researchers on what a new ESSA mandate means for these students. Read more.

No. 7: School segregation is not an intractable American problem.

Racial and economic segregation remains deeply entrenched in American schools. Staff Writer Denisa R. Superville considers the six steps one district is taking to change that. Her analysis is accompanied by an essay from the president of the American Educational Research Association on what is perpetuating education inequality. Read more.

No. 8: Consent doesn’t just belong in sex ed. class. It needs to start a lot earlier.

Assistant Editor Sarah D. Sparks looked at the research on teaching consent and found schools and families do way too little, way too late. Her report is partnered with a researcher’s practical guide to developmentally appropriate consent education. Read more.

No. 9: Education has an innovation problem.

Are education leaders spending too much time chasing the latest tech trends to maintain what they have? Staff Writer Benjamin Herold explores the innovation trap. Two technologists offer three tips for putting maintenance front and center in school management. Read more.

No. 10: There are two powerful forces changing college admissions.

Some colleges are rewriting the admissions script for potential students. Senior Contributing Writer Catherine Gewertz surveys this changing college admissions landscape. Her insights are accompanied by one teacher’s advice for navigating underserved students through the college application process. Read more.

Wait, there’s more.

Want to know what educators really think about innovation? A new Education Week Research Center survey delves into what’s behind the common buzzword for teachers, principals, and district leaders. Take a look at the survey results.

A version of this article appeared in the January 09, 2019 edition of Education Week as What’s on the Horizon for 2019?

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At a stanford forum, taking a closer look at controversies over curriculum.

America’s culture wars are playing out in the classroom, with near-daily headlines about attacks on school curriculum. Just about every subject has come under political fire, from math and reading to American history and gender studies.

Dozens of states have recently acted to limit how race and issues of racism can be discussed in schools. Efforts to reform math face backlash from both the right and the left. The so-called “reading wars” pit advocates of different approaches to teaching literacy against one another. On the heels of Florida’s 2022 “Don’t Say Gay” law, lawmakers across the country are pushing bills to limit public schools from addressing sexual orientation or gender identity. Book banning has surged to a level the American Library Association calls “unprecedented.”

Kahdeidra Monét Martin, a postdoctoral scholar at the GSE, poses a question to panelists about the politicization of language in debates over curriculum. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

To dig more deeply into these controversies and more, Stanford students, faculty, and community members gathered for “Contentious Curriculum,” a two-part forum led by the Graduate School of Education (GSE) on March 7 and 8. The event, held at the Center for Education Research at Stanford, featured talks by GSE faculty and a town-hall dialogue about the past, present, and possible future of conflicts over curriculum. 

Mitchell Stevens , a sociologist and professor at the GSE, organized the event along with Jennifer Wolf , a senior lecturer and director of undergraduate programs at the GSE; Peter Williamson , an associate professor and former faculty director for the Stanford Teacher Education Program ; and GSE doctoral student Abigail Miller.

“GSE faculty are frequently called upon to write and review curriculum. We advise education officials. We train future teachers,” said Stevens. “It seemed incumbent on us to take these current curricular conflicts seriously – and to provide support for one another, as education professionals who are often at the front lines.”

Conditions for controversy

Conflicts over curriculum are nothing new, dating back at least a century to what’s commonly referred to as the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” a 1925 case contesting the legality of teaching evolution in science classes in Tennessee schools. What makes school curriculum such a flashpoint for controversy? 

For one thing, said Stevens, the curriculum represents what’s considered “official” knowledge – and it can’t contain everything. 

“Every single curricular decision is an act of exclusion,” he said. “Some stories, some facts, some concepts will be made central, even compulsory. Many others will be excluded.” The need to limit curriculum content, even if only to accommodate the time constraints of the school year, creates conditions ripe for conflict, he said. 

Another factor is the lack of a centralized authority determining what U.S. schools teach, said Stevens. There are more than 16,000 school districts in the United States, each charged with making their own decisions about curriculum. “The sheer scale and distributed character of American K-12 education means there are a lot of places where conflict can happen,” he said.

The religious nature of the United States – and its religious plurality – also contributes to the emergence of these conflicts, Stevens said. A 2018 survey  found that 40 percent of Americans felt the Christian Bible doesn't have enough influence on American culture. “But another quarter say the Bible has too much influence on American culture,” he said. “So [we] have strong beliefs about the importance of certain Biblical texts on both sides.”

Some conflict can be attributed to the fact that schools and families are both legally responsible for children, he said. Ideally, parents’ and teachers’ ideas of their children’s best interests coincide – but that’s not always the case. What’s more, Americans have historically tended to be more distrustful of public authorities than their counterparts in other countries, Stevens said. “To the extent that families and schools share responsibility for the tasks of raising children, you have a built-in condition for conflict.”

GSE Assistant Professor Michael Hines said that while historically marginalized groups have gained more of a place in the curriculum, it has been in ways that leave “the fundamental assumptions of the grand narrative of American history in place.” (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

Competing visions for the future

Michael Hines , an assistant professor at the GSE who teaches courses on the history of education in the United States and the history of African American education, spoke on the enduring politicization of the American classroom and curriculum. 

The public school system has long served, he said, as “the mechanism through which societies reproduce themselves”– a role that makes schools a place where competing visions for the future are created and contested. He pointed to one example of schools becoming a battleground for competing visions: the Freedmen’s schools, built in the aftermath of the Civil War to educate formerly enslaved adults and children in the American South.

“The freed people saw education as a tool to protect their freedom and to secure the political and economic equality that would make that status meaningful,” he said. “White Southerners saw those same schools and curricula as a means of limiting and forestalling Black aspirations, and tying formerly enslaved people to a continued role as exploited labor. And white Northerners saw the schools as an opportunity to fill the roles of their various missionary societies and to prove themselves as Christian philanthropists – a goal that ultimately had little to do with supporting Black freedom.”

Curricular controversies largely revolve around perceived threats to the dominant narrative of American history, he said – which might lead to a “bargain” in which minoritized groups gain more of a place in the curriculum, “but only in ways that largely leave the fundamental assumptions of the grand narrative of American history in place.” Key figures or events might be added to textbooks, often physically separated in the text itself – addressed in color-coded boxes or a list of supplemental readings, he noted – “a clear indication that they’re not part of the central story.” 

Debates over curriculum tend to focus on the content of what’s taught – who is represented, and the values and beliefs that are conveyed. Alfredo Artiles , the Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education at the GSE, called for expanding the debate to consider who gets access to the content deemed “worthy.” 

“We classify folks, and then we decide they need certain things by nature of their condition,” said Artiles, whose work focuses on the intersection of disability with areas such as race, gender, language, and social class.

Despite significant progress in addressing the needs of students with disabilities, “we need to follow the classifications and the consequences,” Artiles said. “The assumptions we make in categorizing students is that [students with disabilities] require specialized interventions, and that we should be deploying very distinctive curricular differentiations to them.” 

Patricia Bromley , an associate professor at both the GSE and the Doerr School of Sustainability, shared findings from her research into history, civics, and social studies textbooks from around the world dating back to the 1800s.

Most textbook content is not contested, she said; changes observed over time are primarily driven by an evolution in the culture more broadly. “When that shifts,” she said, “we have uncontested changes.” 

Textbooks also appear to be less subject to change than other kinds of curricula. “They're somewhat insulated from politics in a way that school boards are not,” she said, because of the time-consuming and costly nature of the textbook production system. 

“It's empowering for each generation that has to engage in this struggle, because that is where the education is actually happening,” said Priya Satia, a professor of history at Stanford, during the town-hall dialogue. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

The agency of teachers

In a case study on book banning, Wolf and Williamson walked participants through the events following a Tennessee school board’s 10-1 decision to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Maus from the eighth-grade social studies curriculum last year.

“About 12 days [after the decision], the local paper, the Tennessee Holler , broke the story,” said Wolf. “They had to push hard to get the minutes from the school board meeting. But they broke the story, and then it took off on social media.” The book became so popular after the controversy that it quickly topped best-seller lists and sold out nationwide, prompting a new print run. Meanwhile, a Tennessee pastor in the same county responded by livestreaming a book burning on YouTube, destroying copies of Maus and other books deemed objectionable. 

With conflicts playing out at the district level and beyond, the panelists spoke to the role and agency of teachers themselves. 

“Teachers sit at the heart of this,” said Hines, a former middle-school teacher whose 2022 book, A Worthy Piece of Work , tells the story of a teacher whose groundbreaking Black history curriculum was adopted by the Chicago Public Schools in the 1940s. “No matter what curriculum comes down the pike, teachers are teachers. My mom, who was a fifth-grade math teacher, always told me: ‘I just close my door and teach.’ ”

Stevens hoped the two-night forum provided “some tools for making sense of the ubiquity of these conflicts in American life” and sparked further discussion, he said. “As educators, scholars, and teachers of teachers, it’s important for the GSE to keep these conversations going.”

This forum was supported by the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society; GSE programs in Policy, Organization and Leadership Studies (POLS) and International and Comparative Education (ICE), the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP); the Center for Comparative Studies of Race & Ethnicity; and the Stanford Education and Humanities Workshop.

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95 Education Quotes: Inspire Children, Parents, AND Teachers

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Why is education important?

Education is the key to everything that is good in our world today. Advances in computers, information technology, math, medicine, psychology, engineering and every other discipline would be impossible if education didn't help us build on the advances of the great minds that came before us.

In fact, it is essential that as a society that we keep learning new things . Education is not only about the past and present, but it is also the key to the future. It will help discipline our children for the intellectual challenges of the rest of the 21st century. And it not only teaches our children facts but also teaches them how to think and learn on their own.

So to honor all educators, teachers, administrators, professors and even those involved in cutting edge online education, here are 95 education quotes that will hopefully provide you with a bit of inspiration.

These quotes about education show both the past and present views on education. They also show clearly why education is also so important for our future.

Let's get to it…

Table of Contents

What is a Good Education?

There will always be arguments about what is taught in schools. Socrates was fed poison for teaching the “wrong things”. William of Ockam and Galileo are two great examples that philosophy and science have always been controversial topics (to understate the issue) when education runs counter to the status quo.

The line on what is good education seems to keep moving.

With common core and year-round schools coming into vogue these days, schools are a very different place than when I was a kid. And education 50 years from now will be even more different. I imagine 3-D display classrooms, with virtual summer bulletin boards and a ton of technology streamlining learning. (Even now, you check out the best educational apps that kids can use to better engage in learning .)

Yes, the future of education may seem strange to us today, but the changes will be made for the better of the student, or the changes will not last long.

When I think of, “what is good education” one quote comes to my mind. A quote by John Fitzgerald Kennedy that I think encapsulates what a good education is really all about:

(Are you a teacher looking to create goals for the next school year? Our post on SMART goals examples for teachers might help! )

With our first education quote out of the way, I will stop my essay, and give you a look at what you can expect from the rest of this quote post.

This article will feature many education quotes by many of the greatest thinkers of all time: Albert Einstein, George Santayana, Confucius, Maya Angelou, Francis Bacon, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, and Benjamin Franklin

But all these quotes are not just the serious musings of the bright lights from history. Many entertainers have chimed in over the years with their own quotes about the importance of education. This list has education quotes from Jim Henson, Dr. Seuss , H.G Wells, C.S. Lewis, Katey Sagal, Tupac Shakur, and Lady Gaga.

Without further ado, let’s get to the education quotes. Starting first with the most important aspect of education: kids. As the late Whitney Houston sang “ I believe that children are our are future.  Teach them well and let them lead the way ”

Let's start by focusing on quotes about the impact of education on children…

Education Quotes for Kids

• “Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” – Jim Henson
• “The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”– Dr. Seuss
• “Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.” – Chinese proverb
• “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.” – George Santayana
• “Children just need the time, space, and permission to be kids.” – Angela Hanscom
• “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” – Margaret Mead

• “Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves.” – Ernest Dimnet
• “The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
• “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” – Confucius
• “Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.” – Roger Lewin
• “Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.” – Thomas Szasz

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.” – Thomas Szasz

• “Please stop teaching my children that everyone gets a trophy just for participating. What is this, the Nobel Prize? Not everybody gets a trophy.” – Glenn Beck
• “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.” – Maya Angelou
• “The greatest sign of success for a teacher… is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’” – Maria Montessori
• “Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.” – Harold Hulbert
• “I agree that a love of reading is a great gift for a parent to pass on to his or her child.” – Ann Brashares
• “Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.” – Benjamin Franklin
• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”– Nelson Mandela

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. ”– Nelson Mandela

• “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” – James Baldwin
• “Education is a once in a lifetime opportunity to open children’s hearts and minds to the unbelievable wonder of the universe.” – Sir Anthony Seldon

Educational Quotes to Motivate Your Students

Creating self-motivation is a challenge . It's even harder to generate motivation in a classroom setting.

While a few kids are motivated to do well from their own thirst for knowledge. Most are not.

Particularly younger kids may go into school kicking and screaming the whole way. While the best motivation will always be intrinsic motivation something has to be done to give kids that initial motivation until they grow up enough to motivate themselves.

Parents and teachers are always working up new tricks to give these students a bit of motivation. Of course, in many ways the best motivation for the young kids remains the old “carrot and stick” method. Let the child self reward when they do good jobs and have a set of punishments when they do not live up to standards.

Not much has changed when it comes to motivation over the years, except you might be taking away time playing video games instead of taking away time from playing ball with their friends.

Regardless, some of the educational quotes below will hopefully help students gain a little bit of motivation, or at least give parents and educators some ideas on applying some extrinsic motivation.

• ​ “Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.” – Francis Bacon
• “You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.” – Abraham Maslow
• “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.”– Anthony J. D'Angelo

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” – Anthony J. D'Angelo

• “The real key to learning something quickly is to take a deliberate, intelligent approach to your learning.” – Lindsay Kolowich
• “The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.” – Confucius
• “When the student is ready, the master appears.” – Buddhist proverb

• “Everybody’s a teacher if you listen.” – Doris Roberts
• “Neither comprehension nor learning can take place in an atmosphere of anxiety.” – Rose Kennedy
• “What we learn with pleasure we never forget.” – Alfred Mercier
• “Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.” – Dr. David M. Burns
• “Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginning of education.” – John Hersey
• “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

• “Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.” – Benjamin Disraeli
• “We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.” – Lloyd Alexander
• “Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.” – Og Mandino
• “Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardour and diligence.” – Abigail Adams
• “A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.” – Roy H. Williams
• “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” – Zig Ziglar

Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” – Zig Ziglar

Quotes About Education and Success

The section of quotes below I have titled “quotes about education and success”. These quotes deal a lot with what it takes to achieve success in learning and education.

Of course, “success” is sort of a nebulous term. What one person views as success, another might view as a failure. For some, success is raising their child to be a decent person, for another success might be making a lot of money . Or gaining fame. Or power. Or finding happiness . Ultimately success can be best defined by understanding your core values and what you value in life.

I have talked about success a lot here on this blog. It's a popular concept for people trying to change their habits because almost everybody wants to succeed in some aspect of their lives. They are trying to learn from the mistakes of others and thereby increase their own chances of success.

I have also written a lot of quote posts, similar to this one, relating to success in its many forms and giving inspiration to those seeking to succeed. If you want to check out these success quote posts, the following is a shortlist.

• 51 Success Quotes from History's Most Famous People
• 51 Achievement Quote to Inspire Your Journey to Sucess
• Great quotes on Failure and Success
• 100 Hard Work Quotes to Achieve All You Want in Life

You can also read up on few articles I have written about achieving success:

• 21 Success Habits of Highly Organized People
• 9 World Famous Successful People Who Failed and Overcame Adversity
• 43 Experts Share Their #1 Success Habit

But enough about success in general. Let’s jump right into the quotes about education and success shared below.

• “That best academy, a mother’s knee.” – James Russell Lowell
• “I think our job as parents is to give our kids roots to grow and wings to fly.” – Deborah Norville
• “There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” – Mahatma Gandhi
• “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – WB Yeats

• “Being a mother has been my greatest teacher and also the most self-sacrificing thing I’ve ever done.” – Katey Sagal
• “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” – Robert Fulghum
• “You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.” – Dr. Seuss
• “The more certain kids are that someone’s got their back, the more confident and autonomous they can be.” – Melinda Wenner Moyer

The more certain kids are that someone’s got their back, the more confident and autonomous they can be. ” – Melinda Wenner Moyer

• “ If you don’t feel safe as a child, you can’t learn.” – Lady Gaga
• “Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” – Rabindranath Tagore
• “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou
• “My parents encouraged thought. You’ll get through life better if you learn how to think.” – Holly Near
• “I believe that a parent’s role is to provide a path or opportunity for their children.” – David Soul
• “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass
• “The best way to make children good is to make them happy.” – Oscar Wilde

T he best way to make children good is to make them happy .” – Oscar Wilde

• “Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” – Lady Bird Johnson
• “Education… is painful, continual and difficult work to be done in kindness, by watching, by warning, by praise, but above all — by example.” – John Ruskin
• “Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it. – Marian Wright Edelman

Quotes About Teachers and Teaching

At the heart of education lies the most important person in the educational world: the teacher.

A good teacher can change a student’s life far out of proportion to the amount of time they spend in their lives. Of course, A bad teacher can do the same, in a negative way. But fortunately, there are far more good teachers out there than bad ones.

The teacher quotes below are in honor of all the good teachers out there and for all the good they have done for students past, present and into the future.

• ​ “The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.” – Alexandra K. Trenfor
• “Teachers are those who help us in resolving problems which, without them, we wouldn’t have.” – Unknown
• “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward

• “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” – Chinese proverb
• “The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.” – Khalil Gibran
• “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” – John Dewey

If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” – John Dewey

• “There is no single way to educate.” – Michael Gurian
• “I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” – Albert Einstein
• “Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.” – Gail Goldwin
• “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” – Japanese proverb
• “As a teacher, my strategy is to encourage questioning. I’m the least authoritarian professor you’ll ever meet.” – Niall Ferguson
• “I’m not sayin’ I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will.” – Tupac Shakur
• “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”– Henry Brooks Adams

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” – Henry Brooks Adams

• “The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.” – John Ruskin
• “Love is a better teacher than duty.” – Albert Einstein
• “If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.” – Confucius
• “Art in the classroom not only spurs creativity, it also inspires learning.” – Mickey Hart
• “The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence.” – Amos Bronson Alcott

Education Quotes About Experience and Mistakes

All education in life does not come at the hands of teachers. All learning does not take place in classrooms and labs.

One of the very best teachers in life is experience. Some people refuse to learn any other way, and even those that try to carefully learn before doing things will find they are often taught surprising lessons by experience.

For most of us, experience will be one of our best teachers. We just need to be self-aware enough to notice the lessons and learn from the mistakes.

The educational quotes below talk about making mistakes and learning from them. Do this often enough and you will begin to find wisdom and happiness .

• “Experience is the teacher of all things.” – Julius Caesar
• “Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.” – Minna Antrim
• “What is defeat? Nothing but education. Nothing but the first step to something better.” – Wendell Phillips
• “Intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• “Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” – C.S. Lewis
• “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” – Robert Frost
• “The years teach much which the days never know.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Observation more than books, experience rather than persons, are the prime educators.” – A. Bronson Alcott
• “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
• “This world is your best teacher. There is a lesson in everything. There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise. Every failure is a stepping stone to success. Every difficulty or disappointment is a trial of your faith. Every unpleasant incident or temptation is a test of your inner strength. Therefore nil desperandum. March forward hero!” – Swami Sivananda
• “Wisdom is the daughter of experience.” – Leonardo da Vinci
• “Failure is a great teacher, and I think when you make mistakes and you recover from them and you treat them as valuable learning experiences, then you’ve got something to share.” – Steve Harvey

Failure is a great teacher, and I think when you make mistakes and you recover from them and you treat them as valuable learning experiences, then you’ve got something to share.” – Steve Harvey

• “But I look at failure as education. In that respect, I am so well-educated.” – Kathy Ireland
• “Experience, travel – these are an education in themselves.” – Euripides
• “The trouble with learning from experience is that you never graduate.” – Doug Larson
• “Our ability to achieve success depends on the strength of our wings gained through knowledge and experience. The greater our knowledge and experience, the higher we can fly.” – Catherine Pulsifer
• “Your best teacher is your last mistake.” – Ralph Nader
• “Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.” – William Hazlitt

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.” – William Hazlitt

• “By crawling, a child learns to stand.” – Hausa
• “You have learned something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.” – H.G. Wells

Final Thoughts on Quotes About Education

This final section of education quotes is a short one. It has only the most famous education quote. Along with the Kennedy quote I used in the beginning of this educational quote post, there is one more quote that I personally love about learning and education…

I find this simple quote to be quite profound, and often ask myself this question when I think about my understanding of a concept. Could I explain it in ten words or less? Could I explain it to someone with no background in the subject? If the answer is no, I need to do more research.

Hopefully the quotes we showcased on this page inspired you a little to embrace the many benefits of learning and education. Taking the clay of our children and helping the parents too slowly mold children into thinking adults. It is a tough job, and often thankless. But by making this post I want to say to all teachers. Mine from the past, my child’s in the future and of course all other teachers out there.

And if you want more eye-opening quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:

• 82 Dream Big Quotes: Inspiration to Turn Your Dreams into Reality
• 51 Best Growth Mindset Quotes for Kids
• 103 Knowledge Quotes on the Importance of Always Learning

Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then watch this free video that details the 7-minute habit for planning your day to focus on what's truly important to you. .

Well…that's it from me. Now it's your turn…

What are your favorite education quotes?

Do you have a favorite from this list? If so, why?

Do you love an educational quote that did not make this list? If so, I would love to hear it?

Are you a teacher or an educator? If so let me know, just so I can say “thanks” for doing one of the most important jobs in the world. Teaching and molding the next generation. Ignite those fires of learning!

If you enjoyed this collection of education quotes, please take the time to share them on your favorite social media platform. Help me to help others discover these quotes.

4 thoughts on “95 Education Quotes: Inspire Children, Parents, AND Teachers”

Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead. – Nora Ephron

Good Morning and thank you for the beautiful quotes, my favorite one is the one which says : The key to success is not through achievement but through enthusiasm., keep going thank you.

it is very nice qoutes mankind can learn from

I always love Dr. Seuss saying. It is really a good thing to keep on reading and learning new things in life. Let our mind soar to that wonderful world of books and new vocabulary.

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What Students Are Saying About Banning Books From School Libraries

Teenagers share their nuanced views on the various book banning efforts spreading across the country.

By The Learning Network

Please note: This post is part of The Learning Network’s ongoing Current Events Conversation feature in which we invite students to react to the news via our daily writing prompts and publish a selection of their comments each week.

In the article “ Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S. ,” Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter write about the growing trend of parents, political activists, school board officials and lawmakers arguing that some books do not belong in school libraries.

As we regularly do when The Times reports on an issue that touches the lives of teenagers, we used our daily Student Opinion forum to ask teenagers to share their perspectives . The overwhelming majority of students were opposed to book bans in any form, although their reasons and opinions were varied and nuanced. They argued that young people have the right to read unsanitized versions of history, that diverse books expose them to a variety of experiences and perspectives, that controversial literature helps them to think critically about the world, and that, in the age of the internet, book bans just aren’t that effective. Below, you can read some of their comments organized by theme.

Thank you to all those from around the world who joined the conversation this week, including teenagers from Japan ; Julia R. Masterman School in Philadelphia; and Patino High School in Fresno, Calif .

Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear as they were originally submitted.

It’s Wrong to Shield Kids From Reality.

I think the idea of people trying to censor speech is absolutely abhorrent. Right to freedom of speech, religion, peaceful assembly, petition, and press is our 1st amendment and one that we take for granted …

As a teenager I am still trying to find my way in this world; I want to know as many other viewpoints as possible so that I know my thoughts are my own and not just a product of a limited amount of information. Even if these books are not required reading they should be allowed in libraries. Families can decide what books are allowed in their homes but trying to force a community to get rid of a book is a way of forcing one’s beliefs on an entire community. Removing books about issues faced by marginalized groups is a way to ignore them, a way to minimize the issues faced by those groups and allow the banners to not have their opinions challenged. This is a democracy that should be open to discussion and if it is then people will find others who agree and disagree with them.

— Jason, Maine

Students need the option to read books they enjoy or want to read. We often enjoy books that connect to us and sometimes that may be a tough topic such as rape, violence or even gender identity. Removing books with “inappropriate content” may sound like the right choice until we dive into what was actually deemed inappropriate. A book that has a character who is transgender may appeal to someone who identifies as transgender, this book may be enjoyable and relatable for that person. Maybe a student has past trauma that they may struggle to deal with, a book that has a topic based on their past may comfort them and bring them closure. These books also inform students on what really happens within the mind and life of someone else. Banning books is an overall loss for a school or library, it only limits human growth.

— Alex, Reeths-Puffer High School

Reading the article and these comments just makes me think.”Jeez, the fact these books are being challenged shows how much some people need education on the subjects of them.” These books may have hard topics but they essentially are a needed part of education. They might be brutal and hard to swallow, but they are the best examples of real-world problems and history. They provide a good sense of realism and give kids somewhat of an idea of what goes on and has gone on in the world.

Challenging these books is like trying to protect someone from the world. Then instead shoving them in front of something that makes them think.”Everything will always work out,” And, “These things will never happen again.” It makes them think the world has no struggle or insanely big problems. When in reality it definitely does and they will be directly affected by these problems.

— Jordan , Norwood High school

These books are important to both students and teachers alike. They are educational and factual and help teachers teach more effectively. I honestly think that books like “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas and “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie should be talked about in schools. They help educate on racism and discrimination. And it seems to me that the parents and politicians who voted for these books to be banned don’t want their children to be educated on these subjects. Honestly, it’s a shame that the youth of today can’t get the knowledge they need because of this.

— Cailah , City Charter High School

Books Are Meant to Challenge and Educate.

While it’s reasonable to be concerned about the material your children are reading, as some material might not be age appropriate, there is almost never- honestly, never at all- justification for banning a book. When you look at novels like Maus, that was recently banned in a Tennessee school district for nudity and cursing, it becomes increasingly obvious what we are trying to erase- no history, no matter your opinion or concerns, should be hidden or erased, especially such horrible events like the Holocaust. If we don’t learn history, we can’t learn from it, and that is the most essential key to humanity…

Books are the primary way to tell stories, to learn right from the mouths of people who have witnessed things we need to learn and grow from. Our society depends on the idea of future generations learning and progressing, and with the banning of books all we are doing is going backwards, not forwards.

— Meghan, Glenbard West High School

According to Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter, those who are calling for certain books to be banned claim it’s an “issue of parental rights and choice,” and although parents have a right to monitor the media their children are consuming, they can’t take away access to controversial books for all children.

The article discusses how the group No Left Turn in Education claims “The Handmaid’s Tale” is used to “spread radical and racist ideologies to students.” However, Margaret Atwood, the author of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” has said that there was “nothing in the book that didn’t happen, somewhere.” Atwood used real history to create her dystopia, giving us an idea of what society could become if we don’t learn from history. If we ban books, we may end up repeating the same mistakes we’ve made before. In Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451,” he details what the world might look like if books were banned, and while “Fahrenheit 451” is an extreme version of what could happen in the future, banning books could create an echo of Bradbury’s dystopia.

Hiding away things that make us uncomfortable doesn’t make them go away. Even if we don’t talk about it, racism, sexual assault, genocide, and many other complex issues will still exist. We have to face the discomfort to keep it from happening again. While those supporting the book-banning movement claim that it’s an issue of parental rights, it’s really an issue of people trying to ban things that make them uncomfortable.

— Deeya , Bryant High School, Arkansas

If parents start trying to ban books that are intended to be informational and tell the story of certain minorities the history can start to slowly fade away. For instance, say parents and governments can now dictate what we should and shouldn’t learn soon enough as more generations come there will no longer be the acknowledgement of the Holocaust and the horror of what Hitler did, he will just be another “bad leader”. This will lead younger minds into believing that no one and no country is capable of such horror like slavery or concentration camps but the fact is they are.

— Savannah, Gray New-Gloucester High School

As a student who has read most of the “challenged books” whether that be for school or just on my own, I feel that banning these books would be one of the worst ideas ever. For the younger generations it is so important to gain knowledge about the injustice others face constantly. By banning books with important context, we risk the inception of more racial injustice within our society as a whole. No matter how horrible our history is, it is more important now than ever that students are well informed to prevent repeating history.

— Madison, Maine

Limiting Books Students Can Read Also Limits Perspectives Students Need to Access.

I am part of the LGBT+ community, specifically nonbinary and pansexual, and books discussing LGBT+ topics or even featuring queer and trans characters are a continuous target for banning. Erasing LGBT+ people and experiences from literature creates a sense of otherness for queer and trans people, especially queer and trans youth. Also, having books with LGBT+ topics and characters constantly in contention of whether they will be banned or not has an effect on LGBT+ youth because it shows them that their existence is a topic of debate. I, personally, had no queer or trans influences until I was in middle school. If I had books with LGBT+ characters or were about real LGBT+ people, my feelings would have been validated much earlier. My feelings of not feeling “like a girl” or feeling some kind of attraction towards girls, I would’ve had a name for them and realized that it was normal because it is. Queer and trans experiences are valid and normal and literature that shows that is incredibly important.

— Salt, Maine

I personally believe that removing books about sexual assault, gender, sexuality, and racism is not right. Having access to those types of books is important because it helps us as students learn more about people’s perspectives and helps us become more open-minded in the real world. To put it in another way—if we are not exposed to books that discuss the struggles of people all around our country, then it limits us from understanding each other. Sometimes the content can be uncomfortable to read, but it is necessary to understand the lives of others.

— Hilary , Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School

As a gay male, seeing attempts to remove LGBTQIA+ content from shelves is almost hurtful. All my life, books have been about the same thing; two straight, white people meet and fall in love. But in recent years, I’ve finally had access to literature that I can identify with. I can relate to characters who realize they don’t identify as straight, and find the same gender as them attractive. I can relate to those characters who have a family member or family members that think they’re disgusting or sinful for being attracted to those of the same sex. Because of how I can relate to these pieces of literature, it helps me know that I am not the only one to go through this, and there are others who share my story. By banning books, children are being told they should stick to the group they were born into, but that mindset is what led our country into the state it exists in. No one can agree on anything because no one understand every side of the story. Without diverse literature and proper education, our country could never move forward. Leave the books be.

— David, Muskegon, Michigan

If these books get taken down for inappropriate content, we need to find out the root reason why…Is it because these books talk about severe racism, sexuality, gender, and real-life harms? Why shouldn’t people learn how to identify, treat others with respect, understand how to help/support your BIPOC community, support victims, and understand the horrors inflicted upon LGBTQIA BIPOC people? Learning or understanding these issues will better your society, the empathy people have for others and have a way to have self-empowerment and community.

— Ez.,California

People in the L.G.B.T.Q community and in the minority groups use these books as an outlet, and a way to connect to the world to feel support…By removing these books, it creates a sense and feeling of not being accepted, or to have the right to be a part of the communities. I personally get a feeling that with the schools removing these books, it opens a feeling of shame. It silences these groups, these communities, these people, resulting in making them not feel valid, or even humanized.

Just like Petocz, I am also a student in school, and during these times of removing these books, it worries me that my passion for knowledge, and my passion for understanding my society and myself, will be hindered by someone’s views on what is acceptable and what is not.

— Kyler, Reeths-Puffer Highschool

In school libraries, I think there should be more books around less popularized topics like drug addiction, black authors, LGBTQ stories, and non-American authors. These books are eye-opening encourages you to challenge your way of thinking. I recently read a book about drug addiction and I learned to destigmatize recovering drug addicts because I know how easily someone can become addicted (Heroine, McGinnis). The book also discouraged drug use through honest education and brought less well-known side effects to light

— Emma, Cary High School

Simply banning books because they’re too much of a “sensitive topic” will only harm young readers. Books are supposed to enhance our understanding of topics, history, etc. The books that are on the list of being banned are all books that help readers understand certain topics to a significant extent. As someone who’s never had a human figure to ask about sensitive topics with, books helped me answer my questions and curiosity among the topics.

— Teada, Gray New Gloucester High School

Book Bans Aren’t Effective. There Are Better Ways to Handle Sensitive Subjects.

I think, regardless of whether or not libraries should stock “inappropriate” books, banning books has the opposite of the intended effect. While it may have been successful in the last because schools and libraries were the only real way to be exposed to books—aside from buying them—now it is way too easy to find whatever information you need online. Kids are naturally curious; if you tell them they can’t read a book—especially if it’s inappropriate—they’re going to try to read that book, and more likely than not, they’re going to be able to access it online. I believe banning books is unjust and erasing important points of view, but more importantly, I believe that it’s ineffective.

— Linnie, Glenbard West High School

I think the attempt to remove books from school libraries is pointless and a waste of time. If a student wants to read a book they can just go to a public library or the internet. The internet makes all of these efforts pointless. There is so much information on the internet that can be considered way more controversial. And the internet is in almost every child’s hands.

— Declan, Michigan

In my opinion, the best way for a parent to address their concerns to a school over a book is to have a civil conversation with the school, to either help guide the parent in how to talk their child through the content that they may be worried about or find a solution that results in something like a warning tag on the book, rather than the removal of the book altogether.

— Celia, Cary High School

Living in a very diverse and complex society, families should learn to accept that students are exposed to a range of thoughts and opinions. If you prefer to stay away from the content of a specific book—don’t read it! In a case where a book you dislike is required and is being taught in class, communicate with the teachers and nicely share your concerns! Still, as students of this generation, we should learn to cooperate and adapt to the environment we are in, for we won’t always have the option to ‘ban’ whatever and whenever we want.

— Lara, Cary High School

Parents and Lawmakers Deciding What Students Should Read Is a Slippery Slope.

There has been a growth in the number of books being challenged by parents and activists. I can see the reason for concern. There are some books which are fairly intense, the messages of which could be misconstrued by younger children. However, first off, a great many of these complaints are being directed to school libraries, where staff and educators devote time in their classes to the careful analysis of such books. In such an environment, the idea that a reader would misinterpret the work as a promotion of gore or sex seems fairly far-fetched.

Secondly, the benefit these books have on students far outweighs the risks. Ultimately, though there are a few books written for cheap thrills—for the “oohs” and “aahs” of shock and other emotions—many works are written for the purposes of sharing the author’s viewpoint and the way they have experienced the world. We read books, especially in classrooms, to grow our understanding of the world and to enlighten ourselves with the experiences of others so that we can apply our learnings to our own lives. To strike a book for violence, sex, or sexuality is to say that these subjects are not worthwhile to learn about, that they are not relevant to our lives in the real world. Reality is not censored or sanitized; reality is full of experiences dealing with these subjects, and we owe it to the coming generations to make them ready to process those experiences.

— Ethan, Glenbard West High School, IL

I think there are certainly better ways for concerned parents to be placated without going as far as banning books in school libraries. They could work to establish systems that flag books that could contain or do contain “sensitive” topics. Then only with parental permission could a student check out a flagged book. It’s inconsiderate to take opportunities to read and learn about topics important and sentimental to kids away from an entire school of students just because a few parents don’t like their kids reading those same topics.

— Arrionna , Michigan

It is essential for students to have relatively unrestricted access to books describing race and LGBTQ issues. However, I think that pledging to represent “all perspectives” of certain topics in libraries creates a slippery slope.

Take the book Maus, for example. Having read the book in 8th grade, I would strongly recommend it to all students due to its presentation of honest descriptions of the Holocaust in a digestible manner for teenagers, and I believe this book should be kept in school libraries. However, I worry some would attempt to create a “balanced” perspective for students by placing Holocaust-denying books in the library as well, even though the genocide’s existence, scale, and horror is indisputable.

We should, by all means, allow students to absorb multiple opinions and ideas. We should let students read both Ayn Rand and Karl Marx. But we must not allow this quest for balance, for a wholistic perspective, to corrupt our youth with misinformation and flat-out lies.

— Sean, Glenbard West High School

The efforts to erase books of certain topics is outrageous. Many of these are removed because of sensitive issues that they are worried will make the reader uncomfortable but the author didn’t write these books or topics so that the reader can feel comfortable … There are regardless going to be stories that are questioned but in most cases, they shouldn’t be banned/removed because who has the right to ban literature? And who decides what students can handle with subjects?

— MaRynne, Colorado

Banning Books Limits Thinking.

I feel that by banning books that talk about certain topics you are limiting what a child can think…One of my favorite quotes is by Haruki Murakami. “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” I think that this quote is very important, especially now because this is what banning books will do to us. If we ban books that talk about topics but leave only books that talk about one, we can only think about that one topic and we can only think about what they want us to think. By banning books you’re banning knowledge, banning opinions, banning our future.

— Ava, J.R. Masterman in Philadelphia, PA

Presenting kids with varying ideologies and different types of stories is really helpful, it encourages critical thought, it can shape emotional reactions in a very low risk way, and for a lot of students it is presents representations of themselves that they find comforting. Even when parents argue that books are dangerous, there is far more to be said for the help and comfort they can provide. Even books like Maus - that forced me to understand more the reality of my Jewish identity and the history of my culture - even when it was painful, present such immense value in intellectual and emotional development. It makes me very sad to think that students in Tennessee no longer have this opportunity in there schools

— Dorothy, Colorado

When situations like this arise, I think that they always show how one pathed the education system is, and how it is getting even worse. Without these types of books that challenge regular thinking patterns, it will be like millions of clones are being released into the world at graduation. I am very set that these books should be allowed in schools because they cause students, such as myself, to think outside of the box. That may be present in learning about something unknown, such as another continent’s history, or learning about struggles experienced by others that you weren’t aware of happening. Without these books, both experience and expansive knowledge are highly limited, stopping students from growing into their potential to progressively change the world.

— Laine, Cary High

I think that by removing books from libraries you are taking away peoples’ stories and creativity. Therefore, you are lessening the creative thinking in students.

— Molly, Glenbard West High School

Many times, schools try to “hide” kids from real world history or issues like over policing or the Holocaust. They try to teach kids “pretty” history by numbing down what content kids are actually taking in. I believe that this is hindering kids all over the United States because it promotes them to think almost in a bubble, in the sense that they cannot fully grasp why some things are bad or why they are learning about them. This causes the kids to almost laugh these subjects off, which in turn means that these students become oblivious to what is going on around them, which promotes things like racism and the holocaust as almost a joke, meaning that these issues will never be tackled because of how oblivious kids are to them.

— Ian, Gray-New Gloucester High School

Book Banning Is a Form of Discrimination.

This is nothing less than a display of homophobia, transphobia, and any other kind of hate based on gender and sexual identitiy from those advocating to remove these books. Schools should treat LGBTQ students the same as they treat cisgendered individuals. But when books about the former’s experiences are banned, those students are likely to feel unwelcome and unsafe in what is supposedly a good place for adolescents to be. If lawmakers and school boards were banning all books having to do with gender and sexuality, including when it has to do with people outside of the LGTBQ community, this would not be as bad. But the truth is that the LGBTQ community is being targeted. The hatred that fills the heart of lawmakers and members of school boards is on full display here. It is simply wrong for them to impose their own anti-LGBTQ beliefs on the students under their control.

— Kyle, W.T. Clarke High School

If parents want to get rid of any romance books with gay characters, they’d better be prepared to get rid of all romances, because otherwise it’s unequal. I think that efforts across the nation to remove books discussing racism and other social issues are essentially efforts to silence the voices of others … Does The Hate U Give, an eye-opening novel about being a young black girl in America, really have to be considered equal to Adolph Hitler’s autobiography in the eyes of a school?

— Paulina, Julia R. Masterman Middle School

The efforts of parents, activists, and lawmakers across the nation to remove books mainly about race, gender, and sexuality is absolutely ridiculous. The fact that a good amount of these protests are specifically conservative groups pushing their challenges into statehouses, law enforcement and political races does hint at discriminatory practices. Politics and personal agendas are being brought into a place where there is such a diverse collection of books—or graphic novels—that anyone should be allowed to access in their library if they choose to do so. Challenging books in this manner is like getting upset that another person is eating a chocolate chip cupcake, since you’re the one on a diet.

— Rebeca, Cary High School

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