Educators From The United States

"My sister figured that out second semester, senior year — after student teaching. That’s why I think we need a restructuring of the entire program, so they’re getting teaching experience from the very beginning and can see if it’s something they really, truly want to do. Now, I went through four years as a political science major, thinking I wanted to go to law school. But my sorority started a tutoring center in Hendley Homes, and a fourth-grader told me after he passed his first multiplication test all year, “Didn’t you say you want to be a lawyer?” I said, “Yes! I’m going to law school in a couple months!” He said, “You shouldn’t do that. You’d be a better a teacher."

"In the cafeteria, we just ignored the sign [for segregated seating]. But at some point, we started eating at our desks. When we left work, our lives were definitely separate — separate communities, separate schools for our children, separate grocery stores and churches."

"We’re the profession that makes all others. If a parent tells me they don’t want their child to go into teaching, I have to ask, “Why?” They give excuses about the money, about how hard teachers work, and it’s true, it’s not glamorous. But the benefits outweigh all the negatives. Seeing a student from 20 years ago tell you all the great things in their life — I spent 25 years in the classroom, elementary school and middle school, before transitioning to the College of Education at USC, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything."

"English Quotation"

"But then we’d be back with our colleagues on the job. People are people. My father’s advice helped. He said, “You’re no better than anybody else, but nobody is better than you.”"

"Being able to experience what you think you want to do as early as possible is critical."

"But then you run the risk of not being able to provide for a family for a number of years. I do see what you mean in terms of how college is structured versus how high school is structured. Maybe, though, we need to rethink how high school is structured. If we start there, when they get here maybe they’ll be ready to start down a career path."

"There have always been women, from the days of the Queen of Sheba, who sought out wisdom, who made great sacrifices, and endured arduous toil to come to a fountain-head of knowledge. This 19th century, these last fifty years, have brought to women, to large numbers of women, opportunities before accessible only to the gifted few. Now these streams flow freely, and women come in throngs. But does the draught quicken them to new life? Culture is more than the acquisition of knowledge. To bear fruit, learning must pass into life. It is the touch of man upon nature that makes art; and as the highest art is a going back to nature, having received it, having been nourished upon it, to return it stamped with man’s impress, so the finest fruit of learning must be personality. The soul is the supreme power always. To enlarge its kingdom, to bring warring elements under its control — this is the supreme task of education. Intellectual knowledge is so much dead matter until it is vitalized by a union with the soul’s wisdom. To foster this union, to provide material for the nourishment of the spirit, to train the mind to appreciate and to choose and govern — these are the great fundamental tasks which lie at the root of all education."

"Great Western Land whose mighty breast Between two oceans finds its rest, Begirt with storm on either side, And washed by strong Pacific tide; The knowledge of thy wondrous birth Gave balance to the rounded earth. In sea of darkness thou didst stand Now first in light, my Western Land."

"Margaret W. Rossiter, a historian whose trilogy, “Women Scientists in America,” documented in sharp detail the ways women were excised from the annals of science — and who coined the term “,” named for the 19th-century suffragist , to describe the age-old practice of attributing scientific achievements of women to their male colleagues — died on Aug. 3 in ... Among the scientists Dr. Rossiter wrote about was , who with the German chemist developed the theory of . He won the for that discovery; she did not. The “Matilda effect” was but one of the many career blows that were queasily familiar to female scientists. So was the “harem effect,” a term Dr. Rossiter coined to describe male scientists’ habit of surrounding themselves with, as she put it, a “bevy of competent female subordinates who would not be as threatening as an equal number of bright young men.” (And who would presumably stay put, because their opportunities were so limited.)"

"We live in historic times. This is especially trued for American women in science and engineering. Opportunities have greatly expanded since the early 1970s because of a variety of factors, starting with but extending beyond —new expectations, new energy, a growing economy, new technical industries and opportunities, battles won and programs instituted. The women's liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s inspired many women scientists and their supporters to new levels of activism, and legislators passed and President Richard M. Nixon signed significant legislation that greatly affected traditional patterns in academia."

"The of would have been a very different story had advances and applications in chemistry matched progress in . As it was, there wre no "green revolutions," and chemical knowledge played a minor role until almost the end of the nineteenth century. Margaret W. Rossiter's interesting monograph on the influence of shows that the indifference of s to the blandishments of science was as much a consequence of the meager fare offered by the scientists as of any ingrained anti-intellectualism on the part of cultivators."

"I can still recall my astonishment when I discovered in 1972 some women's entries in the old directories, and when I read biographies of several scientists in the then-new '. Here were people who had been present at many of the familiar places and events, but were totally unknown even to those well versed in the history of American science. I felt like a modern Alice who had fallen down a rabbit hole into a wonderland of the history of science that was familiar in some respects but distorted and alien in many others. Learning more about these women and bringing their stories into closer connection with the rest of history of this period became a compelling and absorbing intellectual task. The initial stumbling block was locating material, since most of the women scientists bordered, for a variety of reasons, on the "invisible.""

"Although by all accounts the period 1940–72 was a golden age for science in America, it has generally been considered a very dark age for women in the professions. ... How could this have been? Were not women an integral part of American science by 1940? Why, then, in a period of record growth in almost every aspect of American science that one could count—money spent, persons trained, jobs created, articles published, even s won—were women so invisible?"

"I wrote that poem ["All the Women Caught in Flaring Light"] because, at the time I was writing the book [Crime Against Nature], I would read at women's cultural spaces and lesbians would come up and tell me heartrending stories. I felt a responsibility to tell some of them. I guess it's what happens when you're a writer in a culture of repressed groups...I think the concept of writing or art as just self-expression or self-fulfillment is a Eurocentric and sterile patriarchal idea...Because it goes only one way. And it's not a way of conceiving of art that acknowledges that you are able to make art only because things come to you from your community. The image of the individualistic, egocentric artist-white, male, and heterosexual-is premised on him creating all by himself in defiance of his culture. But that's not how I have made my art, nor is it how most people in repressed cultures create. You make art only in the matrix of your community and you're pretty foolish if you don't think that that's true. Responsibility isn't a grim thing, you know, in that context. It's just what's real You are fed, and you feed."

"I don't think about my writing as being about fame. I think of it in a communal context. Yet it's naive and apolitical to deny that elements of privilege accrue to visibility. Certainly, a visibly lesbian artist is doing something that many lesbians can't do in their own work lives. That visibility is the result of community building, of something that is given to the lesbian artist from the lesbian community. When I think about these issues, it seems all the more reason to be scrupulous about how to return things to the community and to place my life in perspective. I've worked hard, but I certainly could not be doing this by myself. The other thing I know about power is what I've learned from Audre Lorde, who said that if we don't use our power, it will be turned against us. I think there is an important distinction between power over and power with. I'm interested in how we develop power with others. I think it's important that my having access to my own power in my writing doesn't mean draining it away from the community or using it in opposition to others but, rather, using my power collectively with others to build a transformative future."

"I understood finally that this heroic will to endure is still not the same as the will to change, the true rebellion. ("Rebellion")"

"I begin to understand that a white woman of the South can live and write, but not of the dead heroes. She can live and write a new kind of honor, the daily, conscious actions of women in true rebellion. ("Rebellion")"

"It's important to deal directly with lesbian issues, whether or not one does that as an open lesbian teacher. It's important not to just shove lesbian issues to one side but to deal with them head on in the classroom, especially if one is teaching women's studies. The controversy right now is over a woman teacher bringing lesbian issues into the classroom. In another era you couldn't be a married woman and teach. It really is about what's acceptable to do as a woman occupying a position in an educational system that's supposed to be a replication of heterosexuality. Before you even start talking about what books you're going to use, you have to be ready to address that root premise."

"Have you forgotten the story of "Lorna Doone"—how the Doones, men of high family, who had fallen under the displeasure of the Government, had betaken themselves to the Doone Valley, surrounded on all sides by precipitous mountains, and from this strongly fortified position levied their blackmail upon the surrounding country, killing and robbing and outraging the people of the land until the citizens were aroused and determined to extirpate them? Do you recall how the men of the eastern county gathered together on the eastern mountain, and the men from the western county gathered on the western mountain, with their arms and cannon ready to fall upon the Doones and destroy them, when by some untoward accident a cannon from the western ranks was trained across the valley and shot into the ranks of the men of the east, and how, inflamed by this accident, the men on the east trained their guns across the valley into the ranks of the men of the west, and while these foolish people were slaughtering one another, the Doones sallied forth and put both counties to flight and continued to rob and kill and outrage for years to come. Let us heed the lesson, my countrymen! Let me say to Governor Kitchin and Senator Simmons and Chief Justice Clark: The Doones are in the valley. I pray you, gentlemen, train your guns a little lower."

"What follows naturally from [the] empiricist starting-point is the division of propositions into two main classes, (i) empirical propositions, about synthetic matters of fact, which are (or should be, if they are to have literal meaning) testable by experience, and (ii) those which are purely analytic, the function of which is to elucidate the use and meaning of terms, but which give no information about the world. The truth or falsity of the latter depends solely on their self-consistency and the law of non-contradiction, whereas of the former self-consistency, though necessary, is not a sufficient condition of truth. Accordingly there are two main types of science, exact science on the one hand comprising logic and mathematics, concerned with analytic truths and using purely deductive reasoning; and empirical science on the other seeking laws which are generalizations from particular experiences and are verifiable (or, more strictly, ‘probabilifiable’) only by observation and experiment."

"The most intelligent hearers are those who enjoy most heartily the simplest preaching. It is not they who clamor for superlatively intellectual or aesthetic sermons. Daniel Webster used to complain of some of the preaching to which he listened. "In the house of God" he wanted to meditate "upon the simple varieties, and the undoubted facts of religion;" not upon mysteries and abstractions."

"God, save us from ourselves! We carry within us the elements of hell if we but choose to make them such. Ahaz, Judas, Nero, Borgia, Herod, all were once prattling infants in happy mother's arms."

"In education it is better to inspire the heart with a noble sentiment than to teach the mind a truth of science."

"We lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often and long alone with God. No otherwise can the great central idea of God enter into a man's life, and dwell there supreme."

"Have you never observed how free the Lord's Prayer is of any material that can tempt to subtle self-inspection in the art of devotion? It is full of an outflowing of thought and of emotion toward great objects of desire, great necessities, and great perils."

"It is hardly an exaggeration to summarize the history of four hundred years by saying that the leading idea of a conquering nation in relation to the conquered was, in 1600, to change their religion; in 1700, to change their trade; in 1800, to change their laws, and in 1900 to change their drainage. May we not, then say that on the prow of the conquering ship in these four centuries first stood the priest, then the merchant, then the lawyer, and finally the physician?"

"... by far the most active agent in the dissemination of both s and seeds is man. This is the frequent result of intention on his part, in the introduction and cultivation of new grains, fruits, and s, and he works to the same end unconsciously and often to his great detriment by the transportation of the s or seeds of pernicious weeds in the dirt clinging to s and s, and the mixture of impurities with his seeds through ignorance, carelessness, or unavoidable causes. This mode of , however, is purely artificial, and except in the case of a few weeds that have adjusted themselves to the conditions of cultivation, is not correlated with any special adaptations in the plants themselves, many of our most widely distributed weeds, such as the , the , and the , possessing very imperfect natural means of dispersal."

"A very remarkable development of s takes place in the "" of Mexico and Florida, which begins life as a small , from seeds dropped by birds on the boughs or trunks of trees. When it gets well started, the young plant sends down enormous aërial roots, which find their way to the ground, and in time so completely envelop the host that it is literally strangled to death ... When this support is removed, the sheathing roots take its place and becomes to all intents and purposes the stem of the fig tree, which now leads an independent life."

"“Age is a quality of mind,” said Julia. “If years have left your dreams behind, if hope is cold, if you no longer look ahead, if your ambition’s fires are dead, then you are old.” “But if from life you take the best, if in life you keep the zest, if love you hold, no matter how the years go by, no matter how the birthdays fly, you are not old.”"

"text at archive.org (See .)"

"The miserable, money loving wretches that these Yankees are: they even have the impudence to paint their advertisements of s and s upon the and the rocks that jut from the ."

"There was hardly a fence left standing all the way from to . The fields were trampled down and the road was lined with carcasses of horses, hogs, and cattle that the invaders, unable either to consume or to carry away with them, had wantonly shot down to starve out the people and prevent them from making their crops. The stench in some places was unbearable; every few hundred yards we had to hold our noses or stop them with the cologne Mrs. Elzey had given us, and it proved a great boon. The dwellings that were standing all showed signs of pillage, and on every plantation we saw the charred remains of the and packing-screw, while here and there, lone chimney-stacks, " 's Sentinels," told of homes laid in ashes."

"The "Stars and Stripes" now float over a vast continent, extending from the Atlantic to the Great Ocean, and from the Gulf to the Frozen Seas of the North. The Great Republic may now be considered as embracing four nearly equal quarters, of about nine hundred thousand square miles each:—the first being the original territory east of the Mississippi River; the second, the Louisiana Purchase; the third, Texas and the Mexican Provinces; and the fourth covering Oregon and Alaska."

"Let it not be forgotten that patriotism is one of the positive lessons to be taught in every school. Everything learned should be flavored with a genuine love of country. Every glorious fact in the Nation's history should be emphasized, and lovingly dwelt upon. The names of her illustrious citizens should be treasured in the memory. Every child should feel that he is entitled to a share, not only in the blessings conferred by a free government, but also in the rich memories and glorious achievements of his country."

"The public school is the one force, is the only force, that can unify all classes and conditions of society. Here we have the children of the nation in their entirety, and we can, if we will, teach them in the schools so much of the grandeur of our possessions, of the heroic in our history, of the brilliant in our prosperity, of the fascinating in our traditions, that the fathers of the future will be willing to vote for, and die, if need be, for, the American idea; that the mothers of the future will teach their sons to develop our resources by industry, to honor the historic heroism of our sires, to project the brilliancy of our prosperity into the future, to cherish, with unwavering devotion, the traditions of the land."

"Her contributions to Arizona as a writer, educator, feminist, and legislator created a lasting legacy for future generations of working women. Her dedication to civic and educational organizations left an indelible mark on the state."

"Often called “the mother of the Arizona educational system,” Louise Boehringer devoted her life to obtaining better education for all Arizona students by continuously striving to improve the quality of the state’s educational system."

"She has high ideals and standards for the schools, which are substantiated by her valuable experience in other pioneer situations."

"I went with that bill and I stood over every man in that senate and looked him square in the eye when he was ready for his vote, and it was passed at four o’clock in the morning the last day of the session."

"Women may think that they can stand about and read nice little discourses on what ought to be done about legislation for women and children, but they won’t ever get anything passed that way. They will have to learn that they must be on the field of battle and fight to get bills passed. After they are passed, they will have to be on the ground to protect what they have put through."

"Since her election the feeling displayed toward her has been the most cordial, even by those who voted for her opponents, and many have assured her of their interest and support for the welfare of the schools."

"Louise, as she was called, became a persistent advocate for education and school reform."

"She believed that the power of women working together could promote positive change."

"Although not as well-known as other famous American women, Dr. Blanton left a formidable legacy by improving the plight of women and children. Tenacious, persistent, and determined are words that aptly describe her."

"Everything that helps to wear away age-old prejudices contributes towards the advancement of women and of humanity."

"Suffragist, educator, visionary, public official, innovator, and groundbreaker."

"If smoking were abolished it would be a benefit to mankind. It’s all nonsense about tobacco quieting the nerves. If the men did not use it they would not be nervous."

"I like to keep up with the fashions, but I had enough of long skirts when I was a girl. My dresses suit me fine when they’re just a little below the knee, and I hope sincerely that styles never take the hemline to the ankle again."

"Yet she had no intention of retiring to a quiet life. She never wanted to be just an old lady with nothing to do."