Educators

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."

"Rarely will you meet anyone so jealous as a teacher. Year after year students tumble along like the waters of a river. They flow away, and only the teacher is left behind, like some deeply buried rock at the bottom of the current. Although he may tell others of his hopes, he doesn't dream of them himself. He thinks of himself as worthless and either falls into masochistic loneliness or, failing that, ultimately becomes suspicious and pious, forever denouncing the eccentricities of others. He longs so much for freedom and action that he can only hate people."

"My school was a happy place. All of us who started our schooling there completed our studies till the eighth standard. I don't remember even a single person dropping out. These days, when i visit schools, both big and small, all across the country, i tell them that true quality does not come from a great building or great facilities or great advertisements. It happens when education is imparted with love by great teachers."

"Raise your head now, you who were formerly a youth. You can turn your hand against any man, so act as is befitting. [...] Through you who offered prayers and so blessed me, who instilled instruction into my body as if I were consuming milk and butter, who showed his service to have been unceasing, I have experienced success and suffered no evil. The teachers, those learned men, should value you highly. [...] Your name will be hailed as honourable for its prominence. For your sweet songs even the cowherds will strive gloriously. For your sweet songs I too shall strive. [...] The teacher will bless you with a joyous heart. You who as a youth sat at my words have pleased my heart. Nisaba has placed in your hand the honour of being a teacher. For her, the fate determined for you will be changed and so you will be generously blessed. May she bless you with a joyous heart and free you from all despondency. [...] For your sweet songs even the cowherds will strive gloriously. For your sweet songs I too shall strive. [...] They should recognise that you are a practitioner of wisdom. The little fellows should enjoy like beer the sweetness of decorous words: experts bring light to dark places, they bring it to and streets."

"One-time member of the school, come here to me, and let me explain to you what my teacher revealed. Like you, I was once a youth and had a mentor. The teacher assigned a task to me -- it was man's work. Like a springing reed, I leapt up and put myself to work. I did not depart from my teacher's instructions, and I did not start doing things on my own initiative. My mentor was delighted with my work on the assignment. He rejoiced that I was humble before him and he spoke in my favour. I just did whatever he outlined for me -- everything was always in its place. Only a fool would have deviated from his instructions. He guided my hand on the clay and kept me on the right path. He made me eloquent with words and gave me advice. He focused my eyes on the rules which guide a man with a task: zeal is proper for a task, time-wasting is taboo; anyone who wastes time on his task is neglecting his task. He did not vaunt his knowledge: his words were modest. If he had vaunted his knowledge, people would have frowned. Do not waste time, do not rest at night -- get on with that work! Do not reject the pleasurable company of a mentor or his assistant: once you have come into contact with such great brains, you will make your own words more worthy. [...] There, I have recited to you what my teacher revealed, and you will not neglect it. You should pay attention -- taking it to heart will be to your benefit!"

"A man's scholarship may be perfect, his character admirable, and yet, for want of the power to control subordinates and govern boys, he may be wholly unfit for a schoolmaster."

"A master should be paid liberally, in order to secure a person properly qualified."

"Let the soldier be abroad if he will, he can do nothing in this age. There is another personage, a personage less imposing in the eyes of some, perhaps insignificant. The schoolmaster is abroad, and I trust to him, armed with his primer, against the soldier in full military array."

"An original thinker and able teacher very soon attracts a large class and vice versa."

"Domi habuit unde disceret."

"Better fed than taught."

"Whoe'er excels in what we prize, Appears a hero in our eyes; Each girl, when pleased with what is taught, Will have the teacher in her thought. * * * * * A blockhead with melodious voice, In boarding-schools may have his choice."

"A little bench of heedless bishops here, And there a chancellor in embryo."

"I am not a teacher: only a fellow-traveller of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead—ahead of myself as well as of you."

"All jargon of the schools."

"Fas est ab hoste doceri."

"Adde, quod ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes Emollit mores, nec sinit esse fervos."

"Whilst that the childe is young, let him be instructed in vertue and lytterature."

"Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee."

"If you be a lover of instruction, you will be well instructed."

"Fingit equum tenera docilem cervice magister Ire viam qua monstret eques."

"Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam."

"Grave is the Master's look; his forehead wears Thick rows of wrinkles, prints of worrying cares: Uneasy lies the heads of all that rule, His worst of all whose kingdom is a school. Supreme he sits; before the awful frown That binds his brows the boldest eye goes down; Not more submissive Israel heard and saw At Sinai's foot the Giver of the Law."

"A boy is better unborn than untaught."

"Instruction does not prevent waste of time or mistakes; and mistakes themselves are often the best teachers of all."

"There is no teaching until the pupil is brought into the same state or principle in which you are; a transfusion takes place; he is you, and you are he; there is a teaching; and by no unfriendly chance or bad company can he ever quite lose the benefit."

"The twig is so easily bended I have banished the rule and the rod: I have taught them the goodness of knowledge, They have taught me the goodness of God; My heart is the dungeon of darkness, Where I shut them for breaking a rule; My frown is sufficient correction; My love is the law of the school."

"The sounding jargon of the schools."

"Seek to delight, that they may mend mankind, And, while they captivate, inform the mind."

"You cannot teach old dogs new tricks."

"He is wise who can instruct us and assist us in the business of daily virtuous living."

"What's a' your jargon o' your schools, Your Latin names for horns and stools; If honest nature made you fools."

"We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also."

"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see."

"I do not allow a woman to teach or to usurp authority over the man."

"A secure teacher expects to be a learner all day, every day, and is comfortable with the ambiguity of that role. It’s not so important to be “right” as to be open; it’s not so important to have all the answers as to be hungry for them. A secure teacher leaves school each day with important questions to puzzle about overnight and the belief that each day contains the insights necessary for a more effective tomorrow. A secure teacher believes that having these kinds of insights is professionally challenging and personally satisfying."

"To teach is to touch the heart and impel it to action."

"Neither my life in school nor my life away from school is particularly blissful. My car breaks down, I quarrel with my friends, I get sick, and I worry about my children. I have to keep a watch on my moods, needs, biases, weaknesses, and limits in order to see how they are affecting my work. If I can monitor how my emotions are at play in my classroom, I can better put a break on them when they are destructive, and better allow my joyful, level, nurturant side to dominate."

"Each of these private teachers who work for pay, whom the politicians call sophists and regard as their rivals, inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom. It is as if a man were acquiring the knowledge of the humors and desires of a great strong beast which he had in his keeping, how it is to be approached and touched, and when and by what things it is made most savage or gentle, yes, and the several sounds it is wont to utter on the occasion of each, and again what sounds uttered by another make it tame or fierce, and after mastering this knowledge by living with the creature and by lapse of time should call it wisdom, and should construct thereof a system and art and turn to the teaching of it, knowing nothing in reality about which of these opinions and desires is honorable or base, good or evil, just or unjust, but should apply all these terms to the judgments of the great beast, calling the things that pleased it good, and the things that vexed it bad, having no other account to render of them, but should call what is necessary just and honorable, never having observed how great is the real difference between the necessary and the good, and being incapable of explaining it to another. ... Do you suppose that there is any difference between such a one and the man who thinks that it is wisdom to have learned to know the moods and the pleasures of the motley multitude in their assembly, whether about painting or music or, for that matter, politics?"

"There are two kinds of people in this world: those who, when faced with a window two floors up, will immediately accept the limitations it places upon them; and those who instantly look for a way to subvert both the height and the threatened effects of gravity. This room is full of the latter. It’s one of the reasons I love teaching; the opportunity to find those who would chance a fall in the attempt to fly, rather than stay safely within bounds."

"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."

"I do present you with a man of mine, Cunning in music and the mathematics, To instruct her fully in those sciences."

"Schoolmasters will I keep within my house, Fit to instruct her youth. * * * * * * To cunning men I will be very kind, and liberal To mine own children in good bringing up."

"We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring i' the winter."

"When I am forgotten, as I shall be, And sleep in dull cold marble, * * * * Say, I taught thee."

"Beautiful indeed and of great importance is the vocation of all those who aid parents in fulfilling their duties and who, as representatives of the human community, undertake the task of education in schools. This vocation demands special qualities of mind and heart, very careful preparation, and continuing readiness to renew and to adapt."

"Whoever enters the Way without a guide will take a hundred years to travel a two-day journey. The Prophet said "In this way you have no more faithful companion than your works." How can these works and this earning in the way of righteousness be accomplished without a master, O father? Can you practice the meanest profession in the world without a master's guidance? Whoever undertakes a profession without a master becomes the laughingstock of city and town."

"Teaching is unbounded by the classroom. Just as love is unbounded by time."

"What strikes me most when I remember Paula's teaching is her presence as much as the content of her teachings. I think in this country we have an obsession with content and curriculum, all the while devaluing presence and proximity, which are teaching values hard to describe or quantify (or, indeed, teach). Paula has a tremendous gaze, a tremendous listening power, and the most intelligent curiosity of anyone I have ever met. She took me seriously."

"It is always the teacher who must learn the most … or else nothing real has happened in the exchange."