Literate

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. - Mark Twain

Anybody can watch TV; no intelligence required.

Flunking

The teacher pretended that algebra was a perfectly natural affair, to be taken for granted, whereas I didn't even know what numbers were. Mathematics classes became sheer terror and torture to me. I was so intimidated by my incomprehension that I did not dare to ask any questions. - Carl Jung

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. - Robert Heinlein

Learn To Survive

Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. - W. Edwards Deming


And you can't expect one without the other.

Cowards and Fools

A nation which makes great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools. - Thucydides


We should all know what we are doing, and why.

Limitless Learning

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time. - Rabbinical Saying

..... Don't limit your child by failing to teach what you have learned.

Teaching Technique

Teaching and writing, to me, is really just seduction; you go to where people are and you find something that they're interested in and you try and use that to convince them that they should be interested in what you have to say. - Lawrence Krauss

..... One way to enthrall your audience.

First?

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. - Alexander Pope

..... Moderation is boring.

Here, Tommy

What we learn with pleasure we never forget. - Alfred Mercier


That is pleasure of the mind, not of the senses. This is often confused - hence treats for performance. It works on dogs, not kids.

Illustrative

A wisely chosen illustration is almost essential to fasten the truth upon the ordinary mind, and no teacher can afford to neglect this part of his preparation. - Howard Crosby


Not a bulleted PowerPoint list.

Writing Reasons

First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand. - Robert Cecil Day Lewis


And by teaching you will be taught.

Experiments

There are two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. - Enrico Fermi


If you do nothing you haven't learned a danged thing.

Educational Problem Solving

Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. - Roger Lewin


And then they can't reason.

Enough Light

There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures. - James Thurber


Too much of a good thing?

Communicate

It is the responsibility of the sender to make sure the receiver understands the message. - Joseph Batten

Which is why you should never stop working on your communication skills.

Enemy of Knowledge

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking


Just because you have read a synopsis doesn't mean you know the subject.

Writing Well

The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything. - Walter Bagehot


If you aspire to be an author learn about something specific so you can write about it well.

Interesting

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. - G. K. Chesterton


Specialization is for insects. - Robert Heinlein

Laden With Books

In education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection, otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books. - Michel de Montaigne


Kids need to see that learning is what you do forever, not just when in school.

Teachers

A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power. - Thomas Szasz


Authority and power are not the same. Use the words correctly.

Catching Confidence

Self-confidence is something caught and not taught. And, risk-running and chance-taking are the only ways to catch it. - Arnold Schwarzenegger

When every kid gets a ribbon at the end of the race it breeds arrogance, not self-confidence.