From clever definitions we move on to observations about education. Civilisation is a race between education and catastrophe. Herbert George Wells (1866�1946) The whole object of education is...to develop the mind. The mind should be a thing that works. Sherwood Anderson (1876�1941) American novelist and short story writer. Education seems to be in America the only commodity of which the customer tries to get as little he can for his money. Max Leon Forman (1909-1990) Jewish-American writer. The chief wonder of education is that it does not ruin everybody concerned in it, teachers and taught. Henry Brooks Adams (1828-1918) U.S. historian and writer. The Education of Henry Adams. Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality. Henry Fielding (1707-1754) English novelist, dramatist. It has been said that we have not had the three R's in America, we had the six R's; remedial readin', remedial 'ritin' and remedial 'rithmetic.

Robert Maynard Hutchins (also Maynard Hutchins) (1899�1977) educational philosopher, dean of Yale Law School (1927-1929), a president of the University of Chicago (1929�1945) and its chancellor (1945�1951). Part of the American myth is that people who are handed the skin of a dead sheep at graduating time think that it will keep their minds alive forever. John Mason Brown (1900�1969) American drama critic and author. Education has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. G. M. Trevelyan (1876-1962) British historian We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) U.S. essayist and poet. A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American president But, good gracious, you've got to educate him first. You can't expect a boy to be vicious till he's been to a good school. Saki (H. H. Munro) (1870-1916) Scottish author I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square. Oscar Wilde (1854�1900) Irish writer, poet and playwright. "The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 1." Education does not mean teaching people to know what they do not know; it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave. John Ruskin (1819-1900) English critic They say that we are better educated than our parents' generation. What they mean is that we go to school longer.

They are not the same thing. Douglas Yates The average Ph.D. Thesis is nothing but a transference of bones from one graveyard to another. James Frank Dobie (1888�1964) American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist. You can lade a man up to th' university, but ye can't make him think. Finley Peter Dunne (1867�1936) U.S. author, writer and humorist. There is less flogging in our great schools than formerlybut then less is learned there; so what the boys get at one end they lose at the other. Samuel Johnson (1709-84) English lexicographer and writer. It is little short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not already completely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry . I believe that one could even deprive a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness if one could force it with a whip to eat continuously whether it were hungry or not Albert Einstein (1879-1955) U.S. physicist I am not a teacher; only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way.

I pointed aheadahead of myself as well as of you. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British dramatist, critic, writer. The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher. Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American author, editor and printer. Teachers are people who start things they never see finished, and for which they never get thanks until it is too late. Max Leon Forman (1909-1990) Jewish-American writer. Some men are graduated from college cum laude, some are graduated summa cum laude, and some are graduated mirabile dictu. William Howard Taft (1857-1930) 27th U.S. President (1909- 13) Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowingthe rest is mere sheep-herding. Ezra Loomis Pound (1885-1972) U.S. poet. I'm sure the reason such young nitwits are produced in our schools is because they have no contact with anything of any use in everyday life.

Petronius (d. circa 66 CE) The Satyricon. True education makes for inequality; the inequality of individuality, the inequality of success, the glorious inequality of talent, of genius. Felix E. Schelling (1858-1945) American educator The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss cognitive psychologist. No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete. G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) British author The modern child, when asked what he learned today, replies, "Nothing, but I gained some meaningful insights." William E. ("Bill") Vaughan (1915�1977) American columnist and author. Consider... the university professor. What is his function? Simply to pass on to fresh generations of numskulls a body of so-called knowledge that is fragmentary, unimportant, and, in large part, untrue.

His whole professional activity is circumscribed by the prejudices, vanities and avarices of his university trustees, i.e., a committee of soap-boilers, nail manufacturers, bank-directors and politicians. The moment he offends these vermin he is undone. He cannot so much as think aloud without running a risk of having them fan his pantaloons. H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American editor, critic and writer. The only real education comes from what goes counter to you. Andre Gide (1869-1951) French writer. I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education. Wilson Mizner (1876-1933) American dramatist. Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed. Robert G. Ingersoll, Abraham Lincoln. The things taught in colleges and schools are not an education, but the means of education. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) U.S. essayist and poet. The result of the educative process is capacity for further education. John Dewey (1859-1952) U.S.

philosopher and educator. Courses in education given at...teachers' colleges have traditionally been used as a substitute for genuine scholarship. In my opinion, much of the so-called science of "education" was invented as a necessary mechanism for enabling semieducated people to act as tolerable teachers. Sloan Wilson (1920- ) U.S. journalist and novelist. Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. Walter Bagehot (1826-77) English economist, political journalist, and critic. Physics and Politics, 1879. Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) English biologist and writer. Plasticene and self-expression will not solve the problems of education.

Nor will technology and vocational guidance; nor the classics and the Hundred Best Books. Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist, critic. He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, author, scientist, inventor and philosopher. A college degree does not lessen the length of your ears; it only conceals it. Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American author, editor and printer. The only thing experience teaches us is that experience teaches us nothing. André Maurois (1885-1967) French biographer and writer. I'm still waiting for some college to come up with a march protesting student ignorance. Paul Larmer (Chicago Tribune) A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British dramatist, critic, writer.

I am inclined to think that one's education has been in vain if one fails to learn that most schoolmasters are idiots. Hesketh Pearson (1887-1964) British biographer. The vanity of teaching doth oft tempt a man to forget that he is a blockhead. George Saville, Marquis of Hallifax (1633-1695) English statesman and essayist. In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards. Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer. Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run. Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer. I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer. In England education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and would probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square. Oscar Wilde (1856-1900) Irish poet and dramatist.

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 (1856-1900) Irish poet and dramatist. The Critic as Artist. You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian physicist and astronomer. Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts. Henry Brooks Adams (1828-1918) U.S. historian and writer. The Education of Henry Adams. There is nothing so stupid as an educated man, if you get off the thing that he was educated in. Will Rogers (1879-1935) U.S. actor and humorist. Education is that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) U.S. journalist and writer. Learning makes the wise wiser and the fool more foolish. John Ray (1627?-1705) English naturalist.

A wise man is one who finally realizes that there are some questions one can ask which may have no answers. Anon He is to be educated because he is a man, and not because he is to make shoes, nails, and pins. William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) U.S. Unitarian clergyman and writer. Education is too important to be left solely to educators. Francis Keppel (1916�1990) American educator, U.S. Commissioner of Education (1962�1965). Only the curious will learn and only the resolute will overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient. Edmund S. Wilson (1895-1972) U.S. author, literary and social critic. Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality. Helen Beatrix Potter (1866�1943) English author, illustrator, mycologist and conservationist. Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.

There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. Mary Flannery O'Connor (1925�1964) American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. Robert Lee Frost (1874�1963) American poet. Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer. C. C. Colton, Lacon: Reflections, No. 322. Doesn't Anyone Have Anything Good to Say? One must search diligently to find laudatory comments on education (other than those pious platitudes which are fodder for commencement speeches). It appears that most persons who have achieved fame and success in the world of ideas are cynical about formal education. These people are a select few, who often achieved success in spite of their education, or even without it. As has been said, the clever largely educate themselves, those less able aren't sufficiently clever or imaginative to benefit much from education.

English historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) put it this way: "The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous." But those tempted to take the route of self-education should heed the warning of the old maxim: "He who would educate himself should be a born educator." Benjamin Franklin, who largely educated himself, cautions: "He that teaches himself hath a fool for his master." For those of us neither geniuses nor hopeless fools, formal education may be a useful thingif approached in the right spirit, with an eager and open mind and a rationally skeptical attitude. This brief quote collection can be appropriately closed with some positive comments: Education: Being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it's knowing how to use the information once you get it. William A. Feather (1889-1981) American publisher and author. An educated man is one who can entertain a new idea, entertain another person and entertain himself.

Sydney Wood He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches : Phrases, Clichés, Expressions He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches : Phrases Meaning: A criticism of the teaching profession, portraying it as second best. Example: Origin: George Bernard Shaw wrote this in his play Man and Superman, 1903. It is included as Maxim 36 in the Maxims for Revolutionists that is included in the work. It's not clear if Shaw was expressing his own opinion of those who Bob Dylan. in his song My Back Pages. called 'the mongrel dogs who teach', or whether it was merely the opinion of one of the play's characters. Another Shaw quotation about teaching gives us a clue: "A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education." Educational jokes Educational jokes By Steve Draper , Department of Psychology , University of Glasgow . There were two small boys, John and Jim, who were friends. Jim had a dog. One day they were taking the dog for a walk and Jim said proudly: "I've taught the dog to whistle".

"What do you mean?", said John, "He's not whistling". "I know", said Jim, "But I said I'd taught him; I didn't say he'd learned". Green-Armytage, P. (2002) "Colour Zones -- Connecting colour order and everyday language" 9th Congress of the International Colour Association, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 4421 pp.976-979 "I know I've taught it because I've heard myself say it." Quoted in K.A.Bruffee (1993) Collaborative learning True jokes Complaints from students that the same bit of plagiarised work got different marks from different staff. Complaints from parents that a student penalised for plagiarism shouldn't be punished because his mother had done the work anyway. Teacher: Where's your homework? Pupil: I lost it in a fight with a kid who said you weren't the best teacher in this school. Here is a 5 min video: " Doodling in Math Class ", which is entertaining (rather than a joke). My reflections on what it says about teaching are here . Aphorisms Feynman was a truly great teacher.

He prided himself on being able to devise ways to explain even the most profound ideas to beginning students. Once, I said to him, "Dick, explain to me, so that I can understand it, why spin one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics." Sizing up his audience perfectly, Feynman said, "I'll prepare a freshman lecture on it." But he came back a few days later to say: "I couldn't do it. I couldn't reduce it to the freshman level. That means we don't really understand it." [T11] - Richard Feynman, as quoted in: D.L.Goodstein & J.R.Goodstein (1996) Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun ch.2 p.45 "... if thought is to be aroused and not words acquired ..." [T2] - Dewey (1916) Democracy and Education: An introduction to the philosophy of education ch.12 para.4 (New York, The Macmillan company) "methods which are permanently successful in formal education ... depend ... upon the fact that they go back to the type of the situation which causes reflection out of school in ordinary life.

They give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results." [T11] - John Dewey (1916) Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education ch.12 "Thinking in education" p.106 Good quotes, not educational "Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." - Clive James [Quoted by reputable people; but who knows where from, given his endless newspaper columns.] The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. [T10, T333] - Sydney J. Harris Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten. [T10, T9] B.F. Skinner, US psychologist New Scientist May 21, 1964 There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.

[T10] James Truslow Adams (historian, freelance author, Pulitzer prize winner) in "To 'Be' or to 'Do': A Note on American Education" June, 1929 Forum. "If you travel with us you will have to learn things you do not want to learn in ways you do not want to learn". [T10] [Doris Lessing, from a letter replying to a reader who had been seriously disturbed by reading one of her novels. Quoted in Alan Yentob's "Imagine" TV programme on Doris Lessing, broadcast Tues 27 May 2008, 10:35pm on BBC1] "He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain, which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despite, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." [T10] Alternatively: "Zeus, who guided mortals to be wise, has established his fixed law -- wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its memories of pain, drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, so men against their will learn to practice moderation.

Favours come to us from gods seated on their solemn thrones -- such grace is harsh and violent. This is about revenge vs. justice, rather than wisdom or learning in general. [I. 179] Agememnon (first play in the Oresteia 458 BC); Aeschylus (525 - 426 BC) "To escape boredom and avoid effort are incompatible" [T10] T.W.Adorno (1941) " On popular music " Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (New York: Institute of Social Research) 1941, IX, 17-48. "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." [T10, T333] Francis Bacon (1625) "Of studies" in Essays. See here and here for copies of Bacon's 1625 essay; and here for Samuel Johnson's 1753 follow-up. "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire" [T10] W.B.Yeats [However I feel this is missing a bit.

It replaces acquisition of information, by acquisition of goals and values. No participation.] "Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching" [T1] Oscar Wilde in The Decay of Lying (1891), from Vivan's second speech "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." [T1] George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) in Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists", maxim 36. (Misquoted as: "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.") "I like to teach: it's easier than learning." [T1] A character says this in John Updike's (1968) Couples However still easier than teaching, is just to do the task for the learner. Which is what teachers are continually tempted into. "Those who can, do. "Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach." [T1] Or in full: "With Aristotle we declare that the ultimate test of understanding rests on one's ability to transform one's knowledge into teaching. Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach." Schulman, Lee S.

(1986) "Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching." Educational Researcher vol.15 no.2 pp.4-14 "Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn." [T2] This was published (as the epigraph at the start of ch.1) in/by: How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Susan A. Ambrose, Michael W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Marsha C. Lovett, Marie K. Norman (2010) (Jossey-Bass); who attribute it to oral personal communications by Herb Simon ; who, they say, was paraphrasing Elliott Dunlap Smith. No source for the last is given, nor so far found by me. "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think." [T2] Socrates but unsourced and dubious. Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

[T2] Oscar Wilde The critic as artist p.248 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." [T2] Maria Montessori No one wants a good education. Everyone wants a good degree. [T33] - Lee Rudolph The Master said, "In ancient times, men learned with a view to their own improvement. Nowadays, men learn with a view to the approbation of others." [T33] - Confucius [This shows that an imaginary nostalgia for deep over shallow learning, or at least for intrinsic over extrinsic motivation, for learning was present even in ancient times.] Education is a state-controlled manufactury of echoes. [T33] Norman Douglas, (probably the English author, died 1952) He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice. [T33/T6] Einstein Do we really recommend learning from your errors?

Here's a quote from an experimental astrophysicist as his team slaves away getting their balloon-borne telescope ready for launch: "Step by tedious step, we stumble away from abject failure. And that's on a good day." [T4] Barth Netterfield, in a TV documentary on one of his research projects "Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others." [T4] Otto von Bismarck "Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master." [T5] Leonardo da Vinci If the student isn't better than the teacher, then the teacher is a failure. [T5] Zen aphorism, quoted by Allen Ginsberg I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder that we could have tolerated anything so primitive. [T5] - John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson. "The plural of anecdote is not data" [T7] Lee Shulman . "We are heartened by the data (which is the plural form of 'anecdote' in this case) ..." [T7] ??? .

"It was imagined that experiments in education were not necessary; and that, whether any thing in it was good or bad, could be judged of by the reason. But this was a great mistake; experience shows very often that results are produced precisely the opposite to those which had been expected. We also see from experiment that one generation cannot work out a complete plan of education." [T7] Immanuel Kant, in his university lectures On Pedagogy Only dead fish swim with the stream. [T6] Malcolm Muggeridge No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or 'get rich' in business by being a conformist. [T6] [but untrue] John Paul Getty The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates. [T6] Oscar Wilde "The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done." [T6] Jean Piaget Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality. [T6] Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) English author, illustrator, mycologist and conservationist. Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.

[T8] - Sir Claus Moser (b. 1922), German-born British academic and statistician, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford. Daily Telegraph (London, 21 Aug. 1990). If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. [T8] Benjamin Franklin [N.B. this doesn't say that formal education is the best investment.] All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. [T3, T8] Samuel Johnson in Boswell (1799): Life of Johnson [N.B. Johnson is using this as an argument for social inequality] There can be no education without leisure, and without leisure education is worthless. [T8] Sarah Josepha Hale (American writer, author of "Mary had a little lamb", died 1879) Otium sine litteris mors. (Leisure without learning [is] death) [T8] Seneca (AD 65) Moral Epistle 82 One of the few things a person is willing to pay for and not get.

[T8] William Lowe Bryan, 10th president of Indiana University (1902 to 1937). Education seems to be in America the only commodity of which the customer tries to get as little he can for his money. [T8] Max Leon Forman (1909-1990) Jewish-American writer We learn simply by the exposure of living. 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. [T9] - David P. Gardner [who is he?] You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know. [T9] Oscar Wilde Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten. [T10, T9] B.F. Skinner, US psychologist New Scientist May 21, 1964 [i.e. you believe you have forgotten, yet you show permanent changes.] The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do. [T9] Harold Coffin, a former humor columnist for The Associated Press, died 1981 Docendo discimus: By teaching, we learn.

[T333] Seneca (AD 65) Moral Epistles 1, 7, 8 What is a teacher? I'll tell you: it isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows. [T333] - Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given. [T333] Bertrand Russell "Teaching yourself is discovering what is teachable." [T333] From: "For me, the first challenge for computing science is to discover how to maintain order in a finite, but very large, discrete universe that is intricately intertwined. And a second, but not less important challenge is how to mould what you have achieved in solving the first problem, into a teachable discipline: it does not suffice to hone your own intellect (that will join you in your grave), you must teach others how to hone theirs. The more you concentrate on these two challenges, the clearer you will see that they are only two sides of the same coin: teaching yourself is discovering what is teachable." E.W.Dijkstra.

[N.B. This distinguishes implicit and explicit. If it's implicit, you may have learned it, but can't teach it -- at least in Dijkstra's view of teaching here.] The greatest education in the world is watching the masters at work. [T333] - Michael Jackson (the pop star) in Moonwalk, 2009 First figure out why you want the students to learn the subject and what you want them to know, and the method will result more or less by common sense. [T333] - Richard Feynman "solution to the problem of education": I think, however, that there isn't any solution to this problem of education other than to realize that the best teaching can be done only when there is a direct individual relationship between a student and a good teacher -- a situation in which the student discusses the ideas, thinks about the things, and talks about the things. It's impossible to learn very much by simply sitting in a lecture, or even by simply doing problems that are assigned. [T333] - Richard Feynman I learned most, not from those who taught me but from those who talked with me. [T333] - St.

Augustine Other sayings [analect 7:1] Confucius said: "I am a transmitter, rather than an original thinker. I trust and enjoy the teachings of the ancients. In my heart I compare myself to old Peng." [T2] [analect 7:2] Confucius said: "Keeping silent and thinking; studying without satiety, teaching others without weariness: these things come natural to me." "By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." "A student should not be taught unless he is anxious to understand what he does not understand, and should not be enlightened unless he is eager to express what he cannot express." [the recipe for getting Ls to recognise a problem.] Student Teams "Letting the students admire the excellence of other students ensures the success of education." [My L3 tutorial reciprocal critiquing exercise.] Tutorials "Is it not a pleasure to learn and practise from time to time what is learned?" Confucius said: "Isn't it a pleasure to study and practise what you have learned?

The Master said, "In ancient times, men learned with a view to their own improvement. Nowadays, men learn with a view to the approbation of others." [This shows that an imaginary nostalgia for deep over shallow, or at least for intrinsic over extrinsic motivation for learning was present even in ancient times.] The Master said, "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous." "I used to sit alone thinking about this and that. Sometimes I even forgot my meals or bedtime. Still I gained very little. Later I shifted to reading omnivorously, but I did not benefit a great deal either. At long last I came to see that reading in a mechanical way without using my brains was no use. On the other hand, if thinking is divorced from the reality and no due attention is paid to reading, one will continue to feel puzzled by many things. One should constantly review what he has learned and combine reading with thinking. In thus making use of the theories one has learned to guide his thought and help analyze the problems at hand, progress will be achieved.

" [T333] Confucius said: "Reviewing what you have learned and learning anew, you are fit to be a teacher." [T333] [Comment] Confucian "learning" is always fully connected to self-transformation. Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three. [is this genuine?] "In education there are no class distinctions" [widening participation] "Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? ... Tsze-hsia said, "There are learning extensively, and having a firm and sincere aim; inquiring with earnestness, and reflecting with self-application: -- virtue is in such a course." The capacity for knowledge of the inferior man is small and easily filled up; the intelligence of the superior man is deep and not easily satisfied. It matters not what you Learn; but when you once learn a thing, you must never give it up until you have mastered it. It matters not what you inquire into; but when you inquire into a thing, you must never give it up until you have thoroughly understood it.

It matters not what you try to think out, but when you once try to think out a thing, you must never give it up until you have got what you want. It matters not what you try to sift; but when you once try to sift out a thing, you must never give it up until you have sifted it out clearly and distinctly. It matters not what you try to carry out; but when you once try to carry out a thing, you must never give it up until you have done it thoroughly and well. THE TRUE SCHOLAR When the opportunity of gain is presented to him, he thinks on virtue. He is reverent in sacrifice; in mourning, absorbed in the sorrow he should feel. He who cherishes love of comfort is not fit to be a scholar. The main object of study is to unfold the aim; with one who loves words, but does not improve, I can do nothing. The scholar's burden is perfection; is it not heavy? It ends but with life; is it not enduring? Learning is like raising a monument; if I stop with this basket of earth, it is my own fault. It is like throwing earth on the ground; one basket at a time, yet I advance.

The true scholar is not a mere utensil. Leaving Virtue without proper culture; failing thoroughly to discuss what is Learned; being unable to move toward the righteousness of which knowledge is gained; and being unable to change what is not good, -- these are the things that (in my scholars) give me anxiety. If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as ever to acquire new, he may be a teacher of others. I marked Yen-Yuen's constant advance; I never saw him pause. Often the blade springs, but the plant does not go on to flower; often the plant flowers, but produces no fruit. Having completed his studies, the scholar should devote himself to official functions. He should say : "I am not concerned that I have no place; I am concerned how I shall fit myself for one. I am not concerned at not being known; I seek to be worthy to be known." "Knowing without doing is not knowing." "He who learns without thinking will be bewildered; he who thinks without learning will be in danger." "He can be a teacher who finds what is new in reviewing what is old." Oscar Wilde Wilde,Oscar The importance of being earnest Act 1.

Jack: "I know nothing, Lady Bracknell." LB: "I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square." [T3] Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching. [T1] Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. [T2] I like talking to a brick wall, it's the only thing in the world that never contradicts me. [] The mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value. [] I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about. [exams!] You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.

[T9] Life is too short to learn German [] I may have said the same thing before... But my explanation, I am sure, will always be different. Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him. - Lord Fermor, in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) by Oscar Wilde. George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw in Man and Superman(1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists", in the section "Education". When a man teaches something he does not know to somebody else who has no aptitude for it, and gives him a certificate of proficiency, the latter has completed the education of a gentleman. A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. The best brought-up children are those who have seen their parents as they are. Hypocrisy is not the parent's first duty. The vilest abortionist is he who attempts to mould a child's character. At the University every great treatise is postponed until its author attains impartial judgment and perfect knowledge.

If a horse could wait as long for its shoes and would pay for them in advance, our blacksmiths would all be college dons. He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches. A learned man is an idler who kills time with study. Beware of his false knowledge: it is more dangerous than ignorance. Activity is the only road to knowledge. Every fool believes what his teachers tell him, and calls his credulity science or morality as confidently as his father called it divine revelation. No man fully capable of his own language ever masters another. No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot. Do not give your children moral and religious instruction unless you are quite sure they will not take it too seriously. Better be the mother of Henri Quatre and Nell Gwynne than of Robespierre and Queen Mary Tudor. Benjamin Franklin [Refs to be checked.] A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. A false quotation Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. [T11] This has been variously attributed to: Aristotle; Confucius; Benjamin Franklin; Native american proverb; Chinese proverb; Voltaire; Association For Experiential Education. (Google the phrase and you should find all of these after a while.) It is mostly on the web, but it has been published in the "scientific" / educational literature: Ochiai, El-Ichiro (1993) "Ideas of equality and ratio: Mathematical basics for chemistry and the fallacy of unitary conversion" Journal of Chemical Education vol.70, no.1 p.44-46 The earliest mention of it seems to be 1986 (not 500 BC). Illumination comes from this 2012 posting by Dakin Burdick who is confident (as am I) that it is not Confucius, nor Benjamin Franklin, but that it could be a loose rewriting of Xun-zi a.k.a.

Hsüntze (313 BC - 238 BC). "Not having learned it is not as good as having learned it; having learned it is not as good as having seen it carried out; having seen it is not as good as understanding it; understanding is not as good as doing it. The development of scholarship is to the extreme of doing it, and that is its end and goal. He who carries it out, knows it thoroughly." Homer Dubs (1927, 1966) The Works of Hsüntze page 113. The section was from Book 8 of Xun-zi. A better translation could be: "Ignorance is worse than hearing it, which is worse than seeing it, which is worse than understanding it, which is worse than doing it." Cf. "See one, do one, teach one". We might say that this makes Xun-zi sound like someone who believes in training not education. Or we might note that this sequence is quite a lot like Bloom's taxonomy (see here for more).

For comparison, the nearest Confucius came is, according to the library (after translation) "By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." I.e. commenting on: thinking, seeing, trial and error; but not on being lectured. ("Confucius" is the Latin form of K'ung-Fu-tze. Lived 550 BC - 478 BC or 551-479 BC in /near Shantung: a contemporary of Buddha, 100 years before Plato, 200 years before Xun-zi.) Dale's triangle, the fallacious pyramid: a similar falsity Here are some of many versions of the triangle: Teachers - Wikiquote Teachers Jump to: navigation , search Teachers or schoolteachers are people who provide education for pupils (children) and students (adults). The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. Contents Quotes[ edit ] 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. A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams , The Education of Henry Adams, Ch. 20, "Failure". Philosophy teachers are teachers, i.e. intellectuals employed in a given education system and subject to that system, performing, as a mass, the social function of inculcating the 'values of the ruling ideology '. The fact that there may be a certain amount of 'play' in schools and other institutions which enables individual teachers to turn their teaching and reflection against these established 'values' does not change the mass effect of the philosophical teaching function. Philosophers are intellectuals and therefore petty bourgeois , subject as a mass to bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideology.

Louis Althusser , Lenin and Philosophy and Other Writings (1971), p. 42. O ye! who teach the ingenious youth of nations, Holland, France, England, Germany or Spain, I pray ye flog them upon all occasions, It mends their morals, never mind the pain. Lord Byron , Don Juan (1818-24), Canto II, Stanza 1. 'Tis pleasing to be school'd in a strange tongue By female lips and eyes—that is, I mean, When both the teacher and the taught are young, As was the case, at least, where I have been; They smile so when one's right; and when one's wrong They smile still more. Lord Byron , Don Juan (1818-24), Canto II, Stanza 164. You seemed to be listening to me, not to find out useful information, but to try to catch me in a logical fallacy. This tells us all that you are used to being smarter than your teachers, and that you listen to them in order to catch them making mistakes and prove how smart you are to the other students.

This is such a pointless, stupid way of listening to teachers that it is clear you are going to waste months of our time before you finally catch on that the only transaction that matters is a transfer of useful information from adults who possess it to children who do not, and that catching mistakes is a criminal misuse of time. Orson Scott Card Ender's Shadow Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. John Cotton Dana . In 1912 Dana, a Newark, New Jersey, librarian, was asked to supply a Latin quotation suitable for inscription on a new building at Newark State College (now Kean College of New Jersey), Union, New Jersey. Unable to find an appropriate quotation, Dana composed what became the college motto. The New York Times Book Review, March 5, 1967, p. 55. D'ordinaire, ceux qui gouvernent les enfants ne leur pardonnent rien, et se pardonnent tout à eux-mêmes. In general, those who govern children forgive nothing in them, but everything in themselves. François Fénelon Traité de l'éducation des filles, ch.

5, cited from De l'éducation des filles, dialogues des morts et opuscules divers (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1857) p. 15; translation from Selections from the Writings of Fénelon (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1829) p. 137. (1687). The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards; and curiosity itself can be vivid and wholesome only in proportion as the mind is contented and happy. Anatole France , The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (vol. 1 of The Works of Anatole France), trans. Lafcadio Hearn, part 2, chapter 4, June 6, 1860, p. 198 (1924). The function of the teacher, as we have just defined it, is naturally directed toward a twofold object, interior and exterior, depending upon whether it is applied to the truth the teacher meditates upon and contemplates within himself or to the listeners whom he is teaching.

Étienne Gilson , Thomism: The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, Introduction Not to keep from error, is the duty of the educator of men, but to guide the erring one, even to let him swill his error out of full cups — that is the wisdom of teachers. Whoever merely tastes of his error, will keep house with it for a long time, … but whoever drains it completely will have to get to know it. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre , Teil 1, Buch 7, Kapitel 9 Full well they laughed, with counterfeited glee, At all his jokes, for many a joke had he: Full well the busy whisper, circling round, Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd. Oliver Goldsmith , The Deserted Village (1770), line 201. Daily contact with some teachers is itself all-sided ethical education for the child without a spoken precept.

Here, too, the real advantage of male over female teachers,especially for boys, is seen in their superior physical strength,which often, if highly estimated, gives real dignity and commands real respect, and especially in the unquestionably greater uniformity of their moods and their discipline. Stanley Hall , Youth: it's education, regimen and hygiene (available at gutenberg.org). A boor cannot be sin-fearing, an ignoramus cannot be pious, a bashful one cannot learn, a short-tempered person cannot teach, nor does anyone who does much business grow wise. Hillel the Younger Pirkei Avot 2:5 If you are truly serious about preparing your child for the future, don't teach him to subtract - teach him to deduct. Fran Lebowitz , Social Studies (1981). This fallacy [ appeal to authority ] is not in itself an error; it is impossible to learn much in today's world without letting somebody else crunch the numbers and offer us explanations. And teachers are sources of necessary information. But how we choose our "authorities" and place a value on such information, is just another skill rarely taught in our education systems.

It's little wonder that to most folk, sound bites and talking heads are enough to count as experts. […] Teaching is reinforcing the appeal to authority, where anybody who seems more intelligent than you must ultimately be right. […] We educators must simply role-model critical thinking . […] Educators themselves have to be prepared to show that "evidence" and "answers" are two separate things by firmly believing that, themselves. Mike McRae , Australian teacher and guest columnist, "Educating Future Critical Thinkers", Swift , 31 March 2006. School teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in the whole group of mental workers. H.L. Mencken The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1908), pg. 217 The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth: and this without a particle of regard to the results to which the exercise of that power may lead, even though it should conduct the pupil to opinions diametrically opposite to those of his teachers.

We say this, not because we think opinions unimportant, but because of the immense importance which we attach to them; for in proportion to the degree of intellectual power and love of truth which we succeed in creating, is the certainty that (whatever may happen in any one particular instance) in the aggregate of instances true opinions will be the result; and intellectual power and practical love of truth are alike impossible where the reasoner is shown his conclusions, and informed beforehand that he is expected to arrive at them. John Stuart Mill "Civilization," London and Westminster Review (April 1836). The schoolmaster is the person who builds up the intelligence of the pupil; the intelligence of the pupil increases in direct proportion to the efforts of the teacher; in other words, he knows just what the master has made him know and understands neither more nor less than the master has made him understand. When an inspector visits a school and questions the pupils he turns to the master, and if he is satisfied says: "Well done, teacher!" For the result is indubitably the work of the master; the discipline by which he has fixed the attention of his pupils, even to the psychical mechanism which has guided him in his teaching, all is due to him.

God enters the school as a symbol in the crucifix, but the creator is the teacher. Maria Montessori , Spontaneous Activity in Education (available at gutenberg.org). "To make oneself interesting artificially," that is, interesting to those who have no interest in us, is indeed a very difficult task; and to arrest the attention hour after hour, and year after year, not of one, but of a multitude of persons who have nothing in common with us, not even years, is indeed a superhuman undertaking. Yet this is the task of the teacher, or, as he would say, his "art": to make this assembly of children whom he has reduced to immobility by discipline follow him with their minds, understand what he says, and learn; an internal action, which he cannot govern, as he governs the position of their bodies, but which he must win by making himself interesting, and by maintaining this interest. Maria Montessori , Spontaneous Activity in Education (available at gutenberg.org). Charles Xavier : A new generation of mutants is emerging, that much is certain. They will be called freaks. Genetic monstrosities.

[...] But they are emerging in the inner cities, in the suburbs, in the deserts and the jungles. And when they emerge, they will need teachers, people who can help them overcome their anger and show them how to use their strange gifts responsibly. They will need us. Grant Morrison New X-Men Vol 1. #114 E is for Extinction For the life of me I cannot fathom why we expect so much from teachers and provide them so little in return. In 1940, the average pay of a male teacher was actually 3.6 percent more than what other college-educated men earned. Today it is 60 percent lower. Women teachers now earn 16 percent less than other college-educated women. This bewilders me. [...] There was no Plato without Socrates , and no John Coltrane without Miles Davis . Bill Moyers , "America 101", speech at the fiftieth anniversary of the Council of Great City Schools, 27 October 2006, Moyers on Democracy (2008), p. 237. Ethics could teach us only those purposes and ideals.

If the teachers seeks insight into the means by which the aim can be reached, into the facts by which the child can be molded, his way must lead from ethics to psychology. (...) Water flows downhill, anyhow, but to bring the water uphill hydraulic forces are indeed necessary. To overcome nature and instead to prepare for a life of ideals, to inhibit personal desires and instead to learn to serve the higher purposes indeed demands most serious and most systematic efforts. It is the teachers' task to make these efforts with all his best knowledge of mind and body, of social and of cultural values. Hugo Munsterberg , Psychology and the Teacher, 1909 (new edition, 2006), pp. 64-65. A good teacher does not draw out; he gives out, and what he gives out is love. And by love I mean approval, or if you like, friendliness, good nature. The good teacher not only understands the child: he approves of the child. A. S. Neill , The Problem Teacher (1939), p. 11.

Don't tell us that the only way to teach a child is to spend too much of a year preparing him to fill out a few bubbles on a standardized test; we know that's not true. Barack Obama , National Education Association Speech, 2007 Since human beings are highly adaptable it may be possible for an individual with any sort of competence to learn, in the end, according to any teaching strategy. But the experiments show, very clearly indeed, that the rate, quality and durability of learning is crucially dependent upon whether or not the teaching strategy is of a sort that suits the individual Gordon Pask (1972) Learning Strategies and Individual Competence p. 221. In a democratic state the schoolmaster is afraid of his pupils and flatters them, and the pupils despise both schoolmaster and pedagogues. The young expect the same treatment as the old, and contradict them and quarrel with them. In fact, seniors have to flatter their juniors, in order not to be thought morose old dotards. Plato , Republic 493a, Plato: The Collected Dialogues ( Princeton : 1961), p. 729 .

What's all the noisy jargon of the schools? John Pomfret , Reason (1700), line 57. Men must be taught as if you taught them not, And things unknown propos'd as things forgot. Alexander Pope , An Essay on Criticism (1709), Part III, line 15. To dazzle let the vain design, To raise the thought and touch the heart, be thine! Alexander Pope , Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle II, line 249. Education is unfolding the wings of head and heart together. A true teacher pushes the students out of the nest to strengthen the wings. Amit Ray . Walking the Path of Compassion It is always the teacher who must learn the most … or else nothing real has happened in the exchange. Kim Stanley Robinson ,The Years of Rice and Salt (2002), Book 2, Ch. 5. 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. Rumi Mathnavi translated by William Chittick pp. 122-123 as quoted in Classical Islam and Naqshbandi Sufi Tradition by Muhammad Hisham Kabbani p. 153 When I am forgotten, as I shall be, And sleep in dull cold marble, * * * * William Shakespeare , Henry VIII ( c. 1613 ), Act III, scene 2, line 433. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring i' the winter. William Shakespeare , King Lear (1608), Act II, scene 4, line 67. 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. William Shakespeare , The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act I, scene 1, line 94.

I do present you with a man of mine, Cunning in music and the mathematics, To instruct her fully in those sciences. William Shakespeare , The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act II, scene 1, line 55. He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches. George Bernard Shaw , "Maxims for Revolutionists", appendix 2 to Man and Superman, in his Selected Plays with Prefaces (1948), vol. 3, p. 733. To teach is to touch the heart and impel it to action. Louis Sullivan , architect, mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright , "Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings". I do not allow a woman to teach or to usurp authority over the man. 1 Timothy 2 v 12 The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see. What's a' your jargon o' your schools, Your Latin names for horns and stools; If honest nature made you fools. Robert Burns , Epistle to J. L.——k. He is wise who can instruct us and assist us in the business of daily virtuous living.

You cannot teach old dogs new tricks. Quoted by Jos. Chamberlain, at Greenock (Oct., 1903). Seek to delight, that they may mend mankind, And, while they captivate, inform the mind. William Cowper , Hope, line 770. The sounding jargon of the schools. William Cowper , Truth, line 367. 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. Charles M. Dickinson , The Children. 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. Ralph Waldo Emerson , Essays, Of Spiritual Laws. Instruction does not prevent waste of time or mistakes; and mistakes themselves are often the best teachers of all.

James Anthony Froude , Short Studies on Great Subjects, Education. A boy is better unborn than untaught. 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. Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam. Instruction enlarges the natural powers of the mind. Horace , Carmina, IV. 4. 33. Fingit equum tenera docilem cervice magister Ire viam qua monstret eques. The trainer trains the docile horse to turn, with his sensitive neck, whichever way the rider indicates. Horace , Epistles, Book I. 2. 64. ("Quam" for "qua in some texts). If you be a lover of instruction, you will be well instructed. Isocrates , Ad Dæmonicum. Inscribed in golden letters over his school, according to Roger Ascham, in his Schoolmaster.

Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee. Job, XII. 8. Whilst that the childe is young, let him be instructed in vertue and lytterature. John Lyly , Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit, Of the Education of Youth. Adde, quod ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes Emollit mores, nec sinit esse fervos. To be instructed in the arts, softens the manners and makes men gentle. Ovid , Epistolæ Ex Ponto, II. 9. 47. Fas est ab hoste doceri. It is lawful to be taught by an enemy. Ovid , Metamorphoses, IV. 428. All jargon of the schools. Matthew Prior , An Ode on Exodus III. 14. "I am that I am". 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. A little bench of heedless bishops here, And there a chancellor in embryo. William Shenstone , The School Mistress, Stanza 28.

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. Jonathan Swift , Cadenus and Vanessa, line 733. Better fed than taught. John Taylor , Jack a Lent. Domi habuit unde disceret. He need not go away from home for instruction. Terence , Adelphi, III. 3. 60. Delightful task! to rear the tender Thought, To teach the young Idea how to shoot, To pour the fresh Instruction o'er the Mind, To breathe the enlivening Spirit, and to fix The generous

Question: ‘He who can does, he who cannot teaches’ is a quotation by which writer?
Answer: G B Shaw