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Time again for quotes without comment, adapting an idea by the late Sydney Harris who occasionally ran a column of things he learned while looking up something else.  The general theme is teaching.

"Most government programs are ill-suited for providing for those human needs that deal with behavior and attitude, largely because government programs are constrained by the laws, rules, and regulations by which they are carried out. Only the third pillar of society, families, friends, associations, charities, and the like, can provide the sort of guidance, dedicated caring, and support that can effectively deal with people's nonmaterial needs." p . 71, William D. Eggers & John O'Leary, Revolution at the Roots, NY: The Free Press, 1995

It is unfortunate that some educators still feel it would be better to graduate a student without necessary skills than to ‘upset' him." Thomas H. Fisher, p. 601, Phi Delta Kappan, May 1978

"...numerous studies indicate virtually no correlations between high scores on any type of standardized paper-and-pencil test and adult success." Joe Nathan and Wayne Jennings, p. 621, Phi Delta Kappan, May 1978

Since no one is sure what makes a good teacher, efforts to convey the art to others are doomed at the outset." p. l53, Herbert Livesey, The Professors, NY: Charterhouse, 1975

"A basic assumption of compulsory schooling is that teachers are responsible for finding better methods; the basic assumption of the faculty is that better students should have been admitted." p. 136, Martin Haberman, "Twenty-Three Reasons Universities Can't Educate Teachers, " pp 133-140, The Journal of Teacher Education, Summer 1971, Vol. XXII, No. 2

The bigger the school system, the less likely it is to be willing to try new things, the less likely it is to be responsive to the community, and the less likely it is to change with the times." Andrew Barnes, "Study Disputes Money-Education Link," p. A-14, The Washington Post, March 8, 1972

My bias is that ‘teaching' is largely a delusion. People do learn by practice, but not much by academic exercises in an academic setting." pp 72-3, Paul Goodman, New Reformation: Notes of a Neolithic Conservative, NY: Random House, 1970

Up to now teacher training has been done by people unfitted for the job. By temperament they have no interest in Learning or capacity for it...In short, teacher training is based on a strong anti-intellectual basis, enhanced by lack of imagination." Jacques Barzun, pp 387-8, Michael Murray, Ed., A Jacques Barzun Reader, NY: HarperCollins, 2002

How can imitation and practice teaching produce anything but the kind of teachers we have had, misdirected and miseducated? Unless bypassed, the profession will perpetuate, in all good faith and with heartmelting slogans, the damnable errors that have killed instruction and made the classroom a center for expensive waste." 1991, Barzun, op. cit.

Why did it seem plausible and attractive, after three thousand years of teaching reading by sounding each letter, to do just the opposite and encourage guesswork about the ‘shapes' of words...this asinine substitution has massively failed as it deserved..." 1971, Barzun, op. cit.

...the extension of free, public, compulsory education to all in increasing amount (the high school dates from 1900) soon exhausted the natural supply of teachers." 1971, Barzun, op. cit.

Removing ignorance in school is as painful as removing tonsils and calls for a rare skill. Besides, the teacher should not use an anesthetic or be one." p. 593, Barzun, op. cit.

To educate the educated is notoriously difficult." p. 594, Barzun, op. cit.

A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep. W. H. Auden, p. 226   From Ted Goodman, Ed., The Forbes Book of Business Quotations, NY: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 1997

A man who knows a subject thoroughly, a man so soaked in it that he eats it, sleeps it and dreams it–this man can always teach it with success, no matter how little he knows of technical pedagogy. H.L. Mencken p. 234, op. cit.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that's worth knowing can be taught.  Oscar Wilde, p. 237

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils." Francis Bacon   p. 430

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Copyright 2007 David W. Kirkpatrick
108 Highland Court,
Douglassville, Pennsylvania 19518-9240
Phone: (610) 689-0633