Jonathan Kozol Quotes

Teachers alone can't educate young people.

The big shift in approach on education that we are taking - which is different from what happened before - is that we trust teachers and we trust heads.

Teacher compensation isn't the only factor in cultivating great teaching. Other important priorities include changing how we measure student performance, providing more flexibility to teacher-preparation programs, and improving how we train and support principals.

Parents matter, buildings count, curriculum choices, materials, resources - all these things are important in a top-class education. But, in the end, it comes down to the teachers.

My first summer in college, I interned for Arena Stage in D.C. and taught a disastrous class on standup comedy to middle schoolers at the Arena Stage camp. I had never taught anything before, and needless to say, I quickly lost control of the class.

Education in general, and higher education in particular, is on the brink of a huge disruption. Two big questions, which were once so well-settled that we ceased asking them, are now up for grabs. What should young people be learning? And what sorts of credentials indicate they're ready for the workforce?

I tell young teachers who are determined to dissent from some of the Draconian aspects of the current orthodoxy that the best form of protection is to be incredibly good at what you do and keep good discipline in class.

Teaching is a good distraction, and I am in contact with young people, which is very gratifying.

You can have great teachers, but if you don't have a good principal, you won't have a good school.

Keeping our kids engaged and in school must become a national priority.

Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the 'naturals', the ones who somehow know how to teach.

There is no recipe to be a great teacher, that's what is unique about them.

Now things have changed for the better. Our reforms end seniority and tenure so we can hire and fire based on merit and pay based on performance. That means we can put the best and the brightest in our classrooms - and we can keep them there.

The countries who do the best in international comparisons, whether it's Finland or Japan, Denmark or Singapore, do well because they have professional teachers who are respected, and they also have family and community which support learning.

As I see it, the debate between summer vacation vs. year-round school glosses over the most important questions. Namely, how can we bring play back to our nation's schools?

I started out as a high school teacher in inner-city Chicago and realized quite quickly that my students weren't that motivated.

As the daughter of a schoolteacher, I feel very strongly that the most important thing in school takes place right there in that classroom, and the interaction between the teacher and the child.

The only thing that I was equipped for with my very mediocre college Arts degree was to get a job in teaching.

Like most of the other teachers, I'd done a bit of teaching and we all think we're great at what we do, but you realize that normally you have an audience who are all onside, who all want to listen.

Our office acts like a kind of educational establishment and we are very careful who we educate.

The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.

The biggest barrier we've seen to student progress is this: School policies and practices often prevent good teachers from doing great work and even dissuade some talented Americans from entering the profession. This needs to change.

I think the best teachers had a real interest in the subject they were teaching and a love for children.

We have to provide good teachers, good environment, community involvement with schools.

If we're going to see sustainable results from all the other investments we're making in education, we need to build leadership capacity in each and every country.