Mike Gallagher Quotes

We have placed more emphasis on grades and school ranking than on genuine education.

Teachers should write their own tests and use standardized tests only for diagnostic purposes.

Education in the past has been too much inspiration and too little information.

'Educational' refers to the process, not the object. Although, come to think of it, some of my teachers could easily have been replaced by a cheeseburger.

I've always felt that the obligation of teachers is to have a huge, broad overview and to provide a foundation course to the students. The long view of history is absolutely crucial.

Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.

Themes around education and learning run through my work.

Excitement in education and student productivity, the ability to get a result that you want from students, go together and cannot be separated.

The mere imparting of information is not education.

What passes for a curriculum in today's schools is little else than a strategy of distraction... It is largely defined to keep students from knowing themselves and their environment in any realistic sense; which is to say, it does not allow inquiry into most of the critical problems that comprise the content of the world outside the school.

If you want to reform schools, don't do it with testing. We used to say, "If you want elephants to grow, you don't weigh the elephants. You feed the elephants." Children will not grow unless they get quality instruction.

Good tests can help teachers determine how their students are performing and identify the areas in which their students need assistance. Like an X-ray, however, tests can diagnose, but they cannot cure.

Appropriate assessments are a crucial part of effectively educating students. But they only measure a narrow segment of what kids need to learn.

Suffice it to say that our over-reliance on testing is based largely on habit, wishful thinking, and leaps of faith.

Education is taken for granted. Teaching shops are different from building character.

The nature of education fundamentally has not changed in a century - and I say this as someone whose parents are both teachers.

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

I think we're doing a dreadful job of educating.

I decided to teach because I think that any person who studies philosophy has to be involved actively.

I think there's so much negative influence on children in school settings. It becomes learning by rote to pass a test. It's not contextualized.

Common Core reminds us what testing can do right. Modeled on standards of the world's education superpowers, questions demand critical thinking and creativity. Students are asked to write at length, show their work, and explain their reasoning.

It's important that kids learn, but I really don't like all the testing, testing, testing.

I hate tests. It's a really lousy way to judge a person's ability.

I do think we know that a teacher who knows what he or she is doing, knows their subject matter, and knows how to impart knowledge to kids is a critical piece of closing the achievement gap.

Teaching to unsuspecting youngsters the effective use of formal methods is one of the joys of life because it is so extremely rewarding.