Gail Devers Quotes

I have a real passion for children. I always wanted to teach and only became an athlete because my parents told my brother Parenthesis and me that we should use any God-given talent we had.

I remember that when I was little, my parents felt that I should study to become a teacher. They thought football was a waste of time and I'd never succeed at it.

I'm very involved with kids because after being a teacher for seven years, I just can't stop loving the kids. I am a teacher forever.

The thing was, at a young age, my mom and my grandma always tried to keep me out of the streets as much as they could, so they put me in a private school when I was super young.

My mother wanted me to be a doctor.

When I was small, I was the same as everyone else. I used to play in a small council estate nearby. But it's really my family who taught me. I started watching my dad play from the age of two. I wanted to be like him.

I started playing ball when I was a kid. My dad was a pro ball player and he passed on his knowledge to me.

I majored in elementary education, and I have a passion for kids.

My father said that I could always become an actress, but I couldn't go back to college later in life. So I had to first finish my education, and then I could do what I wanted. At the time, I was not pleased, but now, I can't thank him enough. My parents were absolutely right.

A father is a person who's around, participating in a child's life. He's a teacher who helps to guide and shape and mold that young person, someone for that young person to talk to, to share with, their ups and their downs, their fears and their concerns.

I wasn't going to be an actor. I was going to be a lawyer. I came from a family just above working class, just below middle class, a great family of wonderful values. The idea of me having a chance for a law degree was enticing. Enticing to me but also very enticing to my family.

The mother cannot expect her daughter to understand the mysteries of housekeeping without education. She should instruct them patiently, lovingly, and make the work as agreeable as she can by her cheerful countenance and encouraging words of approval. If they fail once, twice, or thrice, censure not.

I'm the oldest of four children, and when I was young, I used to get the blackboard out and make my brothers and sisters sit in front of me while I taught class. They all thought I wanted to be a teacher, but I didn't. I was impersonating my teachers.

We think it's fun for our kids to have cameos and join us on set, but not to be actors. That's not our goal for Brad and me at all. I think we would both prefer that they didn't become actors.

I was a coach, and I put a lot of education and experience into coaching.

So, yeah, Dad was right. Tennis was the way to go.

I was told by my father nine times a day that you were going to get a job the minute you finish your studies.

If you're a coach, you're a teacher.

I love talking about the game and passing on knowledge if I can but being a coach full time is another story.

I grew up in this household where reading was the most noble thing you could do. When I was a teenager, we would have family dinners where we all sat there reading. It wasn't because we didn't like each other. We just liked reading. The person who made my reading list until my late teen years was my mom.

We are our children's first teachers.

My dad was the only son from his entire family to come to America, and I was his only son. We had come to the States to achieve security and success for our family. Rules were simple: No fun, no friends, no girls. Go to school, come home, and study.

I come from a family of educators. My sister is a college teacher. My dad is a college teacher, but first a junior high teacher.

I will say that my father loved to teach and was a very gifted teacher. He probably would have been an excellent coach and trainer.

I'm from a family of educators. I grew up with books in my house and in my hands and my parents in my life.