Beth Goldberg Quotes

It's hard to get an education when teachers spend 70 percent of their time trying to discipline students.

There's nothing in the world like getting up in front of a high-school classroom in New York City. They won't give you a break if you don't hold them. There's no escape.

My time at the Denver Public Schools taught me there is no harder, or more important, job than being a teacher.

In America the schools have become too permissive, the kids now are controlling the schools, the tail is wagging the dog. We've got to make a change there and get it back to where the teachers have control of the classrooms.

I had a public school education - 3,000 kids when I was there. And there were a lot of teachers who would just sit there. You'd come in and sign your name and the teacher would just sit there at the head of the class and you would literally just have to stay in your seat for 40 minutes and that was the only thing you'd have to do in class.

Teaching's hard! You need different skills: positive reinforcement, keeping students from getting bored, commanding their attention in a certain way.

Back in the class room, open your books, keep up, the teacher don't know how mean she looks.

Most of my teachers probably found I made less trouble if they let me read.

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.

In schools with a history of chaos, the teacher who can keep the classroom calm becomes virtually indispensable.

Of all the hard jobs around, one of the hardest is being a good teacher.

To this end the greatest asset of a school is the personality of the teacher.

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

I had a Spanish teacher in high school. I rarely got in trouble in her room because I felt I was disappointing her if I got a bad grade. That had more power over me than teachers who told me I talked too much. That level of respect I had for her made me not want to fail for her.

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.

The Gates Foundation has learned that two questions can predict how much kids learn: 'Does your teacher use class time well?' and, 'When you're confused, does your teacher help you get straightened out?'

As a former high school teacher and a student in a class of 60 urchins at St. Brigid's grammar school, I know that education is all about discipline and motivation. Disadvantaged students need extra attention, a stable school environment, and enough teacher creativity to stimulate their imaginations. Those things are not expensive.

I found early on in teaching, if you're too blunt an instrument, the students discredit you and think you're just being mean. They're not interested in what you have to say.

I think that school just isn't for everyone. A lot of people don't learn well when they're - have to sit in a place for eight hours. A lot of people learn best lying in their own bed, teaching themselves from books. And I was a bad student. I was a brat. If I was a teacher, I would not have liked myself.

Most teachers prefer to teach highly motivated kids who live in safe communities.

I was not a good teacher; I didn't have the sort of edge one should have on the students, so I decided to do something else.

If you have a class of 35 children, and they're all smiling, and there's one little bastard, and he's just staring at you as if to say 'Show me', then he's the one you think about going home on the train.

Teachers across the world are doing all they can to ensure a good education is the top priority for children.

What does a teacher do in a school? A teacher would tell you off or give you lines or whatever it is, detentions, but at the same times, they are wanting your best interests at heart. They are teaching you, they are educating you, but at the same time, they will also have the ability to sanction you.

I really love teaching; I was actually studying to be a preschool teacher.