Thomas Huxley Quotes

Learning by doing, peer-to-peer teaching, and computer simulation are all part of the same equation.

We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.

In the education of children there is nothing like alluring the interest and affection; otherwise you only make so many asses laden with books.

In 1847 I gave an address at Newton, Mass., before a Teachers' Institute conducted by Horace Mann. My subject was grasshoppers. I passed around a large jar of these insects, and made every teacher take one and hold it while I was speaking. If any one dropped the insect, I stopped till he picked it up. This was at that time a great innovation, and excited much laughter and derision. There can be no true progress in the teaching of natural science until such methods become general.

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

I had an excellent math and physics teacher in high school named T.C. Patel, and in the university, I had truly dedicated professors in both physics and mathematics who gave me a sound foundation with which to pursue graduate studies.

Lack of scientific fundamentals causes people to make foolish decisions about issues such as the toxicity of chemicals, the efficacy of medicines, the changes in the global climate. Our single greatest defense against scientific ignorance is education, and early in the life of every scientist, the child's first interest was sparked by a teacher.

Promoting education is an effort that is close to my heart. Illiteracy contributes to poverty; encouraging children to pick up a book is fundamental.

Find a good teacher, as I found for my sons. I feel the worst thing you can do is to try and teach your own children yourself, because there is a natural rebellion that occurs.

What makes me angry? The education of children. How in God's name can you expect to have a functioning society the way we teach our kids?

The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.

For the longest time, you just sound like a broken record, but you have to be consistent when teaching kids.

I have learned that, although I am a good teacher, I am a much better student, and I was blessed to learn valuable lessons from my students on a daily basis. They taught me the importance of teaching to a student - and not to a test.

Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers.

I went to an inner-city school in Buffalo. We had no money. But our teachers believed in hands-on active learning - there was a mandatory science fair, which was critical.

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

I don’t believe curriculums are the key to education, I believe teachers are.

Our single greatest defense against scientific ignorance is education, and early in the life of every scientist, the child's first interest was sparked by a teacher.

Teachers and parents who incline toward the authoritarian attitude are scornful of “frills.” They consider lecturing, memorization, recitation, and grading to be the basics, as they remember them from their own school days. They believe in withholding promotion form children who have not satisfactorily completed the year’s work in all subjects, despite the evidence that when children are made to repeat a grade, they do not do as well in the following years as similar children who were promoted. To authoritarians, education is not a means to help each child to mature but a series of hurdles over which everyone, of no matter what capability, must jump. A policy of withholding promotion means ignoring the fundamental and complex question of why the children failed and what needs to be done to correct that problem.

If I could help educate our children at an institution for higher learning, that would be a noble thing.

When you try to teach children things, you're trying not necessarily to do it directly.

I worked as a barista and a kindergarten teacher. I really love kids and enjoyed every minute of being in a kindergarten.

The number one goal of teachers should be to help students learn how to learn.

Teachers may think they are stuffing minds, but all they are ever affecting is the memory. Nothing can ever be forced into anyone's mind except by brainwashing, which is the very opposite of genuine teaching.