Bram Cohen Quotes

Praise is essential in developing the right attitude toward learning and toward school.

The Purdue education was fine, but I wasn't ready to learn when I was at Purdue.

If a teacher goes, 'Do you guys want an easy test?' You're going to say, 'Heck, yeah.' The less you've got to study, I'm going ace this test.

Schools teach you to imitate. If you don't imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade. Here, in college, it was more sophisticated, of course; you were supposed to imitate the teacher in such a way as to convince the teacher you were not imitating, but taking the essence of the instruction and going ahead with it on your own. That got you A's. Originality on the other hand could get you anything -- from A to F. The whole grading system cautioned against it.

I'm a very bad student, but a great learner.

All subjects are the same. I memorize notes for a test, spew it, ace it, then forget it. What makes this scary for the future of our country is that I'm in the tip-top percentile on every standardized test. I'm a model student with a very crappy attitude about learning.

We send our kids off to school to major in labeling and think the ones who do it best deserve the highest grades.

My number one goal was not getting 'A's' - and I proved it. I was a 'C' student. You have to be ready to learn. If you're not interesting in learning, it doesn't work. As I grew older and wanted to learn and desperately wanted inside information, learning was a lot easier.

It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded.

I never cared what kind of grade I got.

I did not like prizes at school. I didn't like tests or exams, or the 11+, or O-levels. Later I hated B.A.s and M.A.s. The reason I hated them is that I don't like being tested, failed or falsely praised by anyone.

The present structure of rewards in high schools produces a response on the part of an adolescent social system which effectively impedes the process of education.

Your papers are marked when you go to school, but you can't mark the character.

Till the 10th standard, I was quite good - I got 66% that year. After my 10th, I got really involved with cricket, so I didn't have any time to study. And my parents didn't push me, either, which was very good for me.

In school, I couldn't see any sense to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Sure, they kicked me out, but for trifles, like continual daydreaming and smoking, that wouldn't be grounds for expulsion nowadays.

There are two kinds of students: those who study and work to survive, while others who want to be achievers.

I've always been an A or B student. When I get a B, I freak out a little bit!

I've never understood cheating, probably because I never cared much about my grades. I instinctively knew that the grades didn't measure anything meaningful - usually just my ability to quickly memorize information I'd just as quickly forget.

As someone who went to school in the '70s and '80s, I can't say that I noticed much of a 'medals for all' culture myself.

I don't understand why we learn what we do for most of it is of no use to us in our careers. To get a grade, students learn just about everything and later none of this is relevant. Grades become more important than learning.

It's good to get good marks, but some students take it on their heart when they score less in future. But the average student, on the contrary, keeps on trying to do something or the other to achieve his goals.

A student can win twelve letters at a university without learning how to write one.

I think there's too much emphasis placed on learning things by rote that you don't really care about. So what happens to students in school is that they eventually lose interest in learning, because they've been forced to learn the required courses, rather than pursing their passion.

I ended up dropping out of high school. I'm a high school dropout, which I'm not proud to say, ... I had some teachers that I still think of fondly and were amazing to me. But I had other teachers who said, 'You know what? This dream of yours is a hobby. When are you going to give it up?' I had teachers who I could tell didn't want to be there. And I just couldn't get inspired by someone who didn't want to be there

I want to help change the way young people look at school, and hence, the way they look at their futures.