Tavis Smiley Quotes

It is commonly said that a teacher fails if he has not been surpassed by his students. There has been no failure on our part in this regard considering how far they have gone.

Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.

To me, the burden of proof isn't on people looking for ways to improve our schools; it's on people who want to keep things the same. Our current system isn't working, and too many kids are being left behind.

The college that takes students with modest entering abilities and improves their abilities substantially contributes more than the school that takes very bright students and helps them develop only modestly.

I'm not saying standardized tests are the worst ever, but there's an in-between and I don't think we're there yet. That's what I mean when I say I have an issue with it. There's no way a kid can learn in a class with 40 to 45 people. I had the power to get out of that system and pursue things that I wanted to do and I did that.

One of the great failings of our education system is that we tend to focus on those who are succeeding in exams, and there are plenty of them. But what we should also be looking at, and a lot more urgently, is those who fail.

Even schools for Negroes, then, are places where they must be convinced of their inferiority.

Minority students became the victims of low expectations.

Students of color who attended integrated schools in the decades immediately following Brown were more likely to graduate high school, go to college, earn higher wages, live healthier lifestyles, and not have a criminal record than their peers in segregated schools.

Education is not about thinning the herd. Education is about helping every student succeed.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

It's important that we challenge the culture of low expectations. You need to believe every child can do well.

You don't see black people winning Nobel prizes for physics or economics or any of the industries or institutions that shape the way the world operates.

No child's dream should be limited by the quality, or lack thereof, of the education they receive.

I have seen schools across the country working long and hard to embed a commitment to the unlimited development of every student into their cultures. The result, in terms of motivated learners and test scores, often is spectacular.

We must provide an improved early education system so that all students have the opportunity to learn and reach their full potential.

I will comprehensively review the education system with my team to create a stable, caring, and inspiring environment for students, parents, teachers, and principals.

I'm not saying the U.S. system is poor at all, because I learned a lot from it. There's a lot of great coaches and good things I did there as well.

Arts education must be part of our education solution because it works for all students.

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

Chicago is highly segregated, a fact that both causes and compounds the problems we face in bringing an end to violence.

One of the most subtle but aggressive ways racism exists is through our education system.

This kind of 'separate but equal,' I've seen what it's done in the history here in America, and it didn't work. And it still hasn't worked, I mean, even in continued segregation of our schools, which has increased with the privatization of our school system.

I dropped out of school after my tenth standard. But both my elder brother and younger brother are highly educated.

My priorities are making sure we reduce class size and close the achievement gap.