Robert M. Pirsig Quotes

I wasn't a troublemaker. I wasn't impertinent. The teachers liked me. But year after year, the comments on my report cards basically came down to a single point, and it was 100% accurate: I seemed to get nothing whatsoever out of all those long hours spent in the classroom.

What all good teachers have in common, however, is that they set high standards for their students and do not settle for anything less.

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.

Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.

Like most of the other teachers, I'd done a bit of teaching and we all think we're great at what we do, but you realize that normally you have an audience who are all onside, who all want to listen.

I made good grades in school.

The kindest word to describe my performance in school was Sloth.

Knowing what to expect from a teacher is a really good thing, of course: It lets you get the right answers more quickly than you would otherwise.

I was in honors classes in high school. I'd get an A on every test, but I had a 1.9 grade point average. The teacher would say, 'You didn't do your homework.' I'd say, 'But isn't the homework supposed to be the lead-up to the test?'

As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured. —New York, Sept. 26, 2007

[T]eaching has been for me an education (Lord knows what it has been for my students).

I was a very earnest, hard working boy at school, but my parents were distressed because I was always bottom of the class. But I wasn't dilatory, I worked like crazy.

The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior.

In book subjects a student can only do a student's work. All that can be measured is how well he learns, rather than how well he performs. All he can show is promise.

I was a dummy in school.

Competition among schools is always a great motivator.

We expert teachers know that motivation and emotional impact are what matter.

I myself scraped seven poor passes at O-level.

Any good teacher knows how important it is to connect with students and understand our culture.

Our educational results lag behind other states, and other nations, but worse still, behind the potential of the kids and the devoted teachers in our classrooms.

When I went to college, I was doing well in school, but I didn't have any drive to study.

Excitement in education and student productivity, the ability to get a result that you want from students, go together and cannot be separated.

We have found that the most successful teachers in low-income communities operate like successful leaders. They establish a vision of where their students will be performing at the end of the year that many believe to be unrealistic.

Whatever the course, whether the course was boring or interesting to me, whether I was talented in mathematics or not talented in languages, my parents expected A's.

In school, I was an underachiever.