Nat Hentoff Quotes

The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed -- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.

The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to treat all students as if they were variants of the same individual and thus to feel justified in teaching them all the same subjects the same way.

But the fact is, no matter how good the teacher, how small the class, how focused on quality education the school may be none of this matters if we ignore the individual needs of our students.

No two children learn in the same way. While we might agree that every American eight-year-old should be able to read and multiply, beyond those basics, there are few reasons to make every student follow the same path.

In a home school, the kid does 95% of the work. But in a school system, since it's an indoctrination system, a teacher has to do 95% of the work.

It is home schooling that is rejecting a narrowness. It is not a radical value system; it's actually quite conservative.

I prefer home-schooling because you can work at your own pace and go towards more what you're interested in, whether it be history or geography or math.

The answer is not to standardize education, but to personalize and customize it to the needs of each child and community. There is no alternative. There never was.

Students Are Not Widgets. Schools Are Not Factories.

The individualization of learning fundamentally redefines the role of assessment.

Education needs to be personalized and flexible, which means education policy needs to originate from our local communities and not from some bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.

It shouldn't matter what type of school a student attends, so long as the school is the right fit for that student.

It's time to start putting actually the students first and not anyone else.

The premise upon which mass compulsion schooling is based is dead wrong. It tries to shoehorn every style, culture, and personality into one ugly boot that fits nobody.

It sometimes seems as though we were trying to combine the ideal of no schools at all with the democratic ideal of schools for everybody by having schools without education.

School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system there, and especially sports. Because of this, I wasn't worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave.

To force a human being to learn according to a set curriculum is a dictatorial act.

Reducing children to a test score is the worst form of identity theft we could commit in schools.

There are amazing teachers, but the system doesn't always allow them to address the individual needs of a child.

I hate, loathe and despise schools.School is bad for you if you have any talent. You should be cultivating that talent in your own particular way.

Teaching is the rare profession where the customer isn't always right and needs to be told so appropriately.

Kids need to be structured in some way, but you don't want to force something down their throats that they have no interest in.

As an educator, I think educators should meet the people wherever they are. Don't even ask them to come half-way. Find them where they are, and sit on a couch with them.

When we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life.

Curiosity is missing. Curiosity in particular is something that the system, not only the educational system but, the parental... what you do as a parent at home.