Jonathan Kozol Quotes

I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.

So what does a good teacher do? Create tension - but just the right amount.

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

It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy's mind from effort.

As a former high school teacher and a student in a class of 60 urchins at St. Brigid's grammar school, I know that education is all about discipline and motivation. Disadvantaged students need extra attention, a stable school environment, and enough teacher creativity to stimulate their imaginations. Those things are not expensive.

The best teachers, one hopes, don't shout at their students - because they are skilled at wooing as well as demanding the best efforts of others. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, this wooing was a sufficiently fine art in itself to be the central focus of education.

Coach Reid is a great teacher. He understands how people learn, understands how to get people to get the concept of what the play is and why we're running it.

I always feel like I wasn't the best trainer, because I'm really good at teaching people stuff, but I'm not good if people aren't super psyched - if they're not like me.

I found early on in teaching, if you're too blunt an instrument, the students discredit you and think you're just being mean. They're not interested in what you have to say.

In my own life, when I was most inspired by a teacher, it always involved a real dialogue, a looseness and a real caring and compassion. It was not without rigor, not without discipline, not without standards, but all that was done out of love.

Teachers today are breaking down obstacles, finding innovative ways to instill old lessons, proving that greatness can be found in everyday places.

All I've ever tried to do is get the best out of people and to bring a bit of humour into it. Unlike, say, 'The X-Factor,' which may be great TV, but has no humour at all.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.

True basketball coaches are great teachers and you do not humiliate, you do not physically go after, you do not push or shove, you do not berate, if you are a true coach. If you humiliate or curse them, that won't do it. Coaches like that are not coaches.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

the superiority of state over private education lies in the fact that in the former the teacher is responsible to society... The result desired by the state is a wholly different one from that desired by parents, guardians, and pupils.

Students Are Not Widgets. Schools Are Not Factories.

There is something about me that is collaborative, that wants to get the best performance out of somebody else or to hear something that somebody else has done that's good and to try and make it great.

When you have teachers saying, 'I don't have enough time for hands-on activities,' we need to rethink the way we do education.

Teaching's hard! You need different skills: positive reinforcement, keeping students from getting bored, commanding their attention in a certain way.

You can get the best out of people if they're happy and not worried or not frightened that they're going to make a mistake.

The true teachers and educators are not those who have learned pedagogy as the science of dealing with children, but those in whom pedagogy has awakened through understanding the human being.

If I were a teacher, I would like to teach freshman English - so I could be the Robin Williams type in 'Dead Poets Society.'

Some of the people on the teams I've been on need to be uplifted and kind of loved on. And some people don't need that at all - they need to be pushed; more hyped up.

I try hard to always question myself and wonder, 'What could I have done better? What did I do wrong?' The culture at our company is to be self-critical, but you have to balance that as a leader with praise for your team.