"If we had in this room a hundred teachers, good teachers from good schools, and asked them to define the word education, there would be very little general agreement"
About this Quote
The remark exposes how contested the word education is even among skilled practitioners. Ask a roomful of teachers what they are trying to accomplish and you will hear very different aims: transmitting a body of knowledge, cultivating critical thinking, preparing workers, forming citizens, nurturing character, unlocking individual potential. Because purpose drives method, disagreement about ends produces disagreement about means, assessment, curriculum, and classroom culture. The absence of consensus is not mere semantics; it is the engine behind reform cycles, pendulum swings, and the uneasy feeling that schools are pulling in many directions at once.
William Glasser came to schooling as a psychiatrist, best known for reality therapy and Choice Theory. He argued that most classrooms rely on external control rewards, grades, threats that push students into compliance rather than learning. He proposed an alternative: build education on internal motivation and human needs for belonging, power or competence, freedom, and fun. From that vantage point, education is not about sorting winners and losers but about helping students choose to do useful work they can be proud of, in relationships where they feel known and responsible. In The Quality School and Schools Without Failure, he described schools that define quality by relevance, craftsmanship, and student ownership of learning, not by seat time or test preparation.
The line also functions as a challenge. If educators cannot agree on the purpose of education, policy makers will supply a default answer measurable test scores and compliance. Glasser urges practitioners to make their purposes explicit and shared at the level of the school community. When teachers align around helping students meet basic psychological needs through meaningful tasks, many other disputes recede: discipline shifts from control to connection, assessment from ranking to feedback, curriculum from coverage to engagement. Agreement is possible, he suggests, not by finding a perfect abstract definition, but by centering schooling on relationships, choice, and the pursuit of quality work.
William Glasser came to schooling as a psychiatrist, best known for reality therapy and Choice Theory. He argued that most classrooms rely on external control rewards, grades, threats that push students into compliance rather than learning. He proposed an alternative: build education on internal motivation and human needs for belonging, power or competence, freedom, and fun. From that vantage point, education is not about sorting winners and losers but about helping students choose to do useful work they can be proud of, in relationships where they feel known and responsible. In The Quality School and Schools Without Failure, he described schools that define quality by relevance, craftsmanship, and student ownership of learning, not by seat time or test preparation.
The line also functions as a challenge. If educators cannot agree on the purpose of education, policy makers will supply a default answer measurable test scores and compliance. Glasser urges practitioners to make their purposes explicit and shared at the level of the school community. When teachers align around helping students meet basic psychological needs through meaningful tasks, many other disputes recede: discipline shifts from control to connection, assessment from ranking to feedback, curriculum from coverage to engagement. Agreement is possible, he suggests, not by finding a perfect abstract definition, but by centering schooling on relationships, choice, and the pursuit of quality work.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
|---|
More Quotes by William
Add to List
