Teacher Quotes

"I was told to challenge every spiritual teacher, every world leader to utter the one sentence that no religion, no political party, and no nation on the face of the earth will dare utter: 'Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way"

Neale Donald Walsch, Author

"In other words, if a teacher only teaches in one way, then they conclude that the kids who can't learn well that way don't have the ability, when, in fact, it may be that the way the teacher's teaching is not a particularly good match to the way those kids learn"

Robert Sternberg, Educator

"I wasn't originally taking drama, but the drama teacher asked me to audition for Bye, Bye Birdie. I did and got the lead role. Initially I was kind of scared, but once I did it I got bitten by the bug and loved it"

Kevin Richardson, Musician

"Then I heard this genius teacher Stella Adler - I recommend you read anything you might find about her and if you have anyone interested in theatre, you get them one of her books"

Harvey Keitel, Actor

"But in any case, I did poorly on the tests and so, in the first three years of school, I had teachers who thought I was stupid and when people think you're stupid, they have low expectations for you"

Robert Sternberg, Educator

"If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher"

Abdul Kalam, Statesman

"I had one companion. He was a teacher from the Ukraine who spoke English so we could communicate a bit. I learnt a few Russian words, but it was hard to concentrate"

Mathias Rust, Aviator

"Instruction does not prevent wasted time or mistakes; and mistakes themselves are often the best teachers of all"

James Anthony Froude, Historian

"I think what should be celebrated about our campaign is we have over 3 million people who have contributed to our campaign - teachers, firefighters, nurses, retirees. They're making up the backbone of this field organization in the country"

David Plouffe, Public Servant

"The American people know the economy is too weak. Too many of them are suffering. So the question for Washington is, are we going to continue to play political games and - and - or are we going to say, we can do something right now to create jobs, to put money in the pockets of the middle-class, hire construction workers, teachers, veterans?"

David Plouffe, Public Servant

"Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system"

Sidney Hook, Philosopher

"Students rarely disappoint teachers who assure them in advance that they are doomed to failure"

Sidney Hook, Philosopher

"We have seen that, in another unfunded mandate, the so-called No Child Left Behind Act, which created tougher standards, and we all support that, but Congress did not provide the money to attract and hire the best teachers"

Bob Filner, Politician

"Teachers can go on cruises with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and anyone can spend the summer as a volunteer in a National Parks and even earn money doing it"

Matthew Lesko, Entertainer

"A retired teacher paid $62,000 towards her pension and nothing, yes nothing, for full family medical, dental and vision coverage over her entire career. What will we pay her? $1.4 million in pension benefits and another $215,000 in health care benefit premiums over her lifetime"

Chris Christie, Politician

"I had an art teacher who's the reason I got there in high school who encouraged me to go to Alabama. That's where she had gone and kept raving over their art department"

Sela Ward, Actress

"Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. Also learn from holy books and wise people. Everything - even mountains, rivers, plants and trees - should be your teacher"

Morihei Ueshiba, Athlete

"There is no recipe to be a great teacher, that's what is unique about them"

Robert Sternberg, Educator

"In other words, unlike some people with new theories, we will go out, we'll go into a school and we get products and the products are evaluated, whether it's by teachers or others. The scores are quantified and then we compare performances"

Robert Sternberg, Educator

"I would take William H. Macy as a teacher any day of the week. He's incredible. He's got a lot of hard-earned experience"

Skeet Ulrich, Actor

"I guess by taking lessons early on, and really trying to play all the rudimentary stuff, and try to have it sound as good as my teacher. It took a lot of practice, which I enjoyed, and still do"

Matt Cameron, Musician

"And I found out, the other part of it is that I found out and in my desire to life successfully, that baseball fit very well into my life. It's been a great teacher, trainer, mentor and you'll see what I mean in the next few minutes that I have to speak"

Dave Winfield, Athlete

"We can pay teachers a hundred thousand dollars a year, and we'll do nothing to improve our schools as long as we keep the A, B, C, D, F grading system"

William Glasser, Psychologist

"What students lack in school is an intellectual relationship or conversation with the teacher"

William Glasser, Psychologist

"Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher"

Flannery O'Connor, Author

"I remember teachers who really singled me out for their discouragement"

Francis Ford Coppola, Director

"I had a number of teachers who hated me. I didn't do well in school"

Francis Ford Coppola, Director

"I had a heartbreaking experience when I was 9. I always wanted to be a guard. The most wonderful girl in the world was a guard. When I got polio and then went back to school, they made me a guard. A teacher took away my guard button"

Francis Ford Coppola, Director

"This is at the heart of all good education, where the teacher asks students to think and engages them in encouraging dialogues, constantly checking for understanding and growth"

William Glasser, Psychologist

"A self-taught man usually has a poor teacher and a worse student"

Henny Youngman, Comedian

"There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher"

Flannery O'Connor, Author

"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul"

Swami Vivekananda, Clergyman

"Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives"

Andy Rooney, Journalist

"I believe that the testing of the student's achievements in order to see if he meets some criterion held by the teacher, is directly contrary to the implications of therapy for significant learning"

Carl Rogers, Psychologist

"Prior to being allowed to enter the profession, prospective teachers should be asked to talk with a group of friendly students for at least half an hour and be able to engage them in an interesting conversation about any subject the prospective teacher wants to talk about"

William Glasser, Psychologist

"In a Glasser Quality School there is no such thing as a closed book test. Students are told to get out their notes and open their books. There is no such thing as being forbidden to ask the teacher or another student for help"

William Glasser, Psychologist

"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"

William Glasser, Psychologist

"Every single major push in education has made it worse and right now it's really bad because everything we've done is de-humanizing education. It's destroying the possibility of the teacher and the student having a warm, friendly, intellectual relationship"

William Glasser, Psychologist

"Every marriage tends to consist of an aristocrat and a peasant. Of a teacher and a learner"

John Updike, Novelist

"Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual"

Arthur Koestler, Novelist

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