"When I teach and meet a class for the first time, you realize that there are people there that have exceptional abilities or have the potential to do exceptional things and you never know who those people are. My job is to provide the best information I can"
About this Quote
Sexton speaks from the standpoint of a teacher who has learned to distrust first impressions. The first day of a class brims with uncertainty; the future Nobel laureate and the student struggling to find a voice may sit side by side. To assert that exceptional ability is present, or at least latent, is to affirm a democratizing faith in talent: it can come from anywhere, and it is not reliably visible at a glance. The corollary is humility. You never know who those people are, so you treat everyone as if they might be one of them.
That stance shifts the teacher’s role from selector to cultivator. Rather than predicting outcomes or anointing prodigies, the task is to build conditions in which potential can declare itself. Sexton frames his responsibility not as producing greatness on demand but as providing the best information he can. The phrase sounds modest, yet it encodes rigor and care. Best information implies clarity, accuracy, intellectual honesty, and an organized path through complexity. It also implies access: explanations that invite, not gatekeep; standards that challenge, not crush.
There is an ethical dimension here. Students are more than their early signals, and teachers hold power to amplify or stifle possibility. By committing to excellence in content and pedagogy, the teacher returns agency to the learner. Some will take that information and leap; others will grow steadily; a few may surprise everyone, including themselves. The point is that surprise remains possible because the classroom has not been pre-sorted by bias or cynicism.
Sexton, a veteran educator and university leader, has often championed learning as a transformative civic good. The sentiment aligns with that vision. It honors uncertainty, resists the false confidence of early judgment, and focuses on the one controllable variable: the quality of what and how we teach. In that fidelity to craft, doors open for the unexpected to walk through.
That stance shifts the teacher’s role from selector to cultivator. Rather than predicting outcomes or anointing prodigies, the task is to build conditions in which potential can declare itself. Sexton frames his responsibility not as producing greatness on demand but as providing the best information he can. The phrase sounds modest, yet it encodes rigor and care. Best information implies clarity, accuracy, intellectual honesty, and an organized path through complexity. It also implies access: explanations that invite, not gatekeep; standards that challenge, not crush.
There is an ethical dimension here. Students are more than their early signals, and teachers hold power to amplify or stifle possibility. By committing to excellence in content and pedagogy, the teacher returns agency to the learner. Some will take that information and leap; others will grow steadily; a few may surprise everyone, including themselves. The point is that surprise remains possible because the classroom has not been pre-sorted by bias or cynicism.
Sexton, a veteran educator and university leader, has often championed learning as a transformative civic good. The sentiment aligns with that vision. It honors uncertainty, resists the false confidence of early judgment, and focuses on the one controllable variable: the quality of what and how we teach. In that fidelity to craft, doors open for the unexpected to walk through.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
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