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” Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
— William Butler Yeats“I am much afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.” –Martin Luther
” I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays and have things arranged for them that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas. ”
–Agatha Christie” To confuse compulsory schooling with equal educational opportunity is like confusing organized religion with spirituality. One does not necessarily lead to the other. Schooling confuses teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. ”
— Wendy Priesnitz“Teaching does not make learning — organized education operates on the assumption that children learn only when and only what and only because we teach them. This is not true. It is very close to 100% false. Learners make learning.”
— Education Reformer John Holt” What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child. ”
— George Bernard Shaw” I sometimes ask myself how it came about that I was the one to develop the theory of relativity. The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think about problems of space and time. These are things which he has thought about as a child. But my intellectual development was retarded, as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had already grown up. ”
— Albert Einstein” It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiousity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom. ”
— Albert Einstein” Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. ”
— Roger Lewin” When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That’s if you want to teach them to think.”
–Bertrand Russell“To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” –Theodore Roosevelt
THANK You, Thank YOU, THANK YOU…
I needed this today and may have to print some of those quotes up for an upcoming meeting! 🙂
Blessings!
These are suitable for framing – would be great wall hangings in a home – especially the “school room”. Good words of encouragement – and great reminders of the reasons to home school!
good post i youve written about 2 of my favourite things
education and quotes
have a good week
Some days I really miss homeschooling. Thanks for sharing!
Wow!! Excellent post Mary. It is a shame that the public schools don’t embrace the words of these great people.
Jana, so glad about the timing! I have a feeling we have a lot of catching up to do! No, scratch that, I KNOW we have a lot of catching up to do! 🙂
Haley, great idea, now I’m wondering which one to frame? I really like the first one…got it out of my Ignite the Fire book by Terri Camp. Excellent book!
Thanks, Jen! I love quotes too…
Welcome, G! Are you ready, conference is practically HERE! I’m excited for you…
Leticia, you’re amazing! I got to worrying later after posting this that some of them might come across too harsh. Thanks for taking it in the right spirit, friend!
“Wow!! Excellent post Mary. It is a shame that the public schools don’t embrace the words of these great people.”
Yes, all pretty good quotes. We have moved our two girls from a Montessori school to public school this year and are having a hard time adjusting.
I love Agatha Christie — I think her quote may’ve been a little tongue-in-cheek but I find the one from Martin Luther frightening. Of course I find him frightening so that’s no surprise.
So you have 2 girls? 🙂 I’ve heard many good things about Montessori educations, what a good start for them. I hope things settle down for them at their new school. Changing schools in itself is a biggie, plus the totally different learning experience. Just remember, “This too shall pass”…it will be something new next month…
we are really fortunate to live in a wonderful school district. i’ve heard the horror stories and i know for a fact that i’d homeschool if i lived in certain areas of the country.
I’m careful in my neck of the woods to not blame the school district for being our reason to homeschool. It’s a small town type area, with great teachers, I just like the one on one with my children and being able to incorporate Christian truths throughout our curriculum studies. Plus, the girls are so close…and we have a great homeschooling co-op.
*I’m careful in my neck of the woods to not blame the school district for being our reason to homeschool.*
that’s nice of you. i’m not so nice. hee. my older kids go to our enighborhood school, which just happens to be excellent. there is a lot of diverstiy there, which i really like. my little guy goes to the same co-op preschool we have been going to since our middle child was a toddler and we love it. we have so many dear friends there and the school has become one of the centers of our social circle. we do an awful lot of work to keep it running. i’m on the board and am the parent coordinator for elijah’s class this year. in our public school district there is a also a co-op school. we know a lot of people who have moved from the co-op preschool to the co-op school. we might have as well, but our oldest was already at the neighborhood school and we were having good experiences so we sent our middle child, adam, as well. our younger kids go to sunday school and our daughter goes to hebrew school (to prepare for her bat mitzvah.)
It sounds ideal, especially that you have so many great friends there. I love homeschooling, but it keeps me so busy that I find most of my “friends” are also homeschool moms by default! One reason I like the internet so much, I can relate to moms on a level that’s not all because of having kids in common! Though that’s a wonderful common denominator!