Thinking About Teachers and Learning and Education in General

My passion for learning and teaching began when I was five, maybe younger.

Discovering something new, making the pieces fit together so they made sense, is to this day at once exciting and intoxicating.

Being able to do something that I thought I could never do is electrifying. I only hope that I provided enough of those moments for the children I taught through the years.

We are all educators.

ej-oo-keyt...educate means: to develop the faculties and powers (of a person) by instruction, teaching, or schooling.

The oriigin is:
"1580–90; < Latin ēducātus brought up, taught (past participle of ēducāre ), equivalent to ē- e-¹ + -duc- lead + -ātus" (dictionary.com)

Those we know who have chosen to make teaching their life's work are often unique, idealistic individuals with a gift for leading others to knowledge. They have that special ability to see the strengths in others that even they may be unaware that they possess. These teachers. educators, then encourage their students to use that untapped resource that is just waiting to be discovered.

A collection of quotes about educators and education are provided for your consideration.

Chesterton said it so well......"the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to the next." How powerful that is.

And it certainly behooves each one of us to be certain we are teaching what is worthy of such power in lives.

♠♠♠ ♠♠ ♠♠♠

http://pstraubie48.hubpages.com/hub/pstraubie48hubpagescom10quotestoguideliving

Mr. Holmes, O, I would love to have sat in one of his discussion groups and listened and learned. Learned to stretch my mind so it did not ever go back to its tiny self again.

♣♣ ♣♣♣ ♣♣

Carol ₇₇₇₇ has a collection of sayings and quotes that you will wish to read and reread.

http://carol7777.hubpages.com/hub/My-Favorite-Sayings-and-Quotes-Part-2

Antatole was prolific and so wise ...so I think, 'who am I to try to change or improve his words?" Maybe because I was always taught that writing is always, always a work in progress. Changing, improving, evolving as we go.

I think that I would like to change a smidge his remark...I hope I am forgiven...

I would like to remove the word young and insert the word all so that it reads this way..

".....awakening the natural curiosity of all minds..."

To remain curious and grow our whole life keeps us young.

♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦♦

Hannah Kahn's quote leaves me a bit breathless...to walk in the light of the faith a young child has in us takes our connection to the child to a whole new level.

Carefully, wisely, judiciously, we guide each child to find their destiny, their place in the whole scheme of things. Knowing that faith in us will lead them to that place they need to be.

♦♦ ♦♦

Every person is gifted in some area. We just have to find out what.

---Evelyn Blose Holman

Find a way to help each one find their talent, their way of discovering and exploring the world. No greater gift can we give to those in search of their unique talents

♠ ♠♠ ♠ ♠♠

Knowledge--like the sky--is never private property. Teaching is the art of sharing.

---Abraham Joshua Heschel

Sharing what we know is giving that which we know to someone else to use and perhaps transform and enlarge.

Are there times when knowledge should be private property?

♣♣♣♣ ♣♣ ♣♣♣♣

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.

---Joseph Addison

Mr. Addison prolific and one who found his giftedness chose words that illustrate so vividly what education really is all about.

Shaping, molding, alowing to transfrom...

♦♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦♦

We teach more by what we are than by what we teach.

---Will Durant

The old adage....actions speak louder than words...is so apropos.

If the mind is ever wandering when someone is endeavoring to teach us, perhaps it is because we cannot hear them because their actions are getting in the way of our learning.

If you profess that anger, out of control, enraged is counterproductive, destructive even, then bridling such anger must occur. I cannot hear you say, "control your anger" when you are screaming at me.

A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.

---Patricia Neal

Awakening our own expectations is fundamental. We are what we think we are. And being lead by a teacher who enables us to find our mission, our purpose, is like leading the proverbial horse to water and seeing him drink, at last.

♦♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦♦

I am not a teacher--only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I point ahead--ahead of myself as well as of you.

---George Bernard Shaw

Mr. Shaw penned these words not knowing that they would fall into the hands of someone years later who would shoud AMEN when she came across them.

Not a teacher at all. Instead rather..a traveler who is pointing the way ahead for you and for me...Aiming us in the direction that will direct us to our purpose.

♦♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦♦

To teach is to learn twice.

--Joseph Joubert

Did Mr. Joubert realize how well his words captured this idea of what teaching is?

As we teach, we learn once again. It is so true. The light of understanding presents itself each time we share some bit of knowledge we have. It awakens within us wisdom which may have lain dormant waiting to be shared.

♦♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦♦

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves.

---Abbé Dimnet

What a gift...to allow children to discover and find knowledge on their own is crucial to real learning. Provide the tools and allow them to escape into their own world of discovery.

♦♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦♦

Teaching is selflessness in the service of others.

---Berlie J. Fallon

Some words when gathered together in one continuous thought express an idea so well that there is no need for any further comment.

This is one of those.

♦♦♦ ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦

That's what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.

---Doris Lessing

Every day this happens to me. Having an ah-ha moment every day, rediscovering the old, transforming it into the new.

A brand new moment awaits each of us as we explore the avenues of knowledge.

♦♦♦ ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

---Johann Von Goethe

Thinking about these words of Goethe takes me back to each time I had the opportunity to interact with another person. Each time we do as is suggested by these words, we are lighting the pathway to self discovery for someone whose talents may have gone unrecognized, undiscovered.

♦♦♦ ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦

Until the student knows how much you care, he won't care how much you know.

----author unknown

Caring is after all a part of the teaching-learning process. If we are to be the mentor, the facilitator of learning, we must first connect with those who are asking for guidance so they know we sincerely do care. When that happens, the mind will open and the consideration of what we espouse can begin.

♠♣♦ ♠♣♦ ♠♣♦

♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦

Education is learning what you didn't even know what you didn't know.

---Daniel J. Boorstin

It is in identifying yourself with the hopes, dreams, fears and longings of others that you may understand them and help them.

---Wilfred A. Peterson

Learning what we didn't know we didn't know....Maybe ..sometimes we do know we don't know and don't want to admit we don't know....hummm, I wonder???

Whoever it is that teaches, whether in the classroom or in day to day settings, anyone who enables another to learn will discover that Mr. Peterson's words hold much credence.

• The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. Mark Twain

• What sculpture is to a block of marble, eduction is to a human soul. Joseph Addison

The Promise of Teaching

by Kathy Wagoner

And, so we know many educators. They are not all within the walls of schools or colleges. Those who teach us are those wtih whom we come in contact throughout our lives. We too are educators as we pass along what we know to others.

copyright 2013 pstraubie48 ™ All Rights Reserved