Teacher Quotes and Sayings
The Value of a Teacher
- Modern cynics and skeptics...see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing. ~ John F. Kennedy
- Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty. ~ Albert Einstein
- Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the "naturals", the ones who know how to teach. ~ Peter Drucker
- A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupil. ~ Terri Guillemets
- The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be giving the wish to learn.
- Don't try to fix the students, fix ourselves first. The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior. When our students fail, we, as teachers, too, have failed. ~ Marva Collins
- More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given. ~ Bertrand Russell
- There are three things to remember when teaching: know your stuff, know whom you are stuffing, and then stuff them elegantly. ~ Lola May
- The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you just learned this morning. ~ Unknown
- What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
- Teachers who inspire know that teaching is like cultivating a garden, and those who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers. ~ Unknown
- The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The gifted teacher inspires. ~ William Arthur Ward
- The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary" people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners; it is in making winners out of the ordinary people. ~ K. Patricia Cress
- What people need and what they want may be very different...Teachers are those who educate the people to appreciate the things they nee. ~ Elbert Hubbard
- The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the nest plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth". ~ Dan Rather
- The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask which he finds hard to answer. ~ Alice Wellington Rollins
- In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ~ Jacques Barzun
- A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image. ~ Unknown
- It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. ~ Joyce Cary
- Three things give the student the possibility of surpassing his teacher: ask a lot of questions, remember the answers, teach. ~ Jan Amos Comenius
- The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. ~ Kahlil Gibran
- The average teacher explains complexity, the gifted teacher reveals simplicity. ~ Robert Brault
- One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen. ~ Philip Wylie
- While we teach our children all about life, they are teaching us what life is all about ~ Unknown
- A teacher is the one who made two ideas grow where only one was before. ~ Elbert Hubbard
- The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher. Elbert Hubbard
- If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. ~ Ignacio Estrada
- Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task. ~ Haim G. Ginott
- We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of family. Then we expect them to educate our children. ~ John Sculley
Short Meaningful Teacher Quotes and Sayings
- The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. ~ Mark Van Dorn
- Good teaching is one-forth preparation and three-fourths theater. ~ Gail Godwin
- To learn and never be filled, that is wisdom; to teach and never be weary is love. ~ Unknown
- Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. Unknown
- A teacher gives, a teacher shares, but most of all a teacher cares. Unknown
- Teaching is the profession that teaches all other professions. ~ Unknown
- A good teacher is like a candle-it consumes itself to light the way for others. ~ Unknown
- Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. ~ Jacques Barzum
- By learning you will teach, by teaching you will understand. Latin Proverb
- Learning is a treasure that will follow it's owner everywhere. ~ Chinese Proverb
- A teacher cannot be all things to all people. ~ Unknown
- Those who cannot teach - administrate. ~ Unknown
- Teachers teach more by what they are than by what they say. ~ Unknown
- Nine-tenths of education is encouragement. ~ Anatole France
- Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more. ~ Bob Talbert
- To teach is to learn twice. ~ Joseph Joubert
- Education is the mother of leadership. ~ Wendell L. Wilkie
- Whatever you want to teach, be brief. ~ Horace
- We can teach from our experience, but we cannot teach experience. ~ Sasha Azevedo
- Experience fails to teach where there is no desire to learn. ~ George Bernard Shaw
- Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. ~ John Cotton Dana
- We learn by teaching. ~ James Howell
- The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book. ~ Unknown
- A teacher effects eternity; you can never tell where his influence stops. ~ Henry Brooks Adams
- Teaching should be full of ideas instead of stuffed with facts. ~ Unknown
- The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a light to be ignited. Plutarch
- A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. ~ Thomas Carruthers
- A child miseducated is a child lost. ~ John F. Kennedy
The interactions teachers have with students has a big impact on learning – as well as the “classroom climate. The report said that it was important to create a classroom environment that was “constantly demanding more” while affirming students’ self-worth. A student’s success should be attributed to effort rather than ability.
Cooperative learning gives students the opportunity to work with others and see different points of view. Research shows that students learn more effectively when working together rather than apart, and it is also known to improve self-confidence in students.
© 2010 Susan Hazelton
