Teaching quotes

The legendary Victoria Westcott over at Classroom Canada recently included a post on her blog entitled "10 of my favourite Quotes for Teachers." This has prompted me to post a list of my own:

"The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds."
ANATOLE FRANCE

"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn."
JOHN LUBBOCK

"The first duty of a lecturer- to hand you after an hour's discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks and keep on the mantlepiece forever."
VIRGINIA WOOLF

"The world talks to the mind. A teacher speaks more intimately; (s)he speaks to the heart."
HAIM GINOTT

"Teaching provides a way to stay young at heart, to maintain a lifetime of active learning.... It is in every respect a profession of hope."
VITO PERRONE

"It is a glorious fever, that desire to know."
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON


My absolute favourite comes from my favourite book, Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" -

"...he was a teacher, and it may be said that he had every right to teach because he spent all his time learning."


And with that in mind, why don't you start your path to being a teacher by pursuing degree programs in Elementary & Secondary Education today!

The teacher in trainers

At the beginning of the year I included two separate posts on this blog about the silly teacher whose decision to wear scruffy sports clothes to work resulted in his eventual dismissal. I agreed with the school's decision and voiced my opinion that his sacking was completely justified. I still hold fast to that view of things. Many of his former colleagues, however, supported his appeal and we were led to believe that they would have been willing to strike over the issue. An article on the bbc news website today reports that the ridiculous notion of industrial action has sensibly been avoided and that the union and the council have reached a "confidential agreement."

Mr Swain, the former teacher at the very centre of this sorry tale, has said that he was unable to comment on the agreement. No doubt because he was down at the local sports shop stocking up on a choice of rugby shirts to wear to his next batch of job interviews.