Teaching

Faith, direct sincerity, undiseased tenderness, and the authority of well-mastered experience, are the best qualities in a teacher.
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger, The Solitudes of Nature and of Man, or, The Loneliness of Human Life (1867). Preface

If you want Druids, you must grow forests.
~ William Arrowsmith, in Matrix (1967). The Heart of Education: Turbulent Teachers

Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, once asked, "How shall we respond to the dreams of youth?" It is a dazzling and elegant question, a question that demands an answer -- a range of answers, really, spiraling outward in widening circles.
~ William C. ("Bill") Ayers, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, 2nd edition (2001). Chapter 7: The Mystery of Teaching

The work of a teacher -- exhausting, complex, idiosyncratic, never twice the same -- is at its heart, an intellectual and ethical enterprise. Teaching is the vocation of vocations, a calling that shepherds a multitude of other callings. It is an activity that is intensely practical and yet transcendent, brutally matter-of-fact, and yet fundamentally a creative act. Teaching begins in challenge and is never far from mystery.
~ William C. ("Bill") Ayers, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, 2nd edition (2001). Chapter 7: The Mystery of Teaching

The ideal teacher is and always must be a creature, not of flesh and blood, but of the imagination, a child of the brain.
~ William Chandler Bagley, Craftmanship in Teaching (1911). XII. The Ideal Teacher

When will the public cease to insult the teacher's calling with empty flattery? When will men who would never for a moment encourage their own sons to enter the work of the public schools cease to tell us that education is the greatest and noblest of all human callings? Education does not need these compliments. The teacher does not need them.
~ William Chandler Bagley, Craftmanship in Teaching (1911). I. Craftmanship in Teaching

The time that can be allotted to the business of education does not allow it to continue for a moment at a stand. No lesson should pass without its proportion of benefit to the student.
~ William Barrow, An Essay on Education, Volume 2 (1802). Chapter XII: On the Art of Teaching

The elementary school must assume as its sublime and most solemn responsibility the task of teaching every child in it to read. Any school that does not accomplish this has failed.
~ William John Bennett, in The New York Times (3 September 1986).

All the village world speechless stands before him.
Asking "How can one brain be so ruled by Wisdom?"
~ Willem Bilderdijk, from Country Life ("Het Buitenleven"; 1803). The Village Schoolmaster

What I'm teaching as an exercise instructor, my goal is to be able to take all the love off myself to help someone else.
~ Billy Blanks, Trinity Broadcasting Network (Interview; 22 March 2001). Praise The Lord

Then gaze again, that shadow'd scenes may teach
Lessons of peace and love, beyond all speech.
~ William Lisle Bowles, from Scenes and Shadows of Days Departed, A Narrative (1837). On a Beautiful Landscape

The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of faith in God and send them back to their homes skeptical, or infidels, or agnostics, or atheists.
~ William Jennings Bryan, in Tennessee v. Scopes (16 July 1925).

We cannot directly teach loyalty to a society that does not yet exist, but we can and should teach those skills and attitudes which will help create a society in which world citizenship is possible.
~ William Carr, in The NEA Journal (October 1947). On the Waging of Peace

The best teacher is he, who awakens in his pupils the power or thought, and aids them to go alone.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), from Discourses, Reviews, and Miscellanies (1830). Discourse at the Dedication of Divinity Hall (Cambridge, 1826)

The office of instructor ought to rank and be recompensed as one of the most honorable in society.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Address Introductory to the Franklin Lectures, Boston MA (September 1838). On Self-Culture

There is no office higher than that of a teacher of youth, for there is nothing on earth so precious as the mind, soul, character of the child. No office should be regarded with greater respect.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), from The Works of William E. Channing, D.D., Volume I (1841). Remarks on Education (originally in the Christian Examiner; November 1833)

And when I may no longer live,
They'll say, who know the truth,
He gave whate'er he had to give
To freedom and to youth.
~ William Johnson (Cory), Ionica (1858). Academus

Once more I would adopt the graver style --
A teacher should be sparing of his smile.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Charity

Mathematics is the only instructional material that can be presented in an entirely undogmatic way.
~ Max Wilhelm Dehn, The Mathematical Intelligencer

The Constitution guarantees freedom of thought and expression to everyone in our society. All are entitled to it, and none needs it more than the teacher.
~ William Orville Douglas (dissenting opinion), Adler v. Board of Education of City of New York, 342 U.S. 485 (1952)

The function of the university is not simply to teach breadwinning, or to furnish teachers for the public schools or to be a centre of polite society; it is, above all, to be the organ of that fine adjustment between real life and the growing knowledge of life, an adjustment which forms the secret of civilization.
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903). Of the Wings of Atalanta

We teach more by what we are than by what we teach.
~ William James "Will" Durant

Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Story of Philosophy: the Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (1926).

All professionals should teach at some time in their career because they are obliged to pass on what they have learned.
~ Will Eisner, in Famiglia Cristiana magazine, #38 (Interview; 23 September 2001).

I don't think anybody can teach anybody anything. I think that you learn it, but the young writer that is as I say demon-driven and wants to learn and has got to write, he don't know why, he will learn from almost any source that he finds. He will learn from older people who are not writers, he will learn from writers, but he learns it -- you can't teach it.
~ William Faulkner, in Faulkner in the University (1959). Session Four: February 25, 1957

Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error.
~ William Faulkner, Interview in The Paris Review, Issue 12 (Spring 1956). The Art of Fiction No. 12

A teacher must first of all be interesting, and what is taught should be tacked on to the element of interest.
~ William Feather, As We Were Saying (1921).

It is not the objects placed in a museum that constitute its value, so much as the method in which they are displayed, and the use made of them for the purpose of instruction.
~ William Henry Flower, from Essays on Museums and other Subjects connected with Natural History (1898). III. Local Museums

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.
~ Bill Gates, in The Independent on Sunday (12 October 1997). For the Record

Why shouldn't we give our teachers a license to obtain software, all software, any software, for nothing? Does anyone demand a licensing fee, each time a child is taught the alphabet?
~ William Gibson, Speech, National Academy of Sciences Convocation on Technology and Education (10 May 1993).

Effective teaching may be the hardest job there is.
~ William Glasser, M.D., The Quality School (1990).

[T]he faster you go, the more students you leave behind. It doesn't matter how much or how fast you teach. The true measure is how much students have learned.
~ William Glasser, M.D., Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom (1998). Chapter 10: Schooling, Education, and Quality Schools

The proper method for hastening the decline of error, and producing uniformity of judgment, is not, by brute force, by laws, or by imitation; but, on the contrary, by exciting every man to think for himself.
~ William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793). Book VIII: Of Property

The sins of teachers are the teachers of sins.
~ William Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armour (1665).

The test of a true teacher is not his M.A. or Ph.D. degree, but his infinite skill and patience and the giving of himself that the pupils might have life.
~ William Thomson Hanzsche

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater.
~ William Hazlitt, in Sketches and Essays (1839). On The Conversation of Lords (written in 1826)

If we taught children to speak, they'd never learn.
~ William Hull, quoted in Children's Language And Learning (1980).

Part of a teacher's success depends on personality, and the common denominator in the personality of good teachers is their ability to stimulate students to work on problems when the teacher is not there. The teacher then checks the ability of the student to think rather than regurgitate facts.
~ J. Willis Hurst, (1987)

The teacher who can get along by keeping spontaneous interest excited must be regarded as the teacher with the greatest skill.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). XI. Attention

From all these facts there emerges a very simple abstract program for the teacher to follow in keeping the attention of the child: Begin with the line of his native interests, and offer him objects that have some immediate connection with these.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). X. Interest

The most general elements and workings of the mind are all that the teacher absolutely needs to be acquainted with for his purposes.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). I. Psychology and the Teaching Art

We have of late been hearing much of the philosophy of tenderness in education; "interest" must be assiduously awakened in everything, difficulties must be smoothed away. Soft pedagogics have taken the place of the old steep and rocky path to learning. But from this lukewarm air the bracing oxygen of effort is left out. It is nonsense to suppose that every step in education can be interesting. The fighting impulse must often be appealed to. A victory scored under such conditions becomes a turning point and crisis of character.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). VII. What the Native Reactions Are

[W]hen all is said and done, the fact remains that some teachers have a naturally inspiring presence, and can make their exercises interesting, while others simply cannot.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). XI. Attention

Your task is to build up a character in your pupils; and a character, as I have so often said, consists in an organized set of habits of reaction.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (March 1899). XV. The Will

The important thing is for the teacher to understand each child, so he can give him recognition for the good things in him; and so to conduct his class that every child has an opportunity to show off those good things which he can and is able to do.
~ William Heard Kilpatrick, in William Heard Kilpatrick: Trail Blazer in Education (1951).

When you are clear about what you want to learn, you will find your teacher. The teacher is already clear. The two of you will meet because you are looking for each other.
~ William Allaudin (W.A.) Mathieu, The Listening Book: Discovering Your Own Music (1991).

It was lovely when you found students who responded to things you were enthusiastic about.
~ William Keepers Maxwell, Jr., in the Paris Review (Fall 1982). The Art of Fiction No. 71

[P]rofessors known as outstanding lecturers did two things; they used a simple plan and many examples.
~ Wilbert J. ("Bill") McKeachie, Teaching Tips: A Guidebook for the Beginning College Teacher (8th edition; 1986).

Your Master Teacher knows all you need to learn, the perfect timing for your learning it, and the ideal way of teaching it to you. You don't create a Master Teacher -- that's already been done. You discover your Master Teacher.
~ Peter McWilliams

It is just as important -- perhaps more important -- for the teacher to have the benefit of personal counselling when he needs it as it is for the student.
~ Dr. William C. Menninger, in The Bulletin of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, Volume 38 (1954). Understanding Ourselves

The best teachers are profound and sustained students of their respective subjects. Their enthusiasm is infectious. They direct rather than dictate thought.
~ William S. Middleton, Values in Modern Medicine (1972).

As a student I learned from wonderful teachers and ever since then I've thought everyone is a teacher.
~ Bill Moyers

You are rewarding a teacher poorly if you remain always a pupil.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Great hail! we cry to the comers
From the dazzling unknown shore;
Bring us hither your sun and your summers;
And renew our world as of yore;
You shall teach us your song's new numbers,
And things that we dreamed not before:
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
And a singer who sings no more.
~ Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy, from Music and Moonlight: Poems and Songs (1874). Ode

It goes without saying that no man can teach successfully who is not at the same time a student.
~ William Osler, Farewell address given to American and Canadian Medical students, McGill University (1892). The Student Life

No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.
~ William Osler, Address in Glasgow (4 October 1911).

The best that is known and taught in the world -- nothing less can satisfy a teacher worthy of the name.
~ William Osler, Address delivered at the College of Medicine and Surgury, University of Minnesota (4 October 1892). Teacher and Student

The successful teacher is no longer on a height, pumping knowledge at high pressure into passive receptacles.
~ William Osler, Farewell address given to American and Canadian Medical students, McGill University (1892). The Student Life

I know nothing which would have so great force as strong, ponderous maxims, frequently urged, and frequently brought back to thoughts of the hearers.
~ William Paley, A View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794). Part II. Chapter II: The Morality of the Gospel

The humble and true Teacher meets with more than he expects.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Religion

Teaching is an art; not a science.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps, Teaching in School and College (1912). I: Introductory

The teacher should never to lose his temper in the presence of the class. If a man, he may take refuge in profane soliloquies; if a woman, she may follow the example of one sweet-faced and apparently tranquil girl -- go out in the yard and gnaw a post.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps, Teaching in School and College (1912). II: School-teaching and Discipline

The masses of mankind must be impressed by illustrative teaching, if they are to be impressed at all.
~ William Morley (W.M.) Punshon, The New Handbook Of Illustration (1874). Introduction

The true aim of everyone who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions, but to kindle minds.
~ Frederick William (F.W.) Robertson

If you send somebody to teach somebody, be sure that the system you are teaching is better than the system they are practicing.
~ Will Rogers, in The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949).

The true and only practicable object of a polytechnic school is, as I conceive, the teaching, not of the minute details and manipulations of the arts, which can be done only in the workshop, but the inculcation of those scientific principles which form the basis and explanation of them, their leading processes and operations in connection with physical laws.
~ William Barton Rogers, Letter to His Brother Henry (13 March 1846).

I never did know that teachers are human beings like anybody else -- and better, too!
~ William Saroyan, The Human Comedy (1943).

Both of my life and office, I have labour'd
And with no little study, that my teaching,
And the strong course of my authority,
Might go one way.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII. Act V, scene ii

For so work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry V. Act I, scene ii

For where is any author in the world,
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself
And where we are our learning likewise is.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. Act IV, scene iii

I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice. Act I, scene i

Masters, spread yourselves.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act I, scene ii

The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice. Act III, scene i

We but teach
Bloody instructions which, being taught, return,
To plague the inventor.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene vii

[T]he proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly exploded in the air.
~ William Gilmore Simms, Egeria: Or, Voices of Thought and Counsel for the Woods and Wayside (1853).

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
~ William Arthur Ward

Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.
~ Colleen Wilcox

In our quest to achieve success, let us leave no child behind.
~ Carmelita K. Williams, Address at the Urban Diversity Initiatives Commission Symposium, Norfolk VA (20 October 2000).

The game encourages the best to pick on the weak and to be glorified for picking on the weak. It seems to be the manifestation of all we do wrong in the profession.
~ Neil F. Williams, in the Chicago Tribune (22 March 2001). Dodgeball on verge of extinction

I will teach you my townspeople
how to perform a funeral
for you have it over a troop
of artists--
unless one should scour the world--
you have the ground sense necessary.
~ William Carlos Williams, from Al Que Quiere! A Book of Poems (1917). Tract

If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.
~ Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998).

Nothing of any importance can be taught. It can only be learned, and with blood and sweat.
~ Robert Anton Wilson

How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified
By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed.
~ William Wordsworth, from Ecclesiastical Sonnets. In Series (1821-22). Part II. XVII: To Wickliffe