Favorite Quotes
On Teaching
It doesn't have to be perfect to be effective.
-Jen Roberts"
Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.
-Alfred A. Montapert
"With every interaction in a school, we are either building community or destroying it.
-James Comer
Being the only teacher in the classroom, there is no way I can find the time to edit every line of writing in every draft and critique every idea. I need to build a class full of editors, architects, scientists, writers, and mathematicians who don't hesitate to continually critique each other's work. We have formal critique sessions regularly, but an important reason for this formal work is to hone the ability tof the class members to critique each other informally.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 97
Oddly, test-taking skills have little connection to real life. When a student finishes schooling, she is judged for the rest of her life on the kind of person she is and the kind of work that she does. Rarely does this include how she performs on a test.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 102
If we have a grading system at my school it would have to be described as this: A piece of work deserves either an A or a Not Done. Work goes through many drafts and isn't considered complete until it represents high-quality work for that child. Any piece of work that would receive a C or D in a graded system is work not worthy of being accepted. Tests are the same way: If you do poorly on a test, you need to study and retake it until you do well.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 105
I visited a high school in Montana where every student kept a portfolio of his or her accomplishments in all realms. The portfolios included an autobiography, a resume, records of all classes taken and grades earned, work samples from every discipline, important projects and research papers, and evidence of achievements in arts, sports, and service. Every student presented his or her portfolio formally to a panel each year with pride.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 107
I visited a Kindergarten in Tennessee where kids put all of their work in painted pizza boxes. All week long they stuffed their boxes with their paintings, drawings, writing, photographs of building block structures: all sorts of projects. On Friday morning in a sea of chaos they emptired out their boxes and sorted the work to take home. They chose one piece of work to share at portfolio meeting; the piece that they felt was their most important accomplishment of the week.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 106-107
Suspicion invites treachery.
-Voltaire
-Jen Roberts"
Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.
-Alfred A. Montapert
"With every interaction in a school, we are either building community or destroying it.
-James Comer
Being the only teacher in the classroom, there is no way I can find the time to edit every line of writing in every draft and critique every idea. I need to build a class full of editors, architects, scientists, writers, and mathematicians who don't hesitate to continually critique each other's work. We have formal critique sessions regularly, but an important reason for this formal work is to hone the ability tof the class members to critique each other informally.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 97
Oddly, test-taking skills have little connection to real life. When a student finishes schooling, she is judged for the rest of her life on the kind of person she is and the kind of work that she does. Rarely does this include how she performs on a test.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 102
If we have a grading system at my school it would have to be described as this: A piece of work deserves either an A or a Not Done. Work goes through many drafts and isn't considered complete until it represents high-quality work for that child. Any piece of work that would receive a C or D in a graded system is work not worthy of being accepted. Tests are the same way: If you do poorly on a test, you need to study and retake it until you do well.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 105
I visited a high school in Montana where every student kept a portfolio of his or her accomplishments in all realms. The portfolios included an autobiography, a resume, records of all classes taken and grades earned, work samples from every discipline, important projects and research papers, and evidence of achievements in arts, sports, and service. Every student presented his or her portfolio formally to a panel each year with pride.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 107
I visited a Kindergarten in Tennessee where kids put all of their work in painted pizza boxes. All week long they stuffed their boxes with their paintings, drawings, writing, photographs of building block structures: all sorts of projects. On Friday morning in a sea of chaos they emptired out their boxes and sorted the work to take home. They chose one piece of work to share at portfolio meeting; the piece that they felt was their most important accomplishment of the week.
-Ron Berger, An Ethic of Excellence, page 106-107
Suspicion invites treachery.
-Voltaire
On Life
There are no innocents. There are, however, different degrees of responsibility.
-Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire
You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
-Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The beautiful is as useful as the useful...perhaps more so.
--Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth — so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am quite insane — quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.
- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.
-Kurt Vonnegut
She was still hugging the cat. "Poor slob," she said, tickling his head, "poor slob without a name. It's a little inconvenient, his not having a name. But I haven't any right to give him one: he'll have to wait until he belongs to somebody. We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each other: he's an independent, and so am I. I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together. I'm not quite sure where that is just yet. But I know what it's like." She smiled, and let the cat drop to the floor. "It's like Tiffany's," she said...
-Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's
Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth
...now I'm a spent firework; but at least I've been a firework.
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
I remember your bare feet down the hallway
I remember your little laugh
Race cars on the kitchen floor, plastic dinosaurs
I love you to the moon and back
-- Taylor Swift, Ronan
Don't be afraid. My telling can't hurt you in spite of what I have done and I promise to lie quietly in the dark - weeping perhaps or occasionally seeing the blood once more - but I will never again unfold my limbs to rise up and bare teeth. I explain. You can think what I tell you a confession, if you like, but one full of curiosities familiar only in dreams and during those moments when a dog's profile plays in the steam of a kettle. Or when a corn-husk doll sitting on a shelf is soon splaying in the corner of a room and the wicked of how it got there is plain. Stranger things happen all the time everywhere. You know. I know you know. One question is who is responsible? Another is can you read?
― Toni Morrison, A Mercy
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
my baby you'll be.
― Robert Munsch, Love You Forever
A man must do whatever he can to provide for his family.
-Terry Felber, The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant
-Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire
You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
-Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The beautiful is as useful as the useful...perhaps more so.
--Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth — so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am quite insane — quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.
- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.
-Kurt Vonnegut
She was still hugging the cat. "Poor slob," she said, tickling his head, "poor slob without a name. It's a little inconvenient, his not having a name. But I haven't any right to give him one: he'll have to wait until he belongs to somebody. We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each other: he's an independent, and so am I. I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together. I'm not quite sure where that is just yet. But I know what it's like." She smiled, and let the cat drop to the floor. "It's like Tiffany's," she said...
-Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's
Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth
...now I'm a spent firework; but at least I've been a firework.
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
I remember your bare feet down the hallway
I remember your little laugh
Race cars on the kitchen floor, plastic dinosaurs
I love you to the moon and back
-- Taylor Swift, Ronan
Don't be afraid. My telling can't hurt you in spite of what I have done and I promise to lie quietly in the dark - weeping perhaps or occasionally seeing the blood once more - but I will never again unfold my limbs to rise up and bare teeth. I explain. You can think what I tell you a confession, if you like, but one full of curiosities familiar only in dreams and during those moments when a dog's profile plays in the steam of a kettle. Or when a corn-husk doll sitting on a shelf is soon splaying in the corner of a room and the wicked of how it got there is plain. Stranger things happen all the time everywhere. You know. I know you know. One question is who is responsible? Another is can you read?
― Toni Morrison, A Mercy
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
my baby you'll be.
― Robert Munsch, Love You Forever
A man must do whatever he can to provide for his family.
-Terry Felber, The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant