Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2011-04-08 Apr 8, 2011At every hour of every day, I can tell you on which page of which book each school child in Italy is studying.~ Benito MussoliniSociety attacks early when the individual is helpless.~ B. F. SkinnerWhat I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence -- moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how 'democracy' (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods?... The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be "undemocratic." ... Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma — Beelzebub, what a useful word! — by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. ... We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when "I'm as good as you" has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to over-top their fellows? And anyway the teachers — or should I say, nurses? — will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men.~ C. S. Lewis Apr 7, 2011The ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them.~ Albert EinsteinI begin by taking. I shall find scholars later to demonstrate my perfect right.~ Frederick the GreatThe philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow.~ Abraham Lincoln Apr 6, 2011We must abandon the prevalent belief in the superior wisdom of the ignorant.~ Daniel BoorstinAmong the innumerable mortifications which waylay human arrogance on every side may well be reckoned our ignorance of the most common objects and effects, a defect of which we become more sensible by every attempt to supply it. Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things when they are shown their form or told their use; but the speculatist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity, and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.~ Dr. Samuel JohnsonAny formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession -- their ignorance.~ Hendrik van Loon Apr 5, 2011The group consisting of mother, father and child is the main educational agency of mankind.~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.It is precisely because education is the road to equality and citizenship, that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The walling off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second class status. Therefore, as Negroes have struggled to be free they have had to fight for the opportunity for a decent education.~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.The Negro has no room to make any substantial compromises because his store of advantages is too small. He must press unrelentingly for quality, integrated education or his whole drive for freedom will be undermined by the absence of a most vital and indispensable element -- learning.~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Apr 4, 2011Education is unique among consumer products -- when it fails to work as advertised, it's the customer that gets labelled as defective.~ Kevin KillionBureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.~ Laurence J. PeterIt were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.~ Mark Twain Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print