Education Reform Quotes

“Formal education teaches how to stand, but to see the rainbow you must come out and walk many steps on your own.”
― Amit Ray, Nonviolence: The Transforming Power

“Education is beautification of the inner world and the outer world.”
― Amit Ray, Nonviolence: The Transforming Power

“Over recent years, [there's been] a strong tendency to require assessment of children and teachers so that [teachers] have to teach to tests and the test determines what happens to the child, and what happens to the teacher...that's guaranteed to destroy any meaningful educational process: it means the teacher cannot be creative, imaginative, pay attention to individual students' needs, that a student can't pursue things [...] and the teacher's future depends on it as well as the students'...the people who are sitting in the offices, the bureaucrats designing this - they're not evil people, but they're working within a system of ideology and doctrines, which turns what they're doing into something extremely harmful [...] the assessment itself is completely artificial; it's not ranking teachers in accordance with their ability to help develop children who reach their potential, explore their creative interests and so on [...] you're getting some kind of a 'rank,' but it's a 'rank' that's mostly meaningless, and the very ranking itself is harmful. It's turning us into individuals who devote our lives to achieving a rank, not into doing things that are valuable and important.

It's highly destructive...in, say, elementary education, you're training kids this way [...] I can see it with my own children: when my own kids were in elementary school (at what's called a good school, a good-quality suburban school), by the time they were in third grade, they were dividing up their friends into 'dumb' and 'smart.' You had 'dumb' if you were lower-tracked, and 'smart' if you were upper-tracked [...] it's just extremely harmful and has nothing to do with education. Education is developing your own potential and creativity. Maybe you're not going to do well in school, and you'll do great in art; that's fine. It's another way to live a fulfilling and wonderful life, and one that's significant for other people as well as yourself. The whole idea is wrong in itself; it's creating something that's called 'economic man': the 'economic man' is somebody who rationally calculates how to improve his/her own status, and status means (basically) wealth. So you rationally calculate what kind of choices you should make to increase your wealth - don't pay attention to anything else - or maybe maximize the amount of goods you have.

What kind of a human being is that? All of these mechanisms like testing, assessing, evaluating, measuring...they force people to develop those characteristics. The ones who don't do it are considered, maybe, 'behavioral problems' or some other deviance [...] these ideas and concepts have consequences. And it's not just that they're ideas, there are huge industries devoted to trying to instill them...the public relations industry, advertising, marketing, and so on. It's a huge industry, and it's a propaganda industry. It's a propaganda industry designed to create a certain type of human being: the one who can maximize consumption and can disregard his actions on others.”
― Noam Chomsky

“I became like the bee: intensely gathering information from as many sources as possible and analyzing the material to construct my own understanding of Muhammad’s mindset. I analyzed every piece of data, scrutinizing it for accuracy. I sought to shorten as much as possible the chains of scholarly transmission that separated me from Muhammad. Approaching Muhammad with an open mind proved transformational: making my own sense of him forged a much more meaningful personal relationship with his legacy.”
― Mohamad Jebara, Muhammad, the World-Changer: An Intimate Portrait

“Yes, in case you missed the innuendo there, an F, just like an A, is an earned grade.”
― Fröderick Frankensteen, No Diploma Left Behind

“Technology and talent must come together to shape the future of our world. Thus, educators hold an essential role in the transformation of education. In addition, educators will need to encourage students to embrace new technologies and understand how they will be utilised in enterprises of the future. They will also have to prepare young students to utilize artificial intelligence in high-speed environments”
― Siddhartha Paul Tiwari

“We're going to Change the Culture with PBIS, Shift the Paradigm with PBL, and close the Achievement Gap with SDAIE. Sounds good,
right? Well, that's usually the extent of it.”
― Fröderick Frankensteen, Paradigm Shi*ted: You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried...

“For those of you that are unaware, failure is an option. If you really want to be that school district that removes failure from the equation,
then you as a district are failing your students. Students need to understand that failure is part of life—it happens. And whether you like it or not, they will have a much more difficult time when they get out of school succeeding
because you as a school have never let them
experience failure, nor have you given them the opportunity to know what it means to
learn from that which they did not the first
time understand.”
― Fröderick Frankensteen, No Diploma Left Behind

“The past can be accurately analyzed, but the future requires in-depth planning, careful preparation, and the ability to remain flexible”
― Siddhartha Paul Tiwari, The impact of new technologies on society: a blueprint for the future

“Unfortunately, every year thousands of students end up in one or more of these categories: jail, pregnant, dropping out, gangs, or dead where this vicious cycle will only get worse unless someone else changes this irreplaceable system.

- -Blank Check: What Would You Do If You Were Asked to Reinvent Public Schools?”
― Aaron L. Smith, Ph.D.

“Adults have led education for eons and don't let students have any say. If this is going to work, we need a different approach.

-Blank Check: What Would You Do If You Were Asked to Reinvent Public Schools?”
― Aaron L. Smith, Ph.D.

“If the next man's education level makes you feel inferior, that's an inferiority complex. Inferiority starts with self-esteem.”
― Henry Johnson Jr

“In other words, the majority of extra money, if not all, will disappear as it slowly funnels through the chain of bureaucracy over at the district office.”
― Fröderick Frankensteen, System Failure: A First-Hand Account From The Trenches Of A Revolving Door School District

“The students come first... because they are the foundational basis of funding.”
― Fröderick Frankensteen, System Failure: A First-Hand Account From The Trenches Of A Revolving Door School District

“To shed some light on what needs to change in the world today is that the people have education certificates but they are not educated and that's how our education system is designed which needs to change.”
― Aiyaz Uddin

“It seems as if the education system is rapidly forgetting that people can feel better about themselves when they succeed through, in some cases, multiple failures.”
― Fröderick Frankensteen, No Diploma Left Behind

“Education is supposed to deliver creative thinkers, problem solvers, and innovative minds not certificate medals or convocations.”
― Aiyaz Uddin

“If all students are wired for expansive learning and self-determination, what is needed to activate that wiring for optimal connectivity for students of color?”
― Zaretta Hammond

“Education is a basic human need which can certainly be considered a path to social
development. Expansion of individual knowledge leads to expansion of civilized thought process
and with the dissemination of such thinking the society develops and grows to the next level. This
brings about social change and development with marked progress. Social development begins
within the mind, with the desire to change and improve. This desire may have been inculcated
through learning or observation. Such desires must be fueled towards progress.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin, SOCIAL POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT – A PRIMER:

“Schools and universities don't teach you to build a civilized society free from disparity, they teach you clever tactics to be on the affluent side of disparity. This is not education, this is castration.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Ingan Impossible: Handbook of Hatebusting

“CRT is not up for debate. Critical reading and critical thinking about American history leads directly to "critical race theory." Only this is a misnomer, it's not "theory"; it's facts. It should be called "critical race analysis.”
― Chinyerim Alizor

“The Sunday school is also a relatively recent invention, born some 1,700 years after Christ. A newspaper publisher named Robert Raikes (1736-1811) from Britain is credited with being its founder. In 1780, Raikes established a school in "South Alley" for poor children. Raikes did not begin the Sunday school for the purpose of religious instruction. Instead, he founded it to teach poor children the basics of education. The Sunday school took off like wildfire, spreading to Baptist, Congregational, and Methodist churches throughout England.”
― Frank Viola, Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices

“Through Unschooling, families rediscover the intrinsic value of spending time together, engaging in shared learning experiences, and celebrating the beauty of each family member's unique journey. It offers an opportunity to break free from the constraints of rigid schedules, standardized curricula, and external expectations, fostering an environment where curiosity, creativity, and exploration thrive.”
― Kytka Hilmar-Jezek, The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

“For most Unschoolers, socialization is not just a box to check—it's a vital aspect of their educational journey. They believe in genuine human connections, fostering relationships that transcend age, wealth, power, and social status. Rather than confining their children to the narrow confines of same-age interactions, Unschooling parents encourage them to engage with individuals from all walks of life.”
― Kytka Hilmar-Jezek, The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

“Unschoolers emerge from their unconventional educational journey with a profound understanding of the real world. They have a diverse range of experiences, engaging with individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. Their interactions teach them empathy, tolerance, and the ability to thrive amidst diversity.”
― Kytka Hilmar-Jezek, The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

“I question the ethics of a teacher education curriculum predicated on learning on the job. It’s an important job. It’s an important time in the child’s development. The fact that a substantial proportion of fourth graders have already fallen behind, as indicated by the NAEP and other assessments, may be related to the fact that many of them will have had K–3 teachers who were learning on the job.”
― Mark Seidenberg, Language at the Speed of Sight

“The illiteracy of the 21st century will no longer be defined by the inability to read or write, but by the incapacity to adapt and innovate through the language of computer code.”
― Norbertus Krisnu Prabowo

“eXtended Reality (XR) and spatial computing wield unparalleled power to revolutionize education.”
― Norbertus Krisnu Prabowo

“You cannot serve needs you do not know”
― Dr. Tiffany Anderson

“An investment in the well being of families transforms the community for families!”
― Dr. Tiffany Anderson