“One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.” George Herbert
Education & Teaching: Inspiring our Future Leaders
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela
THE BEST POSTERS EVER FOR TEACHERS
To all teachers: We hope you find these posters a useful resource for teaching character and ethics in your classroom.
Every Day Matters When You’re A Teacher
“The best thing about being a teacher is that it matters. The hardest thing about being a teacher is that it matters every day.” – Todd Whitaker
BEST QUOTES EVER ON TEACHING, LEARNING & EDUCATION
Teaching, Learning & Education Teaching A teacher affects all eternity; you never know where his influence stops. – Henry Adams What a block of marble is to a sculptor a ready mind is to a teacher. Adapted from Joseph Addison Children don’t care what a teacher knows unless they know the teacher cares. – Unknown The best teachers teach from …
Teachers: The Decisive Element
I AM THE DECISIVE ELEMENT IN THE CLASSROOM. It’s my personal approach that creates the CLIMATE. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I POSSES A TREMENDOUS POWER to make a child’s like miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, …
THIS WEEK’S THEME: Teaching & Education
This week’s edition of the What Will Matter will take a deep dive into education and teaching, examining what challenges we face as we educate the next generation and how we can work together to to shape a brighter future though education. “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – …
Education & Our Nation
“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.” – John F. Kennedy
Education: A Debt Due
“EDUCATION: A debt due from present to future generations.” – George Peabody
The More You Know…
The more you know The more you grow
Never Stop Learning
As long as you can think, you can learn. As long as you can learn, you can get better. As long as you can get better, you can be happier. NEVER STOP LEARNING.
Devine Beauty: Learning & Tolerance
“There is divine beauty in learning, just as there is human beauty in tolerance. To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps.
Education Yields Tolerance
“The highest result of education is tolerance.” – Helen Keller
Confucius Quote: Educate Children
If your plan for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for 10 years, plant trees. If your plan is for 100 years, educate children. – Confucius
COMMENTARY: Testing Your Integrity
In the past year, did you keep the money if a cashier gave you too much change? Did you lie to your boss, a customer, or a significant other? Did you use the Internet for personal reasons at work? Did you distort or conceal facts on a resumé or in a job interview? Did you inflate an expense or insurance …
COMMENTARY: Thanking Your Parents on Thanksgiving
As we approach Thanksgiving Day, I hope you will think about your parents with your most gentle and generous thoughts and be thankful. Even if you didn’t have ideal parents or a perfect home life, if either or both of your parents are still with you, make an effort to experience and express genuine gratitude. It’s natural to take for granted what …
COMMENTARY: Ask What Can You Do for Your Country
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy, invoked my generation to “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” We are fortunate to live in a free and democratic society where millions of civilians and soldiers serve their fellow citizens.Today is Veteran’s Day and the weekend provided the nation a special …
COMMENTARY: The Intimidating Power of Integrity
A teacher once wrote telling me that a parent with a great deal of clout at her school asked her to change attendance records to make her child’s record look better. The teacher said she thought long and hard about the request but eventually refused, knowing it would make the parent angry. I commended her moral courage. I wish it …
COMMENTARY: Nice Guys Finish First: Good Ethics Is Good Business
“Nice guys finish last.” This maxim originated with a fiercely competitive baseball manager named Leo Durocher who shamelessly advocated ruthlessness, cheating, and dirty play. It is also used to explain why sweet, thoughtful men lose out to self-centered jerks in the world of dating. Lots of people believe the philosophy applies in business as well. The rationale: nice is the same …
COMMENTARY: The Values Our Kids Learn From Others
Blessed with the opportunities and obligations of raising four young daughters, my wife Anne and I are profoundly aware of the importance of instilling good values that will help them become capable, honorable and happy adults. I think we’re doing a pretty good job, but we know that isn’t enough. Frankly, we’re worried about the values and character of your …
COMMENTARY: Be What You Want to Be
“What will you be when you grow up?” It’s a serious question. As kids, we knew we were going to be something and that to be something was to be someone. Even as our ambitions changed, we knew what we were going to be was important and our choice.
COMMENTARY: A Lifetime of Setting and Changing Goals
I believe in setting goals. I also believe in changing goals. As a fourth grader, I was a guest on the TV show Kids Say the Darndest Things and I said, “I want to be a lawyer because my mother says I talk so much I might as well get paid for it.”
COMMENTARY: Changing Lives
Long ago when I was a law professor, I was at a conference and a man I didn’t recognize greeted me warmly. He said he wanted to thank me for changing his life. I was embarrassed as I listened to him tell me that he had met me after a speech I had given at his law school. He said …
COMMENTARY: “You’re Only Cheating Yourself”
It’s in the news all the time – kids are cheating in school in new ways and at unprecedented rates. One of the reasons is the way schools and parents deal with or ignore the underlying issues of integrity and character. For instance, to discourage kids from cheating, adults commonly say, “You’re only cheating yourself.”
Life is short. Smile as often as you can – then keep smiling.
“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” Mother Teresa. CHARACTER COUNTS! (www.charactercounts.org) focuses on creating a positive school climate where children are both physically and emotionally safe, where they feel they are accepted and valued and where they feel they belong. One of the most effective ways …
COMMENTARY: Competition in the Arts
Competition often brings out the best performance but it doesn’t always bring out the best in people. Even in the arts, actors, singers, dancers, and musicians must survive and thrive in a competitive community as rude and rough as any. Ambitious parents often introduce toxic gamesmanship and back-biting attitudes very early as their children are judged and ranked by the …
COMMENTARY: Emotional Resilience
Despite romanticized myths about the gloriously carefree teenage years, adolescence has always been an emotional battlefield where young people must fight their way through insecurity, depression and anger.
COMMENTARY: The Ultimate Solution to Bullying in Schools: A Student-Led Culture of Kindness
Olivia Gardner was a sixth grader in Northern California when her life began to unravel. It started when she suffered an epileptic seizure in front of her classmates. Immediately, the name-calling began. The hallway insults and ridicule — “freak,” “retard,” “weirdo” — escalated into cyber-bullying when a few particularly nasty students set up an “Olivia Haters” website. One student dragged …
COMMENTARY: Everyday Ethics: What You Do in the Grocery Store
You can tell a lot about people’s character by how they act at the grocery store. I remember being in a crowded store when there was a shortage of shopping carts. A prosperous-looking fellow was pushing a cart when another man stopped him. “Excuse me,” the second man said, “but this is my cart.” The first guy looked really annoyed. …
COMMENTARY: School Principal: The Most Difficult CEO Job in the Nation
Schools all over the nation are struggling to modify their strategies to meet the Common Core demands regarding critical thinking and problem solving. They must also find ways to teach 21st Century workplace skills, enhance students’ social and emotional development, and, of course, build their character so they become responsible and productive citizens. Oh, they must also be sure to create an …