Quotations on Education...

Education is a life-long process for all of us, provided we make the most of the opportunities. But, of course, we have to want to do so. We can just as easily reject such opportunities and even celebrate our lack of education.  Whether we choose to be life-long learners will depend, in part, on our early school experiences. ... If our schooling has given us a positive view of our potential and stimulated our curiosity, imagination and capacity for sustained learning, our scope as life-long learners will be boundless.  (Mortimore 2014: 11)

Mortimore, P. (2014) Education Under Siege. Policy Press.

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While I readily admit that it's good to persevere at worthwhile tasks - and that some students seem to lack this capacity - I want to suggest that the concept [of self-discipline] is actually problematic... to identify a lack of self-discipline as the problem is to focus our efforts on making children conform to a status quo that is left unexamined and is unlikely to change.  (Kohn 2011: 177-187)

Kohn, A. (2011) Feel-Bad Education. Beacon.

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I am not able, and I do not want, completely to abandon the world-view that I acquired in childhood.  So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue ... to love the surface of the earth, and to take pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information.  It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself.  The job is to reconcile my ingrained likes and dislikes with the essentially public, non-individual activities that this age forces on all of us.  (Orwell, 1946)

Orwell, G. (1946) Why I Write. Penguin.

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[On developing a critical, responsive vision for  a teaching career.]  It's not enough for you to accept whichever rationale your employers espouse ... or to follow the pedagogic fashions of the moment.  This might work for a while and you might even convince yourself, as well as your students and your colleagues, that your practice is grounded in strongly felt and carefully conceived convictions.  But sooner or later your employers will change and pedagogic fashions will alter.  Then you'll realise that the convictions you thought were solid are, in reality, opaque and insubstantial.  (Brookfield, 1990, pp.27-28)

Brookfield, S. (1990) The Skillful Teacher. California: Jossey-Bass.

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No government, Conservative, Labour or Coalition, has taken seriously the idea of a common national system of education, and the current trend within policy towards a fragmentation and differentiation of school type, within a weakly articulated common framework, is, in some ways, a return to [19th century] English education.  (Ball, 2013, p.220)

Ball, S. (2013) The Education Debate. (2nd edn.) Bristol: The Policy Press.

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...We carry around with us an image of ourselves as we think we are, our self-concept, and as we would like to be, our ego-ideal.  The ego-ideal should be above our self-concept but within reach...  Our sense of self-esteem is healthy when self-concept and ego-ideal are just the right distance apart...  Self-confidence blended with high aspirations seems to be a recipe for good performance.  (Handy & Aitken, 1986, pp.53-54)

Handy, C. & Aitken, R. (1986) Understanding Schools as Organizations. (Pelican Books) Middlesex: Penguin.

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To reflect is to look back over what has been done so as to extract the net meanings which are the capital stock for intelligent dealing with further experiences.  It is the heart of intellectual organization and of the disciplined mind.  (Dewey, 1963, p.87)

Dewey, J. (1963) Experience and Education. (Collier Books edn.) New York: Macmillan.

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Knowledge of others and of oneself, one's strengths and shortcomings, is one mark of [a teacher] with a high level of expertise.  (Eaude, 2012, p.21)

Eaude, T. (2012) How Do Expert Classteachers Really Work? Critical Publishing.