Quotes about school and education
page 26

Mick Jagger photo
Teal Swan photo
Will Durant photo
Steven Wright photo

“In school they told me "Practice makes perfect."”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

And then they told me "Nobody's perfect," so then I stopped practicing.
When the Leaves Blow Away (2006), I Still Have a Pony (2007)

James P. Gray photo

“Ask your local high school or junior college students and they will tell you the same thing they tell me: that it is easier for our children and underage adults to get illicit drugs than it is for them to get alcohol.”

James P. Gray (1945) American judge

Source: Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs, 2011, p. 50

Anaïs Nin photo
Teal Swan photo
Luis Alberto Urrea photo

“This is rural America. We’re rich in self-sustaining nature and neighbors helping neighbors but we don’t have resources, I’ve got a car full of toys we’re taking to a school where 60 kids weren’t going to have Christmas. [...] Now they’re closing the coal-fired plants, and those tradesmen and -women are being thrown out of those highly skilled jobs, and it’s having a terrible impact.”

Robin L. Webb (1960) American politician

About the poverty increase in Carter County, as quoted in Poverty Grew in One-Third of Counties Despite Strong National Economy https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/12/19/poverty-grew-in-one-third-of-counties-despite-strong-national-economy (December 19, 2019) by Tim Henderson, The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Gregory Benford photo

“Schools praised diversity but were culturally the same. Different skin color, same opinions.”

Gregory Benford (1941) Science fiction author and astrophysicist

Source: Short fiction, The Man Who Sold The Stars (2013), p. 318

Steven Crowder photo
Steven Crowder photo

“I spent a lot of my life afraid as a kid, even throughout high school.”

Steven Crowder (1987) American actor

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-unmaking-of-a-conservative-pundit

David Sedaris photo

“Later I went to the design school and saw Kumar and Melamid, the Soviet dissident artists, who are funny. I sold them my soul for $1.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

26.02.1981 - p.52
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)

Joe Biden photo

“I'm sorry I didn’t understand more. I'm not sorry for any of my intentions. I'm not sorry for anything that I have ever done. I have never been disrespectful intentionally to a man or a woman. So that's not the reputation I've had since I was in high school, for God's sake.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Regarding allegations that he inappropriately violated women's space

Quoted in * 2019-04-05

Biden: 'I'm not sorry for anything that I have ever done'

Brett Samuels

The Hill

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/437582-biden-im-not-sorry-for-anything-that-i-have-ever-done
2010s, 2019

Marilyn Ferguson photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“They're trying to scare everybody, from meetings, cancel the meetings, close the schools—you know, destroy the country. And that's okay, as long as we can win the election.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Fundraiser, Mar-a-Lago, quoted in * 2020-03-15

Trump says media 'scare' coverage of coronavirus response OK 'as long as we can win the election': Report

Daniel Chaitin

Washington Examiner

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-says-media-scare-coverage-of-coronavirus-response-okay-as-long-as-we-can-win-the-election-report
2020s, 2020, March

Marilyn Ferguson photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo
Bill Withers photo
Eduard Bernstein photo

“Democracy is the high school of compromise.”

Eduard Bernstein (1850–1932) German politician

Source: "Evolutionary Socialism" (1899) https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bernstein/works/1899/evsoc/index.htm, Chapter III, The Tasks and Possibilities of Social Democracy

Warren Buffett photo
Waleed Al-Husseini photo
Marianne Williamson photo
Hocheng Hong photo

“Three or four decades ago, society believed it efficient and fair to use one standard to evaluate all (high school) students. Since then, there has been a paradigm shift toward a pluralistic model of learning and university recruitment.”

Hocheng Hong (1958) Taiwanese politician

Hocheng Hong (2018) cited in " Breaking the Class Ceiling https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=12,33&post=140317" on Taiwan Today, 1 September 2018

Greta Thunberg photo

“School strike week 43. And even though summer holidays are here and school is over, we go on. #fridaysforfuture #schoolstrike4climate #climatestrike”

Greta Thunberg (2003) Swedish climate change activist

Twitter post https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1139412721907064833 (14 June 2019)
2019, June 2019

Robert Maynard Hutchins photo
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn photo
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn photo

“Some think that we are approaching a critical moment in the history of Liberalism. ... We hear of a divergence of old Liberalism and new. ... The terrible new school, we hear, are for beginning operations by dethroning Gladstonian finance. They are for laying hands on the sacred ark. But did any one suppose that the fiscal structure which was reared in 1853 was to last for ever, incapable of improvement, and guaranteed to need no repair? ... Another heresy is imputed to this new school which fixes a deep gulf between the wicked new Liberals and the virtuous old. We are adjured to try freedom first before we try interference of the State. That is a captivating formula, but it puzzles me to find that the eminent statesman who urges us to lay this lesson to heart is strongly in favour of maintaining the control of the State over the Church? But is State interference an innovation? I thought that for 30 years past Liberals had been as much in favour as other people of this protective legislation. ... [O]ther countries have tried freedom and it is just because we have decided that freedom in such a case is only a fine name for neglect, and have tried State supervision, that we have saved our industrial population from the waste, destruction, destitution, and degradation that would otherwise have overtaken them. ... In short, gentlemen, I am not prepared to allow that the Liberty and the Property Defence League are the only people with a real grasp of Liberal principles, that Lord Bramwell and the Earl of Wemyss are the only Abdiels of the Liberal Party.”

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor

Annual presidential address to the Junior Liberal Association of Glasgow (10 February 1885), quoted in 'Mr. John Morley At Glasgow', The Times (11 February 1885), p. 10
1880s

Koenraad Elst photo
Pat Sajak photo

“I had so many nicknames in high school I can't even begin to start the list right now.”

Pat Sajak (1946) American television host

Response to puzzle solution "HIGH SCHOOL NICKNAME" rebroadcast on 25 June 2019.
2010s

David Sedaris photo
David Zayas photo

“I went to an acting school while I was a cop still…The moment I was involved in that world, it electrified me and I realized that it was something that I wanted to do”

David Zayas (1962) Puerto Rican actor

On attending acting school while serving as a police officer in “‘For 'Dexter' Star David Zayas, Acting Was A Long Shot Away” https://www.npr.org/2015/03/29/395982990/for-dexter-star-david-zayas-acting-was-a-long-shot-away in NPR (2015 Mar 29)

Bhanu Choudhrie photo
Abimael Guzmán photo
Greta Thunberg photo

“Because you grown-ups don’t give a damn about my future, neither do I. My name is Greta, I am in ninth grade, and I am going on strike from school for the climate.”

Greta Thunberg (2003) Swedish climate change activist

Her twitter bio
2020, Rolling Stone Interview: How one Swedish teenager armed with a homemade sign ignited a crusade and became the leader of a movement, Jack Davison, (March 2020)
Source: [https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/greta-thunberg-climate-crisis-cover-965949/

“Stopped in schooling and stopped in learning is different. If you stop learning that means you're dead, because everyday in our life we have to learn something new.”

Christian Canlubo (2002) Filipino Internet Entrepreneur

Source: https://twitter.com/canlubochris/status/1239546180633124864 | Christian Canlubo personal Twitter account

“School system teach you to ride a horse while in real life we have to ride a car.”

Christian Canlubo (2002) Filipino Internet Entrepreneur

Source: Christian Canlubo https://en.everybodywiki.com/Christian_Canlubo| Christian Canlubo profile on EverybodyWiki

Christian Canlubo expressed his belief that the school system is too slow.

Monier Monier-Williams photo

“But how is this previous process of elevating and Christianizing the men to be effected? We must begin with the schools... In this way we shall best prepare our Indian school-boys for a voluntary acceptance of Christian truth.”

Monier Monier-Williams (1819–1899) Linguist and dictionary compiler

Source: Modern India and the Indians, 1878. in Shourie, Arun (1994). Missionaries in India: Continuities, changes, dilemmas. New Delhi : Rupa & Co, 1994

Robert O'Hara photo

“I did, not only because of that, but also because there was no value placed on education in my family. My mother just assumed I was smart, and I had glasses so I was called “four eyes,” and I was always reading a book, and so the outsider feeling came from the fact that I really loved school…”

Robert O'Hara American playwright and theatre director

Source: On feeling like an outsider both at his school and in his home life in “Artist Interview with Robert O'Hara” https://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/trailers/artist-interview-robert-ohara/ in Playwrights Horizon

Milton Friedman photo
James K. Morrow photo
Mónica Esmeralda León photo

“I worked with kids at risk to help them get back in school and stay out of trouble.”

Mónica Esmeralda León (1991) actress

WGN Chicago 2016: Chicagoland’s own Latino film studio making its mark in cinema http://wgntv.com/2016/10/12/chicagolands-own-latino-film-studio-making-its-mark-in-cinema/

Ivanka Trump photo

“During my punk phase in the nineties, I was really into Nirvana. My wardrobe consisted of ripped corduroy jeans and flannel shirts. One day after school, I dyed my hair blue. Mom wasn't a fan of this decision.”

Ivanka Trump (1981) American businesswoman, socialite, fashion model and daughter of Donald Trump

10 October 2017, Raising Trump page 74 https://books.google.ca/books?id=gQ5aDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT74
2017

Warren Farrell photo

“Boys who are not interested in school almost always have an interest that can be catalyzed into future employment if it is pursued via hands-on experience.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 87

Helena Roerich photo
Dorothy Thompson photo

“The attempts of some of our school authorities to prevent students from learning anything about Communism, for instance, are futile. Newspapers exist; correspondents report; people travel. It is quite impossible to act as though Russia did not exist, or were as inaccessible and mysterious as Mars.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 42
Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)

John F. Kennedy photo
Benjamin Creme photo
George Mason photo
Barbara W. Tuchman photo
Annie Besant photo
Issa Rae photo

“There was such a dearth of films like that…And the high-school teen movie is a genre that I love. Everything at that age is so heightened and dramatic, and high-school movies capture that so perfectly. But those films are all white, too; there’s no black teen movie genre that exists in the same way.”

Issa Rae (1985) American actress and writer

On how she didn’t see herself represented in the teen film genre in “Issa Rae: ‘I’ve not started writing season four of Insecure yet. We needed a break’” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/13/issa-rae-interview-insecure-little in The Guardian (2019 Apr 13)

Max Tegmark photo
Tori Amos photo
Elizabeth Martinez photo
John Cooper Clarke photo
Rose Wilder Lane photo

“I know you want me to believe all this, but it seems little different from the religious stories we learned in school, esoteric and relatively pointless.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: Singer from the Sea (1999), Chapter 23, “The Marae Morehu” (p. 370)

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh photo

“Children go to school because their parents don't want them in the house.”

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921) member of the British Royal Family, consort to Queen Elizabeth II

Source: Prompting giggles from Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban after campaigning for the right of girls to go to school without fear - October 2013.

Timothy Ferriss photo
Carrie Chapman Catt photo

“I was in school studying civil engineering. A guy approached me on the street and said that I had a interesting look-very exotic. He told me I should try to be in the industry.”

Thuy Trang (1973–2001) Vietnamese actress (1973-2001)

Power Rangers Unlimited: Thuy Trang Interview https://myriahac.tripod.com/id8.html (December 24, 1994)

Ray Dalio photo
David Lloyd George photo

“As our fathers had freed our trade there was another work to accomplish. This was to free the land from the chains of feudalism, the schools from the dominion of the priest, and the people from the deadly grip of drink.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the Plait Hall, Luton (12 October 1904), quoted in The Times (13 October 1904), p. 9
Early political career

David Richmond-Peck photo

“I went straight to theatre school and haven’t looked back. I always knew what I wanted.”

David Richmond-Peck (1974) Canadian actor

Celebrity Spaces: Alisen Down and David Richmond-Peck https://www.torontosun.com/2015/01/29/celebrity-spaces-alisen-down-and-david-richmond-peck (January 29, 2015)

Benjamin Zephaniah photo

“As the only black kid in my primary school playground, animals had become my friends. By 15 I was vegan, although I didn't give up honey until 16. For a while my mother thought it was just "a rasta phase."”

Benjamin Zephaniah (1958) English poet and author

… I can honestly say I've not been tempted to give up veganism in 27 years. I sometimes smell a chip shop and like the smell but then feel guilty because fish might be part of it. But I'll go home and make vegan chips. After all these years, my favourite food is my mother's butter bean stew with whole potatoes, yam and dasheen. I don't think I've ever made a meal for her, to be honest. I think she would consider it a failing of her motherhood and say "Boy, get out the kitchen."
"Interview: Benjamin Zephaniah" by John Hind, TheGuardian.com (18 July 2010) https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/18/benjamin-zephaniah-life-on-a-plate

“We are already struggling to teach morality to our children at all levels in our schools and they want to bring this in. It is unacceptable.”

Philip Naameh (1948) Ghanaian Catholic archbishop

CATHOLIC BISHOPS REJECT COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION http://radioangelus.com/catholic-bishops-reject-comprehensive-sexuality-education/ (September 30, 2019)

Catherine Pugh photo

“We shouldn’t be closing schools because the heat doesn’t work … If we are getting money from the state we should be using it. We need every penny we can get.”

Catherine Pugh (1950) American politician

As quoted in "Baltimore schools have returned millions in state funds for heating repairs" by Luke Broadwater in The Baltimore Sun (4 January 2018) https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-ci-schools-money-returned-20180104-story.html

John Mulaney photo
Bhaskar Sunkara photo
Ayuel Monykuch photo
Ayuel Monykuch photo
Scott Wagner photo

“Going to trade school, that’s a good honest job, working as a machinist or at a steel plant. It seems like we forgot about that. People get massively indebted going to liberals arts schools and this is how we can deal with our student debt problem too.”

Scott Wagner (1955) American politician

Exclusive–Scott Wagner on Running for PA Governor: ‘My Campaign Is About’ Leadership and Solving Problems https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/02/13/exclusive-scott-wagner-on-running-for-pa-governor-my-campaign-is-about-leadership-and-solving-problems/ (13 February 2018)

Natalie Goldberg photo
Pedro Castillo photo

“Innovation will be a priority in schools and internet connectivity a right.”

Pedro Castillo (1969) president of Peru

2021, Inaugural address

“All my journey, I help children, building school, building hospital, orphanage home. It’s about relationship. Now I’m working, not because of my duty, not because of my mission, but because of my love.”

Phan Thi Kim Phuc (1963) Child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972

"Kim Phuc Phan Thi: Vietnam War Survivor" in PBS https://www.pbs.org/newshour/brief/329035/kim-phuc-phan-thi

Soong Mei-ling photo

“I came to school in the United States, and I will always consider America my second home.”

Soong Mei-ling (1897–2003) Chiang Kai-shek's wife, First Lady of the Republic of China

As quoted in "Congress honors Madame Chiang" in UPI https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/07/26/Congress-honors-Madame-Chiang/9153806731200/ (July 26, 1995)

Natalie Goldberg photo
Garry Davis photo

“Why am I killing people in their homes... schools and factories..? Why wasn't I arrested for killing people? Whey weren't they?”

Garry Davis (1921–2013) American actor turned peace activist (1921-2013)

Upon bombing the city of Brandenburg (1945), as quoted by Arthur Kanegis, The Life of Garry Davis - World Citizen #1 (May 13, 2021) discussing the documentary film, The World is My Country that he directed.

Moon So-ri photo

“Right now, the industry might have gotten bigger. More people may be watching films. Those are positive aspects. But diversity in Korean cinema has decreased a lot since then. There are more female film students in schools.”

Moon So-ri (1974) South Korean actress

On highlighting the need for diversity in Korean film industry in "Now a director and scriptwriter, actress Moon So-ri speaks about her film" in The Korea Herald (6 Septmeber 2017) http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170906000677

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky photo
Joan Didion photo
Koenraad Elst photo

“All it demonstrates is the bullying rhetoric so common in the debate between the scientific and the secularist schools of Indian history.”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

2000s, Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple (2002)

Terry McAuliffe photo

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Terry McAuliffe (1957) American businessman and politician

Source: Gubernatorial Debate Between Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin in Alexandria, Virginia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiH2ipjtVxw (Sept. 28, 2021)

China Miéville photo
Alexis Karpouzos photo
Dan Howell photo

“School friends don’t have to be people that you actually get on with, they’re just people that you bond with after sharing a traumatic situation for several years.”

Dan Howell (1991) British video blogger and radio personality

Source: Gay And Not Proud - Daniel Howell | YouTube Pride 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifJYb2An7wE, 25 June 2019

“Speak up against those who cannot speak for themselves. Let’s speak in the language of the youths. Visit schools visit hospitals. What assistance do we offer those who cannot help themselves? We should assist rape victims. We should be the voice of the society.”

Folake Solanke (1932) Nigerian lawyer

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/03/kidnap-of-schoolgirls-stop-paying-ransom-to-criminals-solanke-tells-fg/ Folake Solanke in 2021 speaking out against the ills in society.

Niniola photo

“During secondary school days, I started entertaining my friends during lunchtime...I had a sort of request songs and I would sing.”

Niniola (1986) Nigerian singer-songwriter

Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/niniola-femi-kuti-958136/amp/ Niniola speaking at an interview about her journey into music.

“American dollars should be spent on Americans’ safety and security, and if the national security threat is having an armed gunman in our school rooms, then we need to put our children first and stop sending our dollars overseas.”

Christina Hagan (1988) Member of the Ohio House of Representatives

Source: NRA-Endorsed Christina Hagan: ‘Stop Sending Our Dollars Overseas,’ Pay Armed Veterans to Protect Schools https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/04/24/nra-endorsed-christina-hagan-stop-sending-our-dollars-overseas-pay-armed-veterans-to-protect-schools/ (24 April 2018)