Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.
Interpretation
Effective teaching balances pacing to ensure clarity without losing student interest.
This quote emphasizes the importance of rhythm in teaching; it suggests that instructors need to find a sweet spot in their teaching speed. If teaching is too fast, students may become confused and unable to grasp the material, but if it is too slow, they risk losing engagement and interest. The balance is crucial for effective learning, highlighting the need for teachers to adapt to their students' needs.
In practice
In a teacher training seminar to discuss effective teaching methods.
A person is either himself or not himself; is either rooted in his existence or is a fabrication; has either found his humanhood or is still playing with masks and roles and status symbols. And nobody is more aware of this difference (although unconsciously) than a child. Only an authentic person can evoke a good response in the core of the other person; only person is resonant to person.
We evaluate others with a Godlike justice, but we want them to evaluate us with a Godlike compassion.
The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes them a mother - which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician.
Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.
"Terrorism" is what we call the violence of the weak, and we condemn it; "war" is what we call the violence of the strong, and we glorify it.
At it's highest level, the purpose of teaching is not to teach—it is to inspire the desire for learning. Once a student's mind is set on fire, it will find a way to provide its own fuel.
Tuesday—we had school for the first time. Madame O’Malley had a moment of silence at the beginning of French class, a class that was always punctuated with long moments of silence, and then asked us how we were feeling. “Awful,” a girl said. “En français,” Madame O’Malley replied. “En français.
Kids' hearts are malleable, but once they gel it's hard to get them back the way they were.
It said what he would have said, if it had been possible for him to set his scattered thoughts in order. It was the product of a mind similar to his own, but enormously more powerful, more systematic, less fear-ridden. The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.
The best method for a given teacher is the one which is most familiar to the teacher.
The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.
My contention is, first, that we should want more from our educational efforts than adequate academic achievement and, second, that we will not achieve even that meager success unless our children believe that they themselves are cared for and learn to care for others.
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