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.
Interpretation
Teaching should aim to inspire a love of learning rather than just impart information.
This quote emphasizes the transformative power of education. Rather than merely transmitting knowledge, the true essence of teaching lies in igniting a passion for inquiry and understanding within students. When educators inspire students, they evoke a sense of curiosity and motivation that drives individuals to pursue knowledge independently, leading to a deeper and more meaningful educational experience.
In practice
In a motivational speech for teachers, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of inspiring students.
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.
You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing.
We inculcate young people with the message that if they don't succeed, it is merely of their own doing. They should have worked harder, we say. They should have made better decisions. This message is especially present in communities of color.
Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act.
There are no bad books any more than there are ugly women.
Knowledge is taken from breath, not lives in a book
My parents would say to me, 'You can teach yourself anything better than someone else can teach it to you.' That was the whole ethos of my family.
The mother is the first teacher of the child. The message she gives that child, that child gives to the world.
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