Jacques Barzun Quotes

I have learned that, although I am a good teacher, I am a much better student, and I was blessed to learn valuable lessons from my students on a daily basis. They taught me the importance of teaching to a student - and not to a test.

Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.

I don’t believe curriculums are the key to education, I believe teachers are.

All learning is remembering. A good teacher causes students to remember what they already know.

Teachers may think they are stuffing minds, but all they are ever affecting is the memory. Nothing can ever be forced into anyone's mind except by brainwashing, which is the very opposite of genuine teaching.

We can teach only if we are willing to learn.

You've got to accept the fact that you are basically not teaching a subject, you are teaching children

Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn. The real teacher, in fact, lets nothing else be learned than learning. His conduct, therefore, often produces the impression that we properly learn nothing from him, if by "learning" we now suddenly understand merely the procurement of useful information.

Those who have a desire to teach while coming to learn should not pose as disciples; they must come as teachers.

A wisely chosen illustration is almost essential to fasten the truth upon the ordinary mind, and no teacher can afford to neglect this part of his preparation.

In a home school, the kid does 95% of the work. But in a school system, since it's an indoctrination system, a teacher has to do 95% of the work.

The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.

I think the best teachers had a real interest in the subject they were teaching and a love for children.

The best teachers, one hopes, don't shout at their students - because they are skilled at wooing as well as demanding the best efforts of others. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, this wooing was a sufficiently fine art in itself to be the central focus of education.

The number one goal of teachers should be to help students learn how to learn.

Teaching by precept, without example, is mighty poor teaching.

My father taught in the wise way which unfolds what lies in the child

We think it's about little techniques and tricks, but techniques only take you so far. We need teachers who care about kids, who care about what they teach, and who can communicate with kids.

Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach.

I've never been a teacher in my life.

The truth of the matter is that about 99 percent of teaching is making the students feel interestedin the material. Then the other 1 percent has to do with your methods. And that's not just true of languages. It's true of every subject.

You [the teacher] do not merely insert a lot of facts, if you teach them [the students] properly. It is not like injecting 500 cc. of serum, or administering a year's dose of vitamins.

In teaching it is the method and not the content that is the message.

The best method for a given teacher is the one which is most familiar to the teacher.

Learning results from what the student does and thinks, and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing the student to learn.