Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.
Alan BennettRead
Have you ever thought, headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date? Of course they're out of date. Standards are always out of date. That is what makes them standards.
Interpretation
Standards evolve over time, and clinging to outdated ones limits progress. Embracing change in standards is essential for growth.
This quote by Alan Bennett emphasizes the idea that standards, which are often seen as benchmarks for quality or behavior, can become obsolete as society changes. It suggests that adhering strictly to outdated standards can hinder innovation and adaptation, highlighting the need for flexibility and reevaluation in the face of new information and circumstances.
In practice
During a staff meeting about curriculum changes, this quote could encourage teachers to reconsider their approaches.
Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.
To begin with, it's true, she read with trepidation and some unease. The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had no idea how to go on; there was no system to her reading, with one book leading to another, and often she had two or three on the go at the same time.
A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.
To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish.
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours
The greatest obstacle to those who hope to reform American education is complacency.
You can never learn anything that you did not already know
If you don't hit a newspaper reader between the eyes with your first sentence, there is no need of writing a second one.
Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are, we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation's competitive needs.
I think that the failure of newspaper competition in a community is a very serious handicap to the dissemination of the knowledge that the citizens need to participate in a democracy.
There is so much potential out there in young people and they aren't getting the right information or being encouraged in the right ways. This is our duty as a society.
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