Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.
Diane RavitchRead
Unless the schools provide our children with a vision of human possibility that enlightens and empowers them with knowledge and taste, they will simply play their role in someone else's marketing schemes. Unless they understand deeply the sources of our democracy, they will take it for granted and fail to exercise their rights and responsibilities.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education should empower children with knowledge and understanding of democracy to fully exercise their rights.
Diane Ravitch emphasizes the critical role of education in shaping the future of children. Without a strong educational foundation that inspires a vision of human potential and imparts essential knowledge, children risk becoming mere participants in external agendas, lacking awareness of the importance of their rights and responsibilities in a democratic society. It highlights the necessity for schools to nurture critical thinking and civic engagement, so that students can actively contribute to their communities and uphold democratic values.
Themes
EducationDemocracyEmpowermentRightsKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for educational reform, one might use this quote to underscore the importance of a curriculum that promotes democratic values.
More from Diane Ravitch
All quotes βThe greatest obstacle to those who hope to reform American education is complacency.
Diane RavitchRead
Teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions
Diane RavitchRead
What should we think of someone who never admits error, never entertains doubt but adheres unflinchingly to the same ideas all his life, regardless of new evidence? Doubt and skepticism are signs of rationality. When we are too certain of our opinions, we run the risk of ignoring any evidence that conflicts with our views. It is doubt that shows we are still thinking, still willing to reexamine hardened beliefs when confronted with new facts and new evidence.
Diane RavitchRead
Can teachers successfully educate children to think for themselves if teachers are not treated as professionals who think for themselves?
Diane RavitchRead
Without knowledge and understanding, one tends to become a passive spectator rather than an active participant in the great decisions of our time.
Diane RavitchRead
Similar quotes
I worked in a number of high schools in New York, and I wound up at Stuyvesant High School, which is known nationally for producing brilliant scientists and mathematicians, but I had writing classes. I thought I was teaching. They thought I was teaching, but I was learning.
Frank MccourtRead
Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.
William OslerRead
Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society . . . but for me and no one else, education means making creators. . . . You have to make inventors, innovators...not conformists
Jean PiagetRead
I was a voracious reader and the library fed my curiosity, imagination and my soul. I read by the shelf - biographies, fantasy - all and everything fed my dreams. Then as an adult whenever I would go on location the first thing we would do as a family is sign up at the closest library. Not only would we find books, but what was happening in that town, because the library is the head of the community.
Susan SarandonRead
I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don't write to protect them. It's far too late for that. I write to give them weapons-in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.
Sherman AlexieRead
Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.
Zig ZiglarRead