Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of knowledge and understanding for active participation in decision-making.
Diane Ravitch's quote underlines the critical role that knowledge and understanding play in empowering individuals to engage actively in significant societal decisions. Without these essential qualities, people risk becoming mere observers in the face of important events and changes, rather than contributors who influence the course of their communities and lives.
Themes
KnowledgeUnderstandingParticipationDecisionsEducation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of education in civic engagement.
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
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.
Diane RavitchRead
Similar quotes
An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.
E. B. WhiteRead
The idea of education has been so tied to schools, universities, and professors that many assume there is no other way, but education is available to anyone within reach of a library, a post office, or even a newsstand.
Louis L'AmourRead
Teaching at best beckons us to morality, but it is not in itself efficacious. Teaching is like a mirror. It can show you if your face is dirty, but it the mirror will not wash your face.
Ravi ZachariasRead
Present-day Spain translates as many books into Spanish, annually, as the Arab world has translated into Arabic in the past 1,100 years.
Martin AmisRead
We may always depend on it that algebra, which cannot be translated into good English and sound common sense, is bad algebra.
William Kingdon CliffordRead
As for literature β to introduce children to literature is to install them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being familiar with it from the very first. A child's intercourse must always be with good books, the best that we can find.
Charlotte MasonRead