Synopsis: How an inner-city eacher - winner of the American Teacher Award - inspires his students and challenges us to rethink the way we educate our children
Excerpt of the day in reference to some students that had chosen a less than desirable path in life and/or were angry with him:
"They taught me not to confuse academic excellence with character. When I came to the Jungle [inner city school where he taught], I was shocked and upset by the incredibly low academic achievement of the students there. Over the first few years I was so determined to inspire students to achieve academic excellence that I was confusing my best students with my best people.
Okay, I can't just stop with one quote:
"I knew that I had to be ther person I wanted the kids to be. I never want my kids to be depressed or despairing about any bad breaks or failures that they've had. Well, that had to apply to me as well. I now knew that if I wanted the kids to work hard, then I'd better be the hardest-working person they'd ever known. If I wanted them to be kind, I'd better be the kindest human being they'd ever met. Teaching must be by example, not by lecture."
Recommended reading: To Kill a Mockingbird
Next stop: the library
1 comment:
To Kill A Mockingbird!! Oh, that's one of my all-time favorites!!!!!!!!!!!
I only read the book once, but I've seen the movie so many times, I think I could mute it and say the dialogue myself. Of course, the book and movie are somewhat different, as is usually the case.
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