"If one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely, to mete out to him the most terrible punishment, all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning."
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Where my reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or I could not learn."
~ Winston Churchill
"I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
~ Mark Twain
"I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
~ Mark Twain
"In a school you have none of these advantages. With the world's bookshelves loaded with fascinating and inspired books, the very manna sent down from Heaven to feed your souls, you are forced to read a hideous imposture called a school book, written by a man who cannot write: A book from which no human can learn anything: a book which, though you may decipher it, you cannot in any fruitful sense read, though the enforced attempt will make you loathe the sight of a book all the rest of your life."
~ George Bernard Shaw
"The hitch in this was, of course, the fact that one had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect [upon me] that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
~ Albert Einstein
Thankfully, in fourth grade Steve encountered a teacher who probably changed the course of his life—the kind of teacher not often found in institutionalized education. Her name was Imogene Hill, but she was known as ‘Teddy.’ She recognized Steve’s extreme intelligence and frustrated lack of inspiration. So she bribed him with money and lollipops to do extra math problems in a workbook. Soon Steve didn’t need any more bribes. “I learned more from her than any other teacher,” Steve says, “and if it hadn’t been for her I’m sure I would have gone to jail.”
While Imogene Hill might have kept Jobs out of jail, no teachers could keep him in school. Before dropping out of school altogether, he attended Reed College--known for being free-spirited. While Steve enjoyed being in the Reed community, he soon became bored with the required classes. He requested to drop out of the school but still be able to attend classes that interested him. Surprisingly, Jack Dudman, the dean of students, allowed him to audit classes and stay in the dorms with friends. “He had a very inquiring mind that was enormously attractive,” Dudman said. “He refused to accept automatically received truths, and he wanted to examine everything himself.”
WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN'D ASTRONOMER
By Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the
lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
"DO NOT DESPISE YOUR INNER WORLD. That is the first and most general piece of advice I would offer… Our society is very outward-looking, very taken up with the latest new object, the latest piece of gossip, the latest opportunity for self-assertion and status... What is the remedy of these ills? A kind of self-love that does not shrink from the needy and incomplete parts of the self, but accepts those with interest and curiosity, and tries to develop a language with which to talk about needs and feelings. Storytelling plays a big role in the process of development. As we tell stories about the lives of others, we learn how to imagine what another creature might feel in response to various events. At the same time, we identify with the other creature and learn something about ourselves. As we grow older, we encounter more and more complex stories — in literature, film, visual art, music — that give us a richer and more subtle grasp of human emotions and of our own inner world."
~Martha Nassbaum
David Foster Wallace, award winning novelist, essayist, and professor of creative writing:
David Foster Wallace, award winning novelist, essayist, and professor of creative writing:
Einstein to his son
"I am very pleased that you find joy with the piano. This and carpentry are in my opinion for your age the best pursuits, better even than school. Because those are things which fit a young person such as you very well. Mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal. . . ."
To Jackson Pollock, from his father
"Well Jack I was glad to learn how you felt about your summer’s work & your coming school year. The secret of success is concentrating interest in life, interest in sports and good times, interest in your studies, interest in your fellow students, interest in the small things of nature, insects, birds, flowers, leaves, etc. In other words to be fully awake to everything about you & the more you learn the more you can appreciate & get a full measure of joy & happiness out of life.”
Sherwood Anderson to his son
"The thing of course, is to make yourself alive. Most people remain all their lives in a stupor. The point of being an artist is that you may live."
Bertrand Russell's 10 Commandments on Teaching
1) Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2) Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3) Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4) When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5) Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6) Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7) Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8) Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9) Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10) Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
"The difference between science and philosophy is that the scientist learns more and more about less and less until she knows everything about nothing, whereas a philosopher learns less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything."
~ Dorion Sagan
Anais Nin:
"I like to live always at the beginnings of life, not at their end. We all lose some of our faith under the oppression of mad leaders, insane history, pathologic cruelties of daily life. I am by nature always beginning and believing and so I find your company more fruitful than that of, say, Edmund Wilson, who asserts his opinions, beliefs, and knowledge as the ultimate verity. Older people fall into rigid patterns. Curiosity, risk, exploration are forgotten by them."
Note from the compiler:
I've had a very interesting school journey so far. I started college thinking it was just a necessary part of life but not of much personal importance. Then over the course of my freshman year, I absolutely fell in love with academia and started thirsting for a more challenging institution.
In my quest for superior education and challenge, I studied abroad at University of St Andrews, one of the best universities in the United Kingdom and the world. While I was there, I was also applying to rigorous and prestigious universities in the United States as a transfer student. During my first month or two at St Andrews, I was completely enamored by the academic rigor and my professors from Oxford and Cambridge and my brilliant friends.
But with both schoolwork and transfer applications to do, and idealistic expectations miles high, I soon burned out. Completely. The ambitious stars in my eyes went out and I would find myself stumbling through the rain and the cobblestone streets after class to sit in the library and contemplate dropping out of school forever and running away to Portland. This burnout lasted the rest of the semester and by the time I filed into the ornate exam halls, I didn't care whether I passed at all. Thankfully I did, and while I recovered from my burnout over the summer, my perspective toward education changed forever.
I ended up getting accepted to two of the schools I applied to; some of the best schools in the nation. But I decided not to go. I knew that while an undergraduate student, my heart would not be in the generalized coursework, and where my heart isn't in something, I cannot bear it. So I came back home to my state university and devoted myself to living fully and becoming a better writer and better human being. I now realize that learning doesn't necessarily have anything to do with education. It is all about being curious, engaging with your world, practicing your passions, and listening to your heart.