The document presents 50 inspirational quotes about teaching and education. It discusses how quotes can help teachers refine their beliefs and stay motivated. Some of the quotes encourage giving students ownership over their learning, seeing mistakes as opportunities for growth, and moving schools away from competition and toward celebrating student uniqueness. The collection aims to inspire teachers to think differently about their roles and practices.

1. 50 Timeless Quotes To Inspire
(and get teachers thinking)
“Like your body your mind also gets tired so refresh it by wise sayings.”
~Hazrat Ali
I think many of us get inspiration from sharp quotes that strike like a bolt of thunder and
get us seeing things anew, with fresh insight.
I’m an avid collector of quotes, especially those related to education and teaching. A
well said thought, aphorism or quote is like a gum drop I chew upon and whose
sweetness is sustaining, invigorating. For me the teacher, quotes help me hone in on my
own beliefs and they clear out a lot of the dust and distraction.
So here are my own favourite all time classic quotes about learning, teaching and
education. I hope they also inspire and rejuvenate!
Find my previous list of my own quotes HERE. Get all the 50 lists HERE.
1. Students must discover for themselves. Knowledge must be earned, only then is it
banked.
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2. 2. Teachers must consider who they are as much as how they perform, when teaching.
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3. Give students ownership of their learning - it will last a lifetime.
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3. 4. How important is our job! Almost godly, what being, what life we set in motion ....
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5. The student must participate and ultimately be responsible for their own learning.
Teachers just provide the right conditions for learning to occur.
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4. 6. When you prepare a good lesson, the learning just happens. Nurture student autonomy
and learning in and for and of themselves.
……………………………………….
7. Know the difference. Credentials are just part of the whole. Learning is not just that
which occurs in school.
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5. 8. Knowledge is action is power, "praxis" is paramount and students must enact their learning.
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9. Teachers are no longer all knowing providers of content. Our role has changed.
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6. 10. We learn best by doing, by active participation. Students construct knowledge from
the materials of their own lives.
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11. Getting out of the way is a powerful option and sometimes the sole option. Read
more about this approach. Never try, it is the trying that gets in the way.
……………………………………….

7. 12. Literacy is so important. How does language affect thought? Or thought language?
Was Sapir-Whorf correct?
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13. The true goal of a teacher is to see their student not need them anymore.
……………………………………….

8. 14. Mistakes are a sign of learning. Teach students to be aware of and proud of their
mistakes, to use their mistakes..
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15. The teacher in their classroom can affect change more than they think.
……………………………………….

9. 16. Educators, schools, learning all must move with the times. Are we moving, really
changing or just changing the packaging?
……………………………………….
17. How can we change schools into places less of inculcation and more of
emancipation?
……………………………………….

10. 18. The teacher as psychologist, as motivator and influencer. Passion is the #1 trait of a
great teacher.
……………………………………….
19. What all teachers should ask about each lesson.
……………………………………….

11. 20. A call to make education less competitive and more a celebration of the uniqueness
inside each of us, our students.
……………………………………….
21. How much do you remember from your grade 10 civics class? Do you even
remember that teacher's name?
……………………………………….

12. 22. A teachers expectation of their student’s abilities is the most important element
affecting student achievement. You teach the students you believe them to be.
……………………………………….
23. The object of an education is not to know a lot but to know how to act on that knowledge
wisely, humanly.
……………………………………….

13. 24. Video is the new text / textbook. Thus, my own work on EnglishCentral.
……………………………………….
25. There is a "flat" perception of the internet. Us teachers need to show the other ways it
is so important - communication, creation, collaboration, connection, collection and so
much more .....
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14. 26. We need to change the very foundations and processes of learning. It’s the
paradigm of education, the culture of schooling that needs to most change.
……………………………………….
27. So true. We need to inject this and make our classrooms into spaces of deeply caring
people.
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15. 28. The only way to change this world for the better is to invest in education.
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29. Students now understand they are no longer prisoners but in control and with the
ability to say "no".
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16. 30. Seems so simple. We should not be reactive but proactive with our teaching practice.
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31. How to see students as more than outcomes, grades, pluses or minuses ....?
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17. 32. Is your school a place that reinforces compliance or a place that promotes student
critical thinking and asks them to challenge what they have been told as true?
……………………………………….
33. Informal learning is being recognized for the force it long has been. Ask so many of
our famous inventors, scientists, businessmen who were all self taught.
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18. 34. The teacher as a reflective practitioner. Learning as something personal and only
accomplished by our own dialogue within.
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35. The Socratic approach always places the teacher as a facilitator drawing the student
on into self knowledge and knowing him/herself.
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19. 36. Definitely a necessary and important cautionary note for educators. It's still all about
the learning and about people, our actions and beliefs.
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37. The role of a teacher is changing dramatically. Are we preparing them for this new
job description?
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20. 38. It is all about making school a place that nurtures the student and develops content,
well adjusted citizens.
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39. It’s all about relationships. The teacher as a social wizard.

21. 40. Teaching less can be teaching more. Focus on the quality of the learning experiences.
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41. It’s either pay now or pay much more later …..

22. 42. Too much of school is about controlling student behavior without looking at the real
cause of that.
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23. 43. Learning is not something that ever stops. It is a process, a journey and not a
destination.
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44. We can't say this enough. More decisions per minute than air traffic controllers. It's
tiring, invisible work that is too often underpaid and devalued.
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24. 45. Let’s not worry about low test scores. Let’s worry about children who fight, kill,
pursue violence and remain estranged from the people around them.
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46. Something to think about ..... it's easy to have a child, much more difficult to educate
one.
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25. 47. Teach and value students who don’t repeat things back but see things differently.
Value good digestion.
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48. Easy to forget how easy it is for us teachers to inculcate our own values without respecting
the free growth of them by our students.

26. ……………………………………..
49. Still the case. Why is this so? What makes this world so painful for so many, despite
our many schools and classrooms?
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50. Let’s not try to fit round pegs into square holes. That isn’t our job or what education
is about.

27. ……………………………………….
If you enjoyed this - check out these other photo slideshows of inspirational
quotes on education.