Deborah Meier Quotes

#1. Only secretly rebellious teachers have ever done right by our least advantaged kids.

Deborah Meier

#2. We are all carriers of our own stories. We have never trusted our own voices. Reforms came, but we don't make them. They were presented by people removed from schools, by 'experts'. Such changes bi passes school. School by school changes, however slow, could make a powerful difference.

Deborah Meier

#3. Teaching is mostly listening, and learning is mostly telling.

Deborah Meier

#4. Good schools, like good societies and good families, celebrate and cherish diversity.

Deborah Meier

#5. The only thing they [government] want is better data. But data doesn't tell people someone is well educated. It's a vicious circle. There is some myth involved. Some of this attitude has a long history.

Deborah Meier

#6. If you define yourself as someone fixing education, there's nothing short-range you can do to fix education directly. It's labor intensive. You have to change the way people act. You have to convince people, and change people.

Deborah Meier

#7. A passion for learning ... isn't something you have to inspire with; it's something you have to keep from extinguishing.

Deborah Meier

#8. If you ask me, taking on risk and being more daring is a real important part of creativity.

Deborah Meier

#9. It's the curiosity that drives me. It's making a difference in the world that prevents me from ever giving up.

Deborah Meier

#10. Teaching is listening, learning is talking

Deborah Meier

#11. The art of good teaching begins when we can answer the questions our students are really trying to ask us, if only they knew how to do so.

Deborah Meier

#12. Some people thought that if you put pressure on kids, parents, and teachers and schools, the pressure alone would produce results. It appealed to people who think the quick fix for education is to threaten people. It's not a left-right division.

Deborah Meier