Teaching is not a lost art, but regard for teaching is a lost tradition.

—Tryon Edwards

About Tryon Edwards

Portrait of Tryon Edwards

Tryon Edwards (7 August 1809, Hartford, Conn. – 4 January 1894, Detroit, Mich.) was an American theologian, minister of the Second Congregational Church in New London, Connecticut, from 1845 to 1857, after having served in Rochester, New York. He was best known for his collection of quotations, A Dictionary of...

More quotations from Tryon Edwards

More quotations tagged with “teaching”

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.

—Bertrand Russell

I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.

—David Foster Wallace

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