Erin Gruwell - 1,001 Pearls of Teachers’ Wisdom: Quotations on Life and Learning

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Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. www.skyhorsepublishing.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0643-9 ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-1090-0 Printed in China Table of Contents Foreword
Frank McCourt Teaching, as Ive written elsewhere, is the downstairs maid of the professions. Teachers are not consulted when big decisions are being made about education. The decisions are made by politiciansfor they know what is good for us. Frequently, there are panel discussions on education on television.

There are politicians, people from think tanks, professors of education, bureaucrats. No teachers. This is when I want to reach for a gunbut I dont, of course. I have to resort to my mouth. I try to be patient while I explain to the rich man that the teacher starting salary in this country is barely above poverty level. He looks doubtful when I ask him if he could support a wife and, at least, one child on a salary way under forty thousand dollars a year.

Im not too agile when discussing the status of teachers in this country. I know they are underpaid. I know there is little respect for them despite the wonderful things said about them in this terrific book. When I talked with the rich man, I hadnt yet read 1,001 Pearls of Teachers Wisdom if read is the right word for what you do with this book. Youre not going to sit in your easy chair and actually read it. Its a book for dipping into, a bowl of peanuts (bet you cant read just one!), a literary gazpacho.

Maybe, when this book is published, Ill send the rich man a copy. He will find a few negative comments about teachers, but theyre more than balanced by the high praise of teachers by perceptive men and women down the ages. Here is Gods plenty. Between the opening entry, Teaching is truth mediated by personality, to the closing Whatever you are, be a good one, there is a word hoard the likes of which you rarely see between the covers of a book. I dont know what Phyllis Brooks (19151995) means by that opening statement, nor do I know whom she was. The book says she was an actress, and I wonder how she achieved pride of place.

It just goes to show that everyone has something to say about teachers and teaching. This last entry about being a good one is attributed to Abraham Lincoln, but it doesnt sound like him. Maybe he was depressed at the time. Maybe the war was going against him. Maybe the remark was made to someone aching for a platitude. I would direct the rich man to fields of gold where there are nuggets of wisdom.

Tolerate me from a moment while I offer choice morsels: Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching. Oscar Wilde (18541900) I am sorry to inform you that Oscar, like myself, was an Irishman, of the Island of Saints and Scholars, and that smartass remark goes hand in hand with another smartass remark by George Bernard Shaw: Those who can, do; those who cant, teach. Oscar and George were brilliant men with encyclopedic minds, but about teaching they knew bupkus . (Thats a Yiddish word for bugger all.) But dont worry: a few pages later, Shaw redeems himself. He says, To me the sole hope of human salvation lies in teaching. Right on, Mr.

Shaw, and would you pass the word to Oscar, wherever you are, the two of you exhausting the angels with your witty discourse, the two of you knowing full well you were teachers yourselves. Jump ahead a few years and you find Lee Iacocca urging everyone to Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Dont just stand there, make it happen. A generation later comes this bullet of common sense from T. J.

ORourke: Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If were looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldnt test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power. Back to the world of teaching. Here is Ann Richards (19332006), former governor of Texas: Teaching was the hardest work I had ever done, and it remains the hardest work I have done to date. Here is one I love from Ignacio Estrada: If a child cant learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. I dont know who Ignacio Estrada is, but wherever he is I want to blow kisses and pin medals to his wise chest, for his comment sums it up for me.

If only the politicians and the rich would pay attention to Ignacio and teachers would teach the way he suggests. If only the politicians would get off that broken nag called No Child Left Behind and stop testing our children till theyre numb and senseless and incapable of even thinking. Listen to Robert Hutchins (18991977): It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts it is to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think of themselves. Mr. Hutchins, Mr. Hutchins, stay where you are.

Youd be appalled at what is happening in our schools. We are not encouraging thinking. We are killing young minds. We are engaged in some strange activity called setting standards. We are sucking the dream out of the classroom. Our teachers are on edge, looking over their shoulders, worried their students wont score high on those insane tests.

The rich man sitting next to me at the party assures me that the salaries of New York teachers are more than adequate. He tells me also how lucky teachers are that they get all that time off. They get all the holidays, he tells me, and they get those long summers. Also, they dont work a full day like other professionals. Teachers? When did you last see a teacher on any kind of talk show? 1,001 Pearls of Teachers Wisdom will, maybe, call attention to the real world of teaching. Take your time with it.

Keep it by your bed. It wouldnt hurt to read a few lines to your children at bedtime. They might grow and become teachers. And wouldnt that rock the country! Frank McCourt Introduction
Erin Gruwell As educators, we share one common goalto see the growth and progress of our students. But one thing is for surethere is no greater feeling than to see a student get it. You know what thats like.

Its when things click in a young mind. Its when the proverbial light bulb goes on. Its when you see eyes light up in revelry. Its when you see a student accomplish what he or she once thought was impossible. Theres nothing better. It is for this reason that we show up to work each day.

One of the greatest lessons I learned from the Freedom Writers was that in order to be a good teacher, I had to be an even better student. The Freedom Writers had what I like to call a PhD of the Streets, and I quickly found I had 150 teachers who would help me get it on a daily basis! My students became savvy teachers and amazed me each and every day with their personal insight and knowledge. My students taught me a simple lesson: to teach to a student, and not to a test. They taught me to be open to new theories, practices, and modes of thinking, because each student learns in a different way. Not all students pick up the same lessons at the same speed, learn through the same modalities, or grasp ideas by the same means and methods. What works for one may not work for another.