Esme Raji Codell Quotes
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If you give people an idea these days, they just think you are sharing it with them so they can critique it, play devil's advocate, and so on. It doesn't occur to them that they might help or get enthused or at least have the courtesy to get out of your way.
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You're saying she doesn't do her work? So take care of your business! Fail her like a normal kid. The failure will be between me and my daughter, then. You won't like it if her failure is between me and you.
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So much of teaching is sharing. Learning results in sharing, sharing results in change, change is learning. The only other job with so much sharing is parenting. That's probably why the two are so often confused. You can't test what sort of teacher someone will be, because testing what someone knows isn't the same as what someone is able to share.
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Nobody really knows which is happening when the teacher closes the door. At worst, mediocrity. At best, miracles.
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That file full of letters meant I met with a Special Needs teacher in the hallway to get something called Individualized Attention, and let me tell you, working in the hallway with a teacher is like being the street person of a school. People pass you by, and they act like they don't see you, but three steps away they've got a whole story in their heads about why you're out there instead of in the nice cozy classroom where you belong, Stupid? Unlucky? Unloved?
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The difference between a beginning teacher and an experienced one is that the beginning teacher asks, "How am I doing?" and the experienced teacher asks, How are the children doing?
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Something's going on in Cordell's room, but I'm not sure I want to know what it is.
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Today so many creative and devoted teachers not only have to struggle against unimaginative administrations, fearful parents, and wearied colleagues, they have also to battle entire legislative bodies that have never taught a child yet dare to equate educational success or failure with the ability of fourth graders to choose one out of four given answers to mind-numbing questions that have nothing to do with the joy of literature or the elegance of math.
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A library is a platform upon which we catch trains to Every Where and Any Place, Another Time and Across Space. All aboard!
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Sometimes a little song is sweet to hear, even if the orchestra is more accomplished.
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And when you go to God's house, it ain't got to be no fashion show. You just come as you are.
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I suppose an active imagination can be a form of madness. Or it can be the thing that keeps you from going mad.
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We do not argue about what happened in the past but discuss what we desire for the future.
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The goal is not necessarily to succeed but to keep trying, to be the kind of person who has ideas and see them through.
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Why do these dumb fucks keep guns around the house? They make the world as ruinous as they imagine it is.
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But certain people just think it's their job to freak out. As long as they're freaking out, they feel busy, like they must be doing work. Getting upset is force, but no motion. Unless we are moving the children forward, we aren't doing work.
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I tend not to share things unnecessarily with those I despise.
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It's not our job to be liked teachers. Its our job to help them be smart students. Secretly, I thought, who gives a rat's ass if they like us? Sometimes I can hardly stand them!
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So much of teaching is sharing. Learning results in sharing, sharing results in change, change is learning.