Education quotes

With the arrival of students only days away, school is constantly on my mind. In the gospel reading this weekend there was a line that I thought applied equally well to education.

"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"

I don't expect my lessons to be fire, at least not this first semester, but I liked thinking about it that way anyways.

And, in going through some of my resources, I came across another quote I like. It speaks about how education, now more than ever, should be developing the thought process and decision making abilities, not focusing so much on rote memorization of facts and regurgitation of principles. This one is from Rousseau's "Emile":

"...a mind that is universal not by its learning, but by its faculty to acquire learning; a mind that is open, intelligent, ready for anything...It is enough for me that he knows how to find the "what's it good for?" in everything he does and the "why?" in everything he believes."