Felder, Richard, "Speaking of Education."
Chem. Engr. Education, 27(2), 128-129 (Spring 1993).
SPEAKING OF EDUCATION
Richard M. Felder
Department of Chemical Engineering
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7905
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What all great teachers appear to have in common is love of their subject,
an obvious satisfaction in arousing this love in their students, and an
ability to convince them that what they are being taught is deadly serious.
(Joseph Epstein)
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The only rational way of educating is to be an example---if one can't help it,
a warning example. (Albert Einstein)
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Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
(Jacques Barzun)
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A good education is not so much one which prepares a man to succeed in the
world, as one which enables him to sustain failure. (Bernard Iddings Bell)
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If we desire...to form individuals capable of inventive thought and of
helping the society of tomorrow to achieve progress, then it is clear that
an education which is an active discovery of reality is superior to one
that consists merely in providing the young with ready-made truths. (Jean
Piaget)
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The Romans taught their children nothing that was to be learned sitting.
(Seneca)
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There is nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as a
school. To begin with, it is a prison. But it is in some respects more
cruel than a prison. In a prison, for instance, you are not forced to read
books written by the wardens and the governor. (George Bernard Shaw)
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"We must remember," said a Harvard Classics professor at a meeting, "that
professors are the ones nobody wanted to dance with in high school."
(Patricia Nelson Limerick)
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I try not to let my schooling interfere with my education. (Mark Twain)
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I learned three important things in college---to use a library, to memorize
quickly and visually, and to drop asleep at any time given a horizontal
surface and fifteen minutes. (Agnes de Mille)
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It can be said unequivocally that good teaching is far more complex,
difficult, and demanding than mediocre research, which may explain why
professors try so hard to avoid it. (Page Smith)
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At present the universities are as uncongenial to teaching as the Mojave
Desert to a clutch of Druid priests. If you want to restore a Druid
priesthood you cannot do it by offering prizes for Druid-of-the-year. If
you want Druids, you must grow forests. (William Arrowsmith)
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Examinations are formidable even to the best-prepared; for the greatest
fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer. (Charles Colton)
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If you are given an open-book exam you will forget your book. If you are
given a take-home exam you will forget where you live. (Variant of
Murphy's Law)
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One of the great marvels of creation is the infinite capacity of the human
brain to withstand the introduction of knowledge. (Theodore Roosevelt)
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Universities are full of knowledge; the freshmen bring a little in and the
seniors take none away, and knowledge accumulates. (Abbott Lowell)
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If you want a track team to win the high jump, you find one person who can jump
seven feet, not seven people who can jump one foot. (Anonymous)
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Do not try to make the brilliant pupil a replica of yourself. (Gilbert
Highet)
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The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas. (Linus Pauling)
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A first principle not formally recognized by scientific
methodologists---when you run onto something interesting, drop everything
else and study it. (B.F. Skinner)
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If you hear the word "Impossible!" spoken as an expletive, followed by
laughter, you will know that someone's orderly research plan is coming along
nicely. (Lewis Thomas)
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Four to six weeks in the lab can save you an hour in the library. (G.C.
Quarderer)
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Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens
to you. (Aldous Huxley)
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Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.
(André Gide)
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I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a
desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. (E.B. White)
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We know that the most advanced computer in the world does not have a brain as
sophisticated as that of an ant. True, we could say that of many of our
relatives but we only have to put up with them at weddings or special
occasions. (Woody Allen)
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The only thing God didn't do to Job was give him a computer. (I.F.
Stone)
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Why, a four-year-old child could understand this. Someone get me a
four-year-old child. (Groucho Marx)
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felder@eos.ncsu.edu