Hi Everyone,
I'm struggling with the fact that the laws (and many other aspects) of the education system make little or no common sense. As a result I did a little search to see if others agreed with me. Needless to say, many did and do. Here is a sampling of some of the wonderful quotations I found. (They are all western, mostly (alas) men, but I still think they're terrific.) If you have any you like, please send them on - it's good to know we're not alone. Also, I'm happy to hear of any mistakes below. Enjoy! - Ellen

Adams, Henry Brooks, American, 1828-1918
"The chief wonder of education is that it does not ruin everybody concerned in it, teachers and taught."
"Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts."

Allen, Woody, American, 1935 -
"I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers."

Angelou, Maya, American, 1928 -
"The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education."

Baker, Russell, American, 1925-
"An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be at best incomplete and very often false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious – just dead wrong."

Beecher, Henry Ward, American, 1813-87
"There is no greater crime than to stand between a man and his development; to take any law or institution and put it around him like a collar, and fasten it there, so that as he grows and enlarges, he presses against it till he suffocates and dies."

Bryan, William Lowe, American, 1860-?
Education is "one of the few things a person is willing to pay for and not get."

Carruthers, Thomas, ?
"A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary."

Chávez, César Estrada, Mexican-American, 1927-93
"The end of all education should surely be service to others."
"Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment."

Chesterton, G.K. British, 1874-1936
"No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete."

Cleaver, Eldridge, American, 1935-98
"I don't think you have to teach people how to be human. I think you have to teach them how to stop being inhumane."

de Montaigne, Michel, French, 1533-92
"I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly."

Douglas, (George) Norman, British, 1868-1952
"Education is the state-controlled manufacture of echoes."

Dumas, Alexandre, French, 1802-70
"How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it."

Durant, Will, American, 1885-1981
"Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance."

Einstein, Albert, American, 1879-1970
"It is little short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not already completely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry…"
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, American, 1803-82
"We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing."

Estrada, Ignacio, (no dates found)
"If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn."

Feyerabend, Paul Karl, Austrian, 1924-94
"The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education."

Fielding, Henry, English, 1707-1754
"Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality."

Forman, Max, American, 1909-1990
"Education seems to be in America the only commodity of which the customer tries to get as little he can for his money."

Fromm, Erich, German-American, 1900-1980
"Education makes machines which act like men, and men who act like machines."

Frost, Robert, American, 1874-1963
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."

Galileo Galilei, Italian, 1564-1642
"You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself."

Gardner, David Pierrepont, ?
"Much that passes for education . . . is not education at all but ritual. The fact is that we are being educated when we know it least."

Gilcrist, Ellen, American
"All you have to do to educate a child is leave him alone and teach him to read. The rest is brainwashing."

Hoffer, Eric, American, 1898-1983
"In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

Hubbard, Elbert, American, 1856-1915
"Education is "a form of self-delusion."

Ingersoll, Robert Green, American, 1833-99
"It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense."

Jackson, Rev. Jesse, American, 1941 –
"Children need all school workers. A person is not 'just' a janitor, not 'just' a custodian. Janitors can see children when [teachers] don't see them, and bus drivers recognize that children who are disruptive on the bus are likely to be disorderly in the classroom. They're partners in education. We need each other to make this work."

Keller, Helen, American, 1880-1968
"The highest result of education is tolerance."

Keppel, Francis, American, 1916-1990
"Education is too important to be left solely to educators."

Leary, Timothy, American, 1920-96
"We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. But they've got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go."

Lou Ann Walker, American
"Theories and goals of education don't matter a whit if you don't consider your students to be human beings."

Mencken, H.L., American, 1880-1956
"Consider... the university professor. What is his function? Simply to pass on to fresh generations of numskulls a body of so-called knowledge that is fragmentary, unimportant, and, in large part, untrue. His whole professional activity is circumscribed by the prejudices, vanities and avarices of his university trustees, i.e., a committee of soap-boilers, nail manufacturers, bank-directors and politicians. The moment he offends these vermin he is undone. He cannot so much as think aloud without running a risk of having them fan his pantaloons."
"School days are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, with brutal violations of common sense and common decency."
"The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality."

Pearson, Hesketh, British, 1887-1964
"I am inclined to think that one's education has been in vain if one fails to learn that most schoolmasters are idiots."

Piaget, Jean, Swiss, 1896-1936
"The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done."

Potter, Beatrix, English, 1866-1943
"Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality."

Rogers, Carl, American, 1902-87
"If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning."

Russell, Bertrand A. English, 1872-1970
Education is ". . . one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought."
"Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education."

Savile, George, English, 1633-1695
"Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught."

Shaw, George Bernard, British, 1856-1950
"A succession of eye-openers each involving the repudiation of some previously held belief."
Stamp, Josiah, British, 1880-1941
"Education is "the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the ignorant by the incompetent."

Steinem, Gloria, American, 1934 –
"The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."

Sullivan, Annie, American, 1866-1936
"Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction."

Trevelyan, G.M., British, 1876-1962
"Education … has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading."

Tuchman, Barbara, American, 1912-89
"Learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced."

Twain, Mark, American 1835-1910
"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards."
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

Wilde, Oscar, Irish, 1856-1900
"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."

Yates, Douglas, ?
"They say that we are better educated than our parents' generation. What they mean is that we go to school longer. They are not the same thing."

Yeats, William B., Irish, 1865-1939
"Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire."