There's definitely a tension between the way teaching is talked about and understood at the political level and how everyday average Americans think about teachers.

Coming to the civil rights movement in the twentieth century, we begin to have this idea that's still with us today, which is that the main purpose of public education is closing achievement gaps.

There are a lot of polls that show that actually Americans have a pretty high opinion of teachers, that Americans think teachers are just about as prestigious as doctors.

I believe everyone in the education sector should be looking at evidence, reassessing, making tweaks to figure out what works, I think it's a positive model.

Teaching is been seen as kind of a moral calling and not as an intellectual job.

Just in general, when we look at our school system, there is so much overlap with our criminal justice system in terms of our low-income youth.

I always make the point that teachers are people too, and that they don't just want to be in front of kids all day and have children be their only feedback loop.

I don't think school reform should be motivated by missionary zeal. I think it should be motivated by evidence of what works.

Men are more salary-sensitive when they're choosing a job.

Younger teachers are definitely more likely to have worked at charter schools as opposed to have just heard of them. Charter schools explicitly look, often, to hire younger people.

The question is rarely asked, "Why is it that so few other Americans have these protections?" The question is more often asked, "Why do teachers have it so easy?"

Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.

Nature always accepts changes and never misses the opportunity to bloom.

It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.

The best way to learn to cook is to do some serious eating.

Persistence is the great measure of individual human character.

It's, like, a rule. You can't have Christmas without snow.

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting...

The less manifest the work, the stronger: as though a secret law demanded it always be hidden in what it shows, thus showing what must remain hidden, only showing it, in the end, by dissimulation.

There is no person, no theorist so reckless as he who says that the facts speak for themselves.

Dream, dream, for this is also sooth.