In summary, a good teacher does the following:- never tells a student anything that the teacher thinks is true- never allows himself to be the ultimate judge of his own students' success- teacher practice first, theory second (if he must teach theory at all)- does not come up with lists of knowledge that every student must know- doesn't teach anything unless he can easily explain the use of learning it- assigns no homework, unless that homework is to produce something- groups students according to their interests and abilities, not their ages- ensures that any reward to a student is intrinsic- teaches students things they may actually need to know after they leave school- helps students come up with their own explanations when they have made a mistake- never assumes that a student is listening to what he is saying- never assumes that students will do what he asks them to do if what he asked does not relate to a goal they truly hold- never allows pleasing the teacher to be the goal of the student- understands that students won't do what he tells them if they don't understand what is being asked of them- earns the respect of students by demonstrating abilities- motivate students to do better, and does not help them to do better- understands that his job is to get students to do something- understands that experience, not teachers, changes belief systems- confuses students- does not expect credit for good teaching . Roger Schank
About This Quote

This quote from Jonathan Kozol has been used many times by many people. However, it has been said that in a sense this quote is a contradiction in itself. This quote says that a teacher should never do one thing, and in the next breath it says that teachers should always do at least one thing. The problem is that the "one thing" is not always what a teacher would want it to be.

When a teacher gives homework to a student, the teacher often expects the student to do exactly what the teacher tells him to do. In other words, when a teacher tells a student to write an essay on something he already knows how to write an essay on, the student will often fail his essay because he has been told by his teacher only to write about what he already knows how to write about.

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  1. Certain things need to be done again and again in life, but those things can be learned only in context, not as an abstraction. Different contexts must be provided in order to motivate students and to provide real world skills that will be remembered, not...
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