Powerful Learners - Quotes

• 'We should turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.' - John Holt

• 'In order for the brain to comprehend the heart must first listen.' - David Perkins, 'Smart Schools.'

• 'To live our lives fully, to work whole heartedly, to refuse directly what we can't swallow, to accepts the mystery in all matters of meaning- this is the ultimate adventure.' - Peter Block, Philosopher

• 'People see their own lives as stories; a lifelong story with a single hero or heroine... much contemporary unhappiness is due to the fact that people in high tech societies receive neither strong myths and stories from their culture nor the ability to construct their own... they lose the plot.' - Guy Claxton in 'Wise -Up'

• 'Learning power comprises both literacy and numeracy, and is ultimately more fundamental than either of them.' - Guy Claxton in 'Wise -Up'

• Underneath the visible problems with reading and writing lies the deeper problem of 'illearnacy': an acquired disabling of learning courage and learning initiative.' - Guy Claxton in 'Wise-Up'

• 'One barrier... is the impoverishment of classroom language, the failure to cultivate a common vocabulary about inquiry, explanation, argument and problem solving. - David Perkins 'Smart Schools.'

• 'Good questions work on us, we don't work on them. They are not a project to be completed but a doorway opening onto greater depth of understanding, actions that will take us into being more fully alive. - Peter Block

• 'I will act as if what I do will make a difference.' - William James

• 'An individual who stands out, or disagrees or takes risks is a danger to such systems and is effortlessly and, unconsciously sidelined.' - John Ralston Saul 'Voltaire's Bastards.'

• 'Intelligence is knowing what to do when you don't know what to do.' - Art Costa

• 'We have to learn to make our own way through a complex world without the benefit of an accepted trustworthy route map.' - Guy Claxton in 'Wise -Up'

• 'Know how - can do'. 'Don't know how but will give it a go.' - Extended 'Place Makers Motto' - Bruce Hammonds

• 'It is amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.' - Charles Kettering US Inventor

• 'When the going gets tough the tough get going!' - Saying

• 'The germ of an idea doesn't make the sculpture that stands up... so the next stage is hard work' - Csikszentmihalyi 'Nature of Insight'.

• 'It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning.' - Calude Bernard, French Psychologist 1813-78

• 'Powerful learning strategies can most simply be thought of what we presently do for gifted and talented children. What works for them works just as well for 'at risk' students.' - Henry M Levin Accelerated Schools Project.

• 'One in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.' - Grateful Dead

• 'All learning begins when our comfortable ideas turn out to be inadequate.' - John Dewey

• 'Wherever you are be there.' - Ralph Waldo Emerson

• 'We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.' - Anais Nin Diarist

• 'Don't go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.' - Ralph Waldo Emerson

• 'Destiny is not a matter of chance it is a matter of choice.' - Anon

• 'Life is the path you beat while you walk it It's the walking that beats the path It is not the path that makes the walk'. - Antonio Machardo Poet

• 'Eagles don't flock - you have to find them one at a time.' - Ross Perot Businessman.

• 'I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.' - Winston Churchill

• 'We must believe in ourselves as no one else will believe in us, we must match our expectations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed.' - Rosalyn Sussman Yalow US Medical Physicist

• 'In order to act, you must be somewhat insane .A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.' - Georges Clemenceau Premier of France 1917

• 'When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves he isn't a man of action.' - Georges Clemenceau Premier of France 1917- 20

• 'You learn at your best when you have something you care about and can get pleasure in being engaged in.' - Howard Gardner

• 'The drive to learn is as strong as the sexual drive. It begins earlier and lasts longer.' - Edward Hall Anthropologist

• 'To be nobody - but - myself - in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human can fight, and never stop fighting.' - e e cumming us poet

• 'What gives people superiority at a task is true intention. That makes you attuned to everything.' - Weiner Erhard

• 'If there is a way to do it better... find it!' - Thomas Edison

• 'Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better'. - Samuel Beckett

• 'You miss 100% of all the shots you never take,' - Wayne Gretsky Ice Hockey Coach

• 'Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. You simply 'must do' things.' - Ray Bradbury

• 'Getting the balance right between intuitive experimentation and conscious deliberation is vital. Think too little and you may be stuck with bad habits. Think too much and you may become paralyzed with self consciousness. - Guy Claxton 'Wise Up'

• 'I have my faults but changing my tune is not one of them.' - Samuel Beckett

• 'A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spend doing nothing.' - George Bernard Shaw

• 'The major difference between the 'best' and the 'average' is that the 'best' get as much pleasure from practice as performance.' - Ben Zander

• 'It takes a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.' - Alfred North Whitehead.

• 'Education is knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and its knowing how to use the information you get.' - William Feather US Author

• 'Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them.' - Ralph Gerard

• 'Thinking is past experience guiding present actions.' - William Kilpatrick Educator 1917

'The golden rule is that there are no golden rules' G B Shaw

• 'Te wao nui tane ( about giant NZ Kauri trees 'Standing out from the crowd') - Maori saying

• 'People whose talents are not exploited become disenchanted and disruptive.' - Sir Terrance Conran ( Decorator)

• 'Why don't we teach out children in school what they are? We should say to them, 'You are unique... you have the capacity for anything. You are a marvel.'' - Charles Handy

• 'Talent comes with an individual name tag.' - Charles Handy

• 'The mind aware of itself is a pilot... vastly freer than a passenger mind.' - Marilyn Ferguson

• 'We have two strategies for coping; the way of avoidance or the way of attention.' - Marilyn Ferguson

• 'You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.' - Mark Twain

• 'To go faster you must slow down.' - John Brunner Author

• 'Fear of knowing is very deeply a fear of doing.' - Abraham Maslow

• 'It is not so important to have all the answers as to be hungry for them.' - Carol Ann Tomlinson 'The Differentiated Classroom'

• 'If everyone is thinking alike then somebody is not thinking.' - George S Paton

• 'In any work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts' - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

• 'Plan to be better today, but don't ever plan to be finished' - Carol Ann Tomlinson

• 'If poetry comes as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.' - John Keats

• 'The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.' - William James

• 'If necessity is the mother of invention what was papa doing?' - Anon

• 'Fledgling skiers make the most progress when they are pushed outside their comfort zone, but not so far that they're sacred off the slopes altogether.' - Ski Instructor

• 'Courage isn't lack of fear, after all, it's the ability to carry on despite the fear. General Omar Bradley called courage the 'capacity to carry on properly even when scared half to death.' Genuine risk takers not only have the guts to act in face of harrowing apprehension, they know how to harness fear's energy' - Farson and Keyes, 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.'

• Fearing failure is not necessarily a bad thing. Excitement is the flip side of fear. Any ten year old on a skateboard knows that exhilaration is primarily fear transformed... Fear begins as a negative sensation but can end on a positive note in the form of excitement, elation, exhilaration, euphoria, even ecstasy. Enthusiasm is close cousin. So are intensity and concentration.' - Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.

• 'Winning and losing aren't all they're cracked up to be, but the trip to the destination is.' - John Wooden UCLA Basketball Coach

• 'the Samurai were fierce warriors. What is less known is how much of their thoughts were based on achieving victory by avoiding thoughts of victory. They knew that focusing on the outcome of a contest made defeat more likely... to achieve victory by becoming fully absorbed in the process that would lead them there.' - Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.

• Winning is not everything - but making the effort to win was... If you can't accept losing, you can't win' - Vince Lombardi Basketball coach.

• 'By not trying too hard, we avoid learning what our true potential is, and having to fulfill it. Doing our best can be deeply threatening. It forces us to consider what we're actually capable of accomplishing. Once we learn the lesson we can't unlearn it. Our true potential becomes a shining light we can follow...' - Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins'.

• 'An exaggerated fear of losing is the ugly sibling of an over emphasis on winning. Both cloud the mind.... The players most urged to victory by mothers and fathers proved to be the most cautious. Those whose parents cheered but didn't push them were then ones most likely to take chances and win'. - Farson and Keynes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.'

• 'I worry that whoever thought up the term 'quality control' thought if we didn't control it, it would get out of hand.' - Lily Tomlin Singer

• 'Looking at students work brings you face to face with your values.' - Daniel Barron US Nat Reform Faculty.

• 'To attract joy and create more success, try doing less but doing it with more enthusiasm.' - Phillip Humbert

• 'A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.' - Roald Dahl ( Author)

• 'To develop a complete mind: study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.' - Leonardo da Vinci

• 'Most advances in science comes from when a person for one reason or another is forced to change fields.' - Peter Burdon

• 'We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as in insoluble problems. - John W Gardner

• 'Imagination is more important than knowledge.' - Albert Einstein

• 'Life is a series of lessons that have to be understood.' - Thomas Carlyle

• 'A fear of foolishness keeps us from painting the pictures we would like to paint, composing the poems, courting the lovers, making the friends, pursuing the jobs, starting the businesses. Those who know this, can confront and transcend their fear of ridicule, are usually in a strong position... Every path breaker has looked foolish, and been humiliated, yet society depends on them utterly... Only those who are willing to risk looking foolish can invent a breakthrough.' - Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins'

• 'The best work we do is on the verge of embarrassing us, always.' - Arthur Miller Playwright.

• 'A fear of foolishness can never be conquered completely. Nor should it be... Deep down shyness is a secret most charismatic people have.' - Farson and Keyes

• 'We are all afraid. That's the thing that unites all truly successful people: fear, fear of failing, fear of criticism, fear of letting down the tea in some way. That why they try so hard, that's why they pay attention to detail and try to get every possible duck in a row. It's fear'. - Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's Speech Writer.

• Ana te toka te moana Live like a rock in the sea He akinga na nga tai washed by the tides - Maori saying

• 'It is not the biggest, the brightest or the best that will survive, but those who adapt the quickest.' - Charles Darwin

• 'The secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and a thousand things well.' - Henry Walpole

• 'I have learnt to say the word impossible with great caution.' - Verner von Braun

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