Just like that, summer is over.
Sure, we’ve still got unseasonably warm temperatures, sunshine into the evening and plenty of outdoor events planned. But as school buses once again trundled down Dutchess County roadways this week and relieved parents prepared their children for the daily routines of school, studying and sports, there was no mistaking the change in season.
And as a tribute to back-to-school time, here are some words on education – in and out of the classroom – from prominent historical figures. Words of wisdom, if you will.
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
– William Shakespeare
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
– Mark Twain
“Learning is not compulsory ... neither is survival.”
– Henry Ward Beecher
“Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken.”
– Bill Dodds
“You send your child to the schoolmaster, but ‘tis the schoolboys who educate him.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The teacher is one who makes two ideas grow where only one grew before.”
– Elbert Hubbard
“Nothing grieves a child more than to study the wrong lesson and learn something he wasn’t supposed to.”
– E.C. McKenzie
“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”
– Kahlil Gibran
“What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“In elementary school, many a true word is spoken in guess.”
– Henny Youngman