There Are No Shortcuts Quotes

“To quote the exceptional teacher Marva Collins, "I will is more important than IQ." It is wonderful to have a terrific mind, but it's been my experience that having outstanding intelligence is a very small part of the total package that leads to success and happiness. Discipline, hard work, perserverance, and generosity of spirit are, in the final analysis, far more important.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“I'd like to give every young teacher some good news. Teaching is a very easy job. Administrators will tell you what to do. You'll be given books and told chapters to assign the children. Veteran teachers will show you the correct way to fill out forms and have your classes line up.

And here's some more good news. If you do all of these things badly, they let you keep doing it. You can go home at three o'clock every day. You get about three months off a year. Teaching is a great gig.

However, if you care about what you're doing, it's one of the toughest jobs around.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“I found the role model to inspire me to handle such situations with more grace, maturity, and, most important of all, results...

I reread Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and I realized I had found my hero in Atticus Finch...

It hit me like a thunderbolt. You see, Atticus knows everything Huck knows. He knows society is racist. He recognizes the violence, hypocrisy, injustice, and ignorance of society. He knows he is going to lose.

But Atticus does not light out for the territory. He goes into the courtroom to fight the fight as best as he can, because it is what he believes in. He doesn't do it because of the law, or the rules, or what people will think. He has his own code, and he lives by it as well as he can.

I still cry when I think about this. My classroom is my courtroom. I am going to lose more than I win. There are many times when, despite my efforts, I will lose children to poverty, ignorance, and, most tragically, a society that embraces mediocrity...

I've made plenty of mistakes since rediscovering Atticus, but I've always been able to hold my head up to my students. Atticus showed me the way.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“I didn't realize that many people, who may be good people, feel that working in schools is just a job and not a holy mission.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“I've learned the best reason to take children on the road: children learn and understand how to behave by being exposed to new situations and watching others...As a teacher of children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, I came to understand that my students would work harder for a better life if they saw the life they were working for.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“But to paraphrase Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind, ignorance and mediocrity are forever busy, and the forces of mediocrity aren't content with being mediocre; they'll do everything in their power to prevent even the humblest of teachers and children from accomplishing anything extraordinary. For good work shines a light on the failures of the mediocre, and that is a light which terrifies those who conspire to keep our nation's children, like themselves, ordinary.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“With better vision, we sacrifice for students for whom that sacrifice will most likely pay off. I'm sorry to say this, but there are times when even superhuman effort will not save a child from his environment or himself. It's not the job of the teacher to save a child's soul; it is the teachers' job to provide an opportunity for the child to save his own soul.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“Early in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem refuses to come down from the tree house and eat breakfast because his father won't play football for the Methodists. Atticus goes out to invite Jem in to eat, but Jem refuses. Atticus doesn't get into a long discussion. He has made his offer and quietly walks away when Jem stubbornly declares he will not come down. 'Suit yourself,' says Atticus simply. He can rest easy because he's done his job as a loving father, and if Jem decides to go hungry, that's his choice. The wise father knows when to walk away and leave well enough alone.

As a teacher , I wish I had realized this early in my career, but at least I know it now. Whether I deal with administrators, parents, teachers, or students, I have my answer.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“Unfortunately working hard doesn't necessarily make someone an effective teacher.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“Those who celebrate failure will not be around to help today's students celebrate their jobs flipping burgers...Someone has to tell children if they are behind, and lay out a plan of attack to help them catch up.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“Those who celebrate failure will not be around to help today's students celebrate their jobs flipping burgers.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“With such a complicated and crucial part of a child's education in jeopardy, there are many forces at work -- a sort of conspiracy of mediocrity that denies children the chance to develop a love of reading and become good readers. It is a pattern that involves our system, parents, teachers, and sometimes even librarians.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'

I realized then where the problem lay. My students, and so many of our young people today, want a good life. They love (even if they don't always appreciate) liberty. They all want to be happy. But I realized that day that my class was a microcosm of what is wrong with some any of nation's young people.

What happened to pursuit? We aren't handed happiness. We're given an opportunity to pursue it.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“Everything has become too easy for our young people, and we make things worse by lying to them. We don't help them face reality. Teachers and schools lie to children and parents all the time.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts

“We teachers are all boxers. We get hit a lot. I've been knocked down so many times I'm often woozy.
But I've learned something in...the classroom: all teachers, even the best ones, get knocked down. The difference between the best ones and the others is that the best ones always get up to answer the bell.
May you always get up. It is a child ringing the bell, and he needs your help.”
― Rafe Esquith, There Are No Shortcuts