52 Quotes by Diane Ravitch

Testing children until they cry is a bad idea. It is an educational malpractice.

What is happening to teachers now across this nation is a disgrace. The attacks on them are a blot on our nation. Teachers and students are not different interest groups. Anyone who demeans teachers demeans education and hurts children.

Without knowledge and understanding, one tends to become a passive spectator rather than an active participant in the great decisions of our time.

Those who can’t teach, pass laws about how to evaluate teachers.

When you realize that your history books and your science books and your literature books are not the result of experts sitting down and making it a wise decision, but of political pressure groups coming to the state textbook hearings, this is wrong.

American education has been littered with failed fads and foolish ideas for the past century.

When you succeed at keeping almost everyone in school, you must figure out ways to educate everyone you keep in school.

Teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions

What should we think of someone who never admits error, never entertains doubt but adheres unflinchingly to the same ideas all his life, regardless of new evidence? Doubt and skepticism are signs of rationality. When we are too certain of our opinions, we run the risk of ignoring any evidence that conflicts with our views. It is doubt that shows we are still thinking, still willing to reexamine hardened beliefs when confronted with new facts and new evidence.