30 Quotes by Rafe Esquith

I travel a lot with my students. We go on the road and even learn about things like doing your laundry and managing your time. And maybe that’s not on the test at the end of the year, but it’s in the test of life and that’s why my classroom is successful.

If a child is going to grow into a truly special adult–someone who thinks, considers other points of view, has an open mind, and possesses the ability to discuss great ideas with other people–a love of reading is an essential foundation.

I want my kids to know that they’re just as good and just as American as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or Dr. Martin Luther King. My worst fear is they will become ordinary.

Most of us have participated in the trust exercise in which one person falls back and is caught by a peer. Even if the catch is made a hundred times in a row, the trust is broken forever if the friend lets you fall the next time as a joke. Even if he swears he is sorry and will never let you fall again, you can never fall back without a seed of doubt.

Good teachers are an endangered species because they’re giving up because of the tests and everything.

I thought to myself that if I could care so much about teaching that I didn’t even realize my hair was burning, I was moving in the right direction. From that moment, I resolved to always teach like my hair was on fire.

Baseball is a religion in my classroom. It’s a very important part of life, baseball.

I don’t think we expect enough of students. They just need someone to show them the way.

I am asking teachers to understand that we must make the education relevant for the children. If they’re only working for the tests or they’re only working to please us, they’re not going to be interested in school.