Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is you need to talk with children to teachers and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.
Poetry is the language we speak in the most terrifying or ecstatic passages of our lives. But the very word poetry scares people. They think of their grade school teachers reciting 'Hiawatha' and they groan.
There are better ways we can transform this virulent hatred - by living our ideals the Peace Corps exchange students teachers exporting our music poetry blue jeans.
Since the nature of people is bad to become corrected they must be taught by teachers and to be orderly they must acquire ritual and moral principles.
High school music teachers... nobody makes a living off it.
For some students school is the only place where they get a hot meal and a warm hug. Teachers are sometimes the only ones who tell our children they can go from an Indian reservation to the Ivy League from the home of a struggling single mom to the White House.
My mom was a teacher - I have the greatest respect for the profession - we need great teachers - not poor or mediocre ones.
I think the real heroic teachers are the ones who work with kids like my mom and my sister do.
Just the actual physical ability to hold four instruments simultaneously and do some of the things that Vivien was able to do is mind blowing to any surgeon. He never went to medical school and he became one of the great teachers of medicine himself people are just amazed.
Learning while at school that the charge for the education of girls was the same as that for boys and that when they became teachers women received only half as much as men for their services the injustice of this distinction was so apparent.
I always wanted to go to the Chavez school but I could never afford it when I was growing up so a lot of my learning came from magic books and watching other magicians. I was also very lucky that I had a couple of really good magic teachers.
My teachers helped guide and motivate me but the responsibility of learning was left with me an approach to learning which was later reinforced by my experiences at Amherst.
Emotional 'literacy' implies an expanded responsibility for schools in helping to socialize children. This daunting task requires two major changes: that teachers go beyond their traditional mission and that people in the community become more involved with schools as both active participants in children's learning and as individual mentors.
I always found the extraordinary loss of life in the First World War very moving. I remember learning about it as a very young child as an eight- or nine-year-old asking my teachers what poppies were for. Every year the teachers would suddenly wear these red paper flowers in their lapels and I would say 'What does that mean?'
The atmosphere at my school was very competitive. Young girls were competing with each other every day for status for leadership for the affection of the teachers. I hated it.
There was the best teachers from the Czech Philharmonic highly dedicated people some of the best musicians in the world passing on the knowledge about the country about the principles and about the music.
The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn when teachers themselves are taught to learn.
Emotional intelligence begins to develop in the earliest years. All the small exchanges children have with their parents teachers and with each other carry emotional messages.
I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker and they liked us to learn poems by heart which I found I loved doing.
The single most important thing in a child's performance is the quality of the teacher. Making sure a child spends the maximum amount of time with inspirational teachers is the most important thing.
Some of my high school teachers did remind me that I had an excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses.
Teachers have a chance to mold someone inspire them. I hope all teachers realize that.
I remind everyone: Whether you school them at home or send them to school you as a parent have the responsibility to make sure they learn and behave. Teachers and principals may help but parents are the ones who must accept responsibility.
Most of the time I liked school and got good grades. In junior high though I hit a stumbling block with math - I used to come home and cry because of how frustrated I was! But after a few good teachers and a lot of perseverance I ended up loving math and even choosing it as a major when I got to college.
With a host of proposals on the table and a President examining new ideas for health reform we have an obligation to give real reform our best shot.