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If you take a look at science in its everyday function, of course you find that scientists run the gamut of human emotions and personalities and character and so on. But there’s one thing that is really striking to the outsider, and that is the gauntlet of criticism that is considered acceptable or even desirable. The poor graduate student at his or her Phd oral exam is subjected to a withering crossfire of questions that sometimes seem hostile or contemptuous; this from the professors who have the candidate’s future in their grasp. The students naturally are nervous; who wouldn’t be? True, they’ve prepared for it for years. But they understand that at that critical moment they really have to be able to answer questions. So in preparing to defend their theses, they must anticipate questions; they have to think, ‘Where in my thesis is there a weakness that someone else might find? – because I sure better find it before they do, because if they find it and I’m not prepared, I’m in deep trouble.’ Carl Sagan, ‘Wonder and Skepticism’ Skeptical Inquirer 19:1 1995
I can find in my undergraduate classes bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star. Carl Sagan
I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students. Carl Sagan
I’m worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel – let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they’re doing. I’m concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that’s handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers. Howard Zinn
It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man, BBC 1973
All subjects are the same. I memorize notes for a test, spew it, ace it, then forget it. What makes this scary for the future of our country is that I’m in the tip-top percentile on every standardized test. I’m a model student with a very crappy attitude about learning. Megan McCafferty, Sloppy Firsts
The biggest mistake that any teacher makes is to assume their students are interested in anything they have to say. Lawrence Krauss
The job of an educator is to teach students to see vitality in themselves. Joseph Campbell
Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day. Thomas Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College 1747
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
’Tis folly to be wise. ibid.
Students achieving oneness will move onto twoness. Woody Allen, cited Blind Men and Elephants p47
At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. William Shakespeare, As You Like It II vii 143
Nor lean enough to be thought a good student. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night IV ii 7-8, Feste
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading;
Lofty and sour to them that lov’d him not;
But to those men that sought him sweet as summer. William Shakespeare, Henry VIII IV ii 51
Students, eh? Love ’em or hate ’em, you can’t hit them with a shovel! Terry Pratchett, Making Money
‘But we’re a university! We have to have a library!’ said Ridcully. ‘It adds tone. What sort of people would we be if we didn’t go into the library?’
‘Students,’ said Senior Wrangler morosely. Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent
One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil. Friedrich Nietsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
But if you tell folks you’re a college student, folks are so impressed. You can be a student in anything and not have to know anything. Just say toxicology or marine biokinesis, and the person you’re talking to will change the subject to himself. If this doesn’t work, mention the neural synapses of embryonic pigeons. Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
‘What a silly thing love is!’ said the student as he walked away. ‘It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to philosophy and study metaphysics.’
So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read. Oscar Wilde
A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that ‘individuality’ is the key to success. Robert Orben
To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States. George W Bush
Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves – and be free. Cesar Chavez
We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community – and this nation. Cesar Chavez
Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity? Cesar Chavez
Harvard takes perfectly good plums as students, and turns them into prunes. Frank Lloyd Wright
This is at the heart of all good education, where the teacher asks students to think and engages them in encouraging dialogues, constantly checking for understanding and growth. William Glasser
I always knew the Sixties wasn’t a revolution. It really was just a bunch of university students with wealthy parents having fun. John Lydon
Today in America, we are trying to prepare students for a high-tech world of constant change, but we are doing so by putting them through a school system designed in the early 20th Century that has not seen substantial change in 30 years. Janet Napolitano
If you are giving a graduate course you don’t try to impress the students with oratory, you try to challenge them, get them to question you. Noam Chomsky
Corporatization of the universities … cheap labour without rights: what are called graduate students. Noam Chomsky, lecture 8th July 2017, ‘The Corporatization of the Universities’, Youtube 1.39.35
By now in most states tuition covers more than half the costs in state colleges, sometimes far more – up to 80% … Costs are going out of sight … Student debt is exceptionally punishing: it’s designed that way. ibid.
Scientists need to be prepared to engage, and the best people to engage with are students, ideally from primary school because there’s no question that their capacity to work out complex things is extremely good. Robert Winston
For students today, only 10% of children from working-class families graduate from college by the age of 24 as compared to 58% of upper-middle-class and wealthy families. Patrick J Kennedy