No Great Artist Ever Sees Things As They Really Are. If He Did, He Would Cease To Be An Artist.

Hope your weekend is Ba-na-na POTATO fantastic!

Where do I begin? I spent the last thirty minutes listening to a group of arrogant and condescending non educators disrespect my colleagues and profession. I listened to a group of disingenuous people whose own self-interests guide their policies rather than the interests of children. I listened to a cabal of people who sit on national education committees that will have a profound impact on classroom teaching practices. And I heard nothing of value. "I'm thinking about the current health care debate," I said. "And I am wondering if I will be asked to sit on a national committee charged with the task of creating a core curriculum of medical procedures to be used in hospital emergency rooms." The strange little man cocks his head and, suddenly, the fly on the wall has everyone's attention. "I realize that most people would think I am unqualified to sit on such a committee because I am not a doctor, I have never worked in an emergency room, and I have never treated a single patient. So what? Today I have listened to people who are not teachers, have never worked in a classroom, and have never taught a single student tell me how to teach."

2009 National Teacher of the Year Anthony Mullen, describing his experience at a national conference on the future of teaching in his blog post, “Teachers Should Be Seen and Not Heard.” This should be read. (via politicalprof)

Determination, energy, and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something. We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context.

Margaret J. Wheatley

From the set of The Hobbit!

Language barriers are not friendship barriers.

A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.

Yogi Berra

Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.

John Lennon

I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing.

Anais Nin

Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Suffrage, noun. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right of suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means, as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another man's choice, and is highly prized.

Ambrose Bierce