“The notion of throwing things at people, pegging people with other objects, is a thing contrary to what we’re teaching elsewhere in school-being supportive of each other, working together.”
—Judith Young, executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, an advisory organization that has deemed dodge ball an inappropriate activity for PE classes.
“If the United States was ranked 17th in the world in track and field or in Olympic swimming, there would be a tremendous outcry. Imagine the money that would be spent to fix that.”
—Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” reacting to the news that American 8th graders ranked lower than 16 other countries in science and math knowledge in the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat.
“War is rated R. Life is rated R. You can’t edit life.”
—Utah 11th grader Rachel Wilkinson on the recent Provo City Board of Education decision to ban teachers from showing R-rated movies in schools.
“Many people, including myself before I started teaching, may have had the impression that teachers are completely in charge of the classroom and what goes on there. Maybe in an ideal world that might happen. But in the real world, we have constraints.”
—Scott Smith, a former lawyer who became a teacher in September after a one-month crash course offered by the New York City Board of Education, talking to producers from the NewsHour With Jim Lehrer in November. The PBS show is profiling Smith and three other graduates of the teacher boot camp periodically throughout the school year.
