Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch
Diane Silvers Ravitchis a historian of education, an educational policy analyst, and a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Previously, she was a U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth1 July 1938
CountryUnited States of America
decision understanding passive
Without knowledge and understanding, one tends to become a passive spectator rather than an active participant in the great decisions of our time.
teacher law teach
Those who can’t teach, pass laws about how to evaluate teachers.
wise book pressure-groups
When you realize that your history books and your science books and your literature books are not the result of experts sitting down and making it a wise decision, but of political pressure groups coming to the state textbook hearings, this is wrong.
past ideas fads
American education has been littered with failed fads and foolish ideas for the past century.
school way succeed
When you succeed at keeping almost everyone in school, you must figure out ways to educate everyone you keep in school.
teacher teaching working-conditions
Teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions
running thinking views
What should we think of someone who never admits error, never entertains doubt but adheres unflinchingly to the same ideas all his life, regardless of new evidence? Doubt and skepticism are signs of rationality. When we are too certain of our opinions, we run the risk of ignoring any evidence that conflicts with our views. It is doubt that shows we are still thinking, still willing to reexamine hardened beliefs when confronted with new facts and new evidence.
teacher should congress
Congress and state legislatures should not tell teachers how to teach, any more than they should tell surgeons how to perform operations.
school ladders path
The ladder was there, from the gutter to the university, and for those stalwart enough to ascend it, the schools were a boon and a path out of poverty.
children school responsibility
Unless the schools provide our children with a vision of human possibility that enlightens and empowers them with knowledge and taste, they will simply play their role in someone else's marketing schemes. Unless they understand deeply the sources of our democracy, they will take it for granted and fail to exercise their rights and responsibilities.
school fire police
Privatizing our public schools makes as much sense as privatizing the fire department or or the police department
teacher children thinking
Can teachers successfully educate children to think for themselves if teachers are not treated as professionals who think for themselves?
children school curriculum
Testing is not a substitute for curriculum and instruction. Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools.
school ideas long
American Education has a long history of infatuation with fads and ill-considered ideas. The current obsession with making our schools work like a business may be the worst of them, for it threatens to destroy public education. Who will Stand up to the tycoons and politicians and tell them so?