Teaching Science Quotes

“It is possible for you to realise your dream as a scientist, you must be a passionate learner and curious enough to seek this wonderful career path.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!

“The teacher should be like the conductor in the orchestra, not the trainer in the circus.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Education Decree

“Amantes Assemble Sonnet 51

Education alone won't change anything,
First we gotta rid education of all archaism.
Rather than being a tool of indoctrination,
Education oughta be a force of undoctrination.
Education ought to be secular,
Education ought to be nonsectarian.
Sectarianism that passes as education,
Is the very antithesis of education.
Scriptures can be a part of education,
But they mustn't be the basis of education.
Cultures can be a part of education,
But they mustn't be the basis of education.
Any force that claims to liberate the mind,
Must first liberate itself from all divide.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Great teaching is the ability to distinguish between what can and needs to be explained and what cannot be explained. The working of a computer needs to be explained as it is made by the human mind. But a butterfly need not always be explained. A butterfly has to be seen with gleaming eyes of wonder as it is a natural expression of life and not of the mind. Great teaching is more like a craft than a technique. To evoke the curiosity in the learner, to care for the learner and to take the learner on a journey of discovery are some of the most critical elements of this craft.”
― Debashis Chatterjee, Can You Teach A Zebra Some Algebra?

“Our fundamental impulses are neither good nor bad: they are ethically neutral. Education should aim at making them take forms that are good. The old method, still beloved by Christians, was to thwart instinct; the new method is to train it. Take love of power: it is useless to preach Christian humility, which merely makes the impulse take hypocritical forms. What you have to do is to provide beneficent outlets for it. The original native impulse can be satisfied in a thousand ways—oppression, politics, business, art, science, all satisfy it when successfully practised. A man will choose the outlet for his love of power that corresponds with his skill; according to the type of skill given him in youth, he will choose one occupation or another. The purpose of our public schools is to teach the technique of oppression and no other; consequently they produce men who take up the white man’s burden. But if these men could do science, many of them might prefer it. Of two activities which a man has mastered, he will generally prefer the more difficult: no chess-player will play draughts. In this way, skill may be made to minister to virtue.”
― Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays

“Science is a satisfactory curiosity.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!

“I love to teach children science.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!