Robin Wall Kimmerer quotes

“What if you were a teacher but had no voice to speak your knowledge? What if you had no language at all and yet there was something you needed to say? Wouldn't you dance it? Wouldn't you act it out? Wouldn't your every movement tell the story? In time you would be so eloquent that just to gaze upon you would reveal it all. And so it is with these silent green lives.”
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer

#Teacher Quotes #Voice Quotes #What If Quotes

“It's a sign of respect and connection to learn the name of someone else, a sign of disrespect to ignore it. And yet, the average American can name over a hundred corporate logos and ten plants. Is it a surprise that we have accepted a political system that grants personhood to corporations, and no status at all for wild rice and redwoods? Learning the names of plants and animals is a powerful act of support for them. When we learn their names and their gifts, it opens the door to reciprocity.”
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer

#Powerful Quotes #Animal Quotes #Names Quotes

“With words at your disposal, you can see more clearly. Finding the words is another step in learning to see.”
-- Robin Wall Kimmerer

#Reading Quotes #Steps Quotes #Literacy Quotes

“Teachers believe they have a gift for giving; it drives them with the same irrepressible drive that drives others to create a work of art or a market or a building.”

Source : A. Bartlett Giamatti (1981). “The University and the Public Interest”, Atheneum Books

“Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. . . . Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense." --Sam Seaborne, West Wing”

“Behind the parents stands the school, and behind the teacher the home.”

“It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Source : Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Community School Dist. (1969)

“There are moments as a teacher when I'm conscious that I'm trotting out the same exact phrase my professor used with me years ago. It's an eerie feeling, as if my old mentor is not just in the room, but in my shoes, using me as his mouthpiece.”

“My voice is the only material thing in which I can still reveal myself. Go ahead and cut off the hand or the testicles of a voice. Try to find the head of a voice, the orifice through which it passes, or even the breasts to which you can attach the clips of your electrodes. Nothing. Resonant tooth.”

“When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.”

“What if we all suddenly get carried away thinking - who will be left to act?”

“And what if I never go of my own free will? Will you pitch me from some window so that I must fly or fall? Will you bolt all shutters after me? You had better, because I'll knock and knock and knock until I fall down dead. I'll have no wings that take me away from you.”

“I used to wake up and look at our analytics and think, 'What if yesterday was the last day anyone used Pinterest?' Like, everyone collectively decided, 'We're done!' Over time I got more confidence.”

Source : "Ben Silbermann, Pinterest Founder And CEO, Talks Criticism, Fears". Interview with Sara Wilson, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 27, 2012.