Dr. Ernest Boyer - Quotes

Dr. Boyer had a gift for crafting elegant phrases that captured the deeply held beliefs of educators. His public presentations and his private gatherings with members of the Basic School Network remain memorable for language that clearly and gracefully articulated the life of schools. The Basic School report is full of meaningful ideas and quotes that help to frame much of the work of renewal in Basic Schools across the nation and now, internationally as well.

Collected on this page are a series of favorite "Boyer Quotes" from those who have worked with him and those who find inspiration in his written words. New quotes will be added regularly. You are invited to reflect on those you see here and to suggest others by e-mailing them to vandoverte@missouri.edu

"Beyond building community, and beyond offering a curriculum with coherence, an effective school provides a climate for learning that is both active and creative, not passive and restrictive."

"I believe that knowledge unguided by an ethical and moral compass is more dangerous than ignorance itself.  Ultimately, children need to learn that to be truly human, one must serve others."

". . . the challenge to school renewal cuts across all social and economic sectors.  What is needed . . . is a new vision of elementary education, a comprehensive plan that makes available to every child, school practices that really work."

"The lives of our children and the health of the schools they attend transcend political boundaries, and I remain convinced that in our search for excellence, it is possible to find common ground, for the sake of children.  In the end, this is what the Basic School is all about."

"In the Basic School, the circle of community extends outward to embrace parents, who are viewed as the child's first and most important teachers."

"The core virtues* of the Basic School are taught by both word and deed. Through the curriculum, through school climate, and through service, students are encouraged to apply the lessons of the classroom to the world around them."

(*honesty, respect, responsibility, compassion, self-discipline, perseverance, giving)

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"It's time to stop pretending there's some magic innovation we have yet to discover and start concentrating on what good teachers already know and do."

"If we don't put education in context--in the context of the whole child--we have an exercise in trivial pursuit."

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"A sense of service is expected among adults, but a commitment to civic duty doesn't just emerge. It begins early, and if we want good citizenship among older people, it surely must become a part of children's lives."

"The goal is not only to prepare students for careers, but also to enable them to live with dignity and purpose; not only to give knowledge to the student, but also to channel knowledge to humane ends."

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"Change without tradition is discontinuity.
Tradition without change is stagnation."

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"And above all, let them remember that the meaning of life is to build a life as if it were a work of art. In the end, the Basic School is committed to building lives as if they were works of art."