I recently was preparing for a talk I have to give on the complexities of teaching language to children with profound language problems. It is a field marked by enormous controversy, on the one hand and great promise, on the other. This led me, as I often do, to search for quotes that would capture the essence of the message I was trying to convey. Hoping that you will enjoy them as much as I have, here are some that captured my interest:

"Just don't give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."
– Ella Fitzgerald

"A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it's an undo-it-yourself project."
– Abigail Van Buren

"Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
– Steve Jobs

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
– Annie Dillard

"It's never too late to be who you might have been."
– George Eliot

"Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich."
– Sarah Bernhardt

"Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy."
– Pyotr Tchaikovsky

"If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all."
– Michelangelo

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg."
– C. S. Lewis

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
– Albert Einstein

"If you change the way you look at things, the way you look at things changes."
- Dahlia

"We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn."
– Mary Catherine Bateson

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."
– Lao-Tzu

"When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge."
– Tuli Kupferberg

"I don't think I am getting smarter, I just think I am tired of making the same mistakes over and over!"
- Stephen Herman

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
– Aristotle

"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway."
– Mary Kay Ash

"The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
– Lady Dorothy Nevill

"Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use."
– Ruth Gordon

"Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of the field in hope that the cow will back up to them."
– Elbert Hubbard

"Don't carry a grudge. While you're carrying a grudge, the other guy's out dancing."
– Buddy Hackett

"Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule."
– Samuel Butler

"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it."
– William C. Durant

“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”
- Plato

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."
– Bertrand Russell

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision."
– Peter Drucker

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
– Beverly Sills

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
– Eleanor Roosevelt

"Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."
– Virginia Satir

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
– Albert Einstein

"Map out your future, but do it in pencil."
– Jon Bon Jovi

"When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this — you haven't."
– Thomas Edison

“You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

"The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas."
– Linus Pauling

"We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn."
– Mary Catherine Bateson

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

"A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work."
– John Lubbock

"Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there."
– Josh Billings

"It may be those who do most, dream most."
– Stephen Leacock

"I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody."
– Lily Tomlin

"A university professor set an examination question in which he asked what is the difference between ignorance and apathy. The professor had to give an A+ to a student who answered: I don't know and I don't care."
- Richard Pratt

'Don't go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.'
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?"
- Anonymous

"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
– Carlos Castaneda

"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."
– Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Many wise words are spoken in jest, but they don't compare with the number of stupid words spoken in earnest."
- Sam Levinson

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
– Thomas Jefferson

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." - George Carlin

Posted by Marion Blank at 10:37 PM
Read post | Comments (0)

Schools started out with the mission to teach the "3 R's." But it didn't stay that way for long. In its role as the major agency for children, each decade brings new assignments that it must fulfill--from teaching driving education to learning methods of negotiating aggression.

One of these expanded functions has included nutrition as millions of children each day consume "the school lunch." The original aim was the noble one of decreasing hunger. But now, the constituents of that lunch have seem to have contributed significantly to the rise of obesity in the nation.

As a result, Congress is now considering a bill to make certain that whatever lands on those cafeteria trays is nutritious and safe to eat.

A reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act is now before the Senate with the main sponsors being Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat, and Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican. The House must produce its own version if Congress can act by late spring--so that next year’s school cafeteria crowd can be more confident that the food is healthier and safer to eat.

There are several components in the Senate, but a chief one would give the Agriculture Department new powers to set nutritional standards for any food sold on school grounds, particularly junk foods that contribute to obesity. It would expand the use of local farm products, organic food and school gardens, and require the government to notify schools more quickly about tainted foods.

The driving force behind the House bill is Representative George Miller, a California Democrat, who is expected to ask for stronger food safety regulations. He also seeks more money for fighting childhood hunger and obesity, especially in the schools.

Though its focus is on the school, this bill has major health care implications. Better childhood nutrition is essential to one's long term health. A wise bill could improve what millions of young Americans eat every day — and improve their chances of a healthy life.

Posted by Marion Blank at 03:06 PM
Read post | Comments (0)