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Top 20 Rafe Esquith Quotes (2025 Update)

Rafe Esquith Quote: “The reason I love teaching, it’s like being a miner. I find all these undiscovered jewels and, with the right motivation, they’re amazed at what they can do. I have to show them their capability.”

1. “The reason I love teaching, it’s like being a miner. I find all these undiscovered jewels and, with the right motivation, they’re amazed at what they can do. I have to show them their capability.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “Teach like your hair’s on fire!”

2. “Teach like your hair’s on fire!”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I want my students to love to read. Reading is not a subject. Reading is a foundation of life, an activity that people who are engaged with the world do all the time.”

3. “I want my students to love to read. Reading is not a subject. Reading is a foundation of life, an activity that people who are engaged with the world do all the time.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “That’s the beauty of art – we strive for perfection but never achieve it. The journey is everything.”

4. “That’s the beauty of art – we strive for perfection but never achieve it. The journey is everything.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “It’s not the job of the teacher to save a child’s soul; it is the teacher’s job to provide an opportunity for the child to save his own soul.”

5. “It’s not the job of the teacher to save a child’s soul; it is the teacher’s job to provide an opportunity for the child to save his own soul.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I try to show the children how every lesson I teach them is going to be something they use in their real life. That’s why my kids work so hard, not because I’m so cool. They’re working for themselves.”

6. “I try to show the children how every lesson I teach them is going to be something they use in their real life. That’s why my kids work so hard, not because I’m so cool. They’re working for themselves.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “A child who learns that the past has created the present and that the present will shape the future will be willing to explore other times beyond his own limited existence.”

7. “A child who learns that the past has created the present and that the present will shape the future will be willing to explore other times beyond his own limited existence.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I am asking teachers to understand that we must make the education relevant for the children. If they’re only working for the tests or they’re only working to please us, they’re not going to be interested in school.”

8. “I am asking teachers to understand that we must make the education relevant for the children. If they’re only working for the tests or they’re only working to please us, they’re not going to be interested in school.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “Would you rather have your child in a room with the best equipment in the world with an average teacher or an empty room with Socrates?”

9. “Would you rather have your child in a room with the best equipment in the world with an average teacher or an empty room with Socrates?”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “Good teachers are an endangered species because they’re giving up because of the tests and everything.”

10. “Good teachers are an endangered species because they’re giving up because of the tests and everything.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “You hear terrible stories because there’ll be a story about some terrible kid, but most of the kids I work with are terrific kids. They’re poor, maybe their families are broken, so they’re not coming home to a mom and dad and a nice dinner every night. But these kids are capable.”

11. “You hear terrible stories because there’ll be a story about some terrible kid, but most of the kids I work with are terrific kids. They’re poor, maybe their families are broken, so they’re not coming home to a mom and dad and a nice dinner every night. But these kids are capable.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “Children are born with varying levels of talent and intelligence, but possessing natural smarts and skills is no guarantee of success. It takes more than that: it takes work on the part of parents and teachers to cultivate these qualities, to instill in children the drive and character necessary to translate their natural gifts into extraordinary results.”

12. “Children are born with varying levels of talent and intelligence, but possessing natural smarts and skills is no guarantee of success. It takes more than that: it takes work on the part of parents and teachers to cultivate these qualities, to instill in children the drive and character necessary to translate their natural gifts into extraordinary results.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I thought to myself that if I could care so much about teaching that I didn’t even realize my hair was burning, I was moving in the right direction. From that moment, I resolved to always teach like my hair was on fire.”

13. “I thought to myself that if I could care so much about teaching that I didn’t even realize my hair was burning, I was moving in the right direction. From that moment, I resolved to always teach like my hair was on fire.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I travel a lot with my students. We go on the road and even learn about things like doing your laundry and managing your time. And maybe that’s not on the test at the end of the year, but it’s in the test of life and that’s why my classroom is successful.”

14. “I travel a lot with my students. We go on the road and even learn about things like doing your laundry and managing your time. And maybe that’s not on the test at the end of the year, but it’s in the test of life and that’s why my classroom is successful.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I love Shakespeare. In Shakespeare, tragedy is not just something that’s bad. It’s something that could be good and is bad.”

15. “I love Shakespeare. In Shakespeare, tragedy is not just something that’s bad. It’s something that could be good and is bad.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I always tell the kids that excellence is like pregnancy. You can’t be a little bit pregnant. You either are or you’re not.”

16. “I always tell the kids that excellence is like pregnancy. You can’t be a little bit pregnant. You either are or you’re not.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “Baseball is a religion in my classroom. It’s a very important part of life, baseball.”

17. “Baseball is a religion in my classroom. It’s a very important part of life, baseball.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “Most of us have participated in the trust exercise in which one person falls back and is caught by a peer. Even if the catch is made a hundred times in a row, the trust is broken forever if the friend lets you fall the next time as a joke. Even if he swears he is sorry and will never let you fall again, you can never fall back without a seed of doubt.”

18. “Most of us have participated in the trust exercise in which one person falls back and is caught by a peer. Even if the catch is made a hundred times in a row, the trust is broken forever if the friend lets you fall the next time as a joke. Even if he swears he is sorry and will never let you fall again, you can never fall back without a seed of doubt.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “If a child is going to grow into a truly special adult–someone who thinks, considers other points of view, has an open mind, and possesses the ability to discuss great ideas with other people–a love of reading is an essential foundation.”

19. “If a child is going to grow into a truly special adult–someone who thinks, considers other points of view, has an open mind, and possesses the ability to discuss great ideas with other people–a love of reading is an essential foundation.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “There are so many charlatans in the world of education. They teach for a couple of years, come up with a few clever slogans, build their websites, and hit the lecture circuit. In this fast-food-society, simple solutions to complex problems are embraced far too often. We can do better. I hope that people who read this book realize that true excellence takes sacrifice, mistakes, and enormous amounts of effort. After all, there are no shortcuts.”

20. “There are so many charlatans in the world of education. They teach for a couple of years, come up with a few clever slogans, build their websites, and hit the lecture circuit. In this fast-food-society, simple solutions to complex problems are embraced far too often. We can do better. I hope that people who read this book realize that true excellence takes sacrifice, mistakes, and enormous amounts of effort. After all, there are no shortcuts.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I don’t think we expect enough of students. They just need someone to show them the way.”

21. “I don’t think we expect enough of students. They just need someone to show them the way.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I have students who are PhDs in music who come back and scored the music and teach the kids the instruments that I don’t know how to play. Those are the points of light, the former students.”

22. “I have students who are PhDs in music who come back and scored the music and teach the kids the instruments that I don’t know how to play. Those are the points of light, the former students.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “I want my kids to know that they’re just as good and just as American as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or Dr. Martin Luther King. My worst fear is they will become ordinary.”

23. “I want my kids to know that they’re just as good and just as American as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or Dr. Martin Luther King. My worst fear is they will become ordinary.”

— Rafe Esquith

Rafe Esquith Quote: “There’s a difference between logic and what maybe people see when they’re presented evidence and justice and that they’re not always together.”

24. “There’s a difference between logic and what maybe people see when they’re presented evidence and justice and that they’re not always together.”

— Rafe Esquith

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