William Glasser

“Since there will be no one left to talk peace after the next war, it makes good sense to break with tradition and hold the peace conference first.”

“To be depressed or neurotic is passive. It happened to us; we are its victim, and we have no control over it.”

“To be depressed or neurotic is passive. It has happened to all of us; we are its victims, are we have no control over it.”

“I think education is both using and improving knowledge and that changes the whole picture.”

“As long as acquiring knowledge is the educational goal of schools, educational opportunities will be limited, as they are now, to affluent families.”

“What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today, but revisiting this painful past can contribute little or nothing to what we need to do now.”

“When you study great teachers... you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.”

“If you improve education by teaching for competence, eliminating schooling, and connecting with students, the test scores will improve.”

“Without pay, no human being will work up to their ability if he or she is not cared for and respected.”

“In a Glasser Quality School there is no such thing as a closed book test. Students are told to get out their notes and open their books. There is no such thing as being forbidden to ask the teacher or another student for help.”

“Prior to being allowed to enter the profession, prospective teachers should be asked to talk with a group of friendly students for at least half an hour and be able to engage them in an interesting conversation about any subject the prospective teacher wants to talk about.”

“It is almost impossible for anyone, even the most ineffective among us, to continue to choose misery after becoming aware that it is a choice.”

“No human being will work hard at anything unless they believe that they are working for competence.”

“Choice Theory explains that, for all practical purposes, we choose everything we do.”

“I think it is totally wrong and terribly harmful if education is defined as acquiring knowledge.”

“Too many of us fail to fulfill our needs because we say no rather than yes, or perhaps later in life, yes when we should say no.”

“Told that the passing grade is a B or competence and that we will help you to get there, students do competent work. The lowest passing grade in the real world is competence. Why do schools accept so much less?”

“The faster you go, the more students you leave behind. It doesn't matter how much or how fast you teach. The true measure is how much students have learned.”

“There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.”

“They have this big book called the 'DSM-IV,' you know, that is supposedly written about crazy people, but I think it is a book that is written by crazy people!”