Esme Codell Quotes & Sayings

...'Loving children is what teachers do for extra credit. It's not the main assignment.'
'Seems to me that the extra credit is more important than the main assignment,' observed Cordelia. — Esme Raji Codell

You're saying she doesn't do her work? So take care of your business! Fail her like a normal kid. The failure will be between me and my daughter, then. You won't like it if her failure is between me and you. — Esme Raji Codell

And when you go to God's house, it ain't got to be no fashion show. You just come as you are. — Esme Raji Codell

If you give people an idea these days, they just think you are sharing it with them so they can critique it, play devil's advocate, and so on. It doesn't occur to them that they might help or get enthused or at least have the courtesy to get out of your way. — Esme Raji Codell

So much of teaching is sharing. Learning results in sharing, sharing results in change, change is learning. The only other job with so much sharing is parenting. That's probably why the two are so often confused. You can't test what sort of teacher someone will be, because testing what someone knows isn't the same as what someone is able to share. — Esme Raji Codell

That file full of letters meant I met with a Special Needs teacher in the hallway to get something called Individualized Attention, and let me tell you, working in the hallway with a teacher is like being the street person of a school. People pass you by, and they act like they don't see you, but three steps away they've got a whole story in their heads about why you're out there instead of in the nice cozy classroom where you belong, Stupid? Unlucky? Unloved? — Esme Raji Codell

I tend not to share things unnecessarily with those I despise. — Esme Raji Codell

Oh, thank you, Darrell Sikes, for being wild and nasty and rude and getting me out of The Program and making me Normal Dumb, not Special Dumb. I owe you one, Darrell Sikes. — Esme Raji Codell

Sometimes a little song is sweet to hear, even if the orchestra is more accomplished — Esme Raji Codell

But certain people just think it's their job to freak out. As long as they're freaking out, they feel busy, like they must be doing work. Getting upset is force, but no motion. Unless we are moving the children forward, we aren't doing work. — Esme Raji Codell

Something's going on in Cordell's room, but I'm not sure I want to know what it is. — Esme Raji Codell

It's not our job to be liked(teachers)", I reminded her. "Its our job to help them be smart(students)". Secretly, I thought, who gives a rat's ass if they like us? Sometimes I can hardly stand them! — Esme Raji Codell

Why do these dumb fucks keep guns around the house? They make the world as ruinous as they imagine it is. — Esme Raji Codell

The goal is not necessarily to succeed but to keep trying, to be the kind of person who has ideas and see them through. — Esme Raji Codell

The difference between a beginning teacher and an experienced one is that the beginning teacher asks, "How am I doing?" and the experienced teacher asks, How are the children doing? — Esme Raji Codell

A library is a platform upon which we catch trains to Every Where and Any Place, Another Time and Across Space. All aboard! — Esme Raji Codell

I suppose an active imagination can be a form of madness. Or it can be the thing that keeps you from going mad. — Esme Raji Codell