I asked ChatGPT to give me some additional quotes regarding education from people who were considered controversial. The results are interesting.

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1. "He who opens a school door, closes a prison." - Victor Hugo (Hugo was progressive in many ways but held views on colonialism that don't age well.)

2. "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats (Yeats was an Irish nationalist with sympathies for authoritarian figures later in life.)

3. "Give me a child for the first seven years and I will give you the man." - Often attributed to the Jesuits (The Jesuit order is respected in education but is also tied to colonial missionary efforts and church controversies.)

4. "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." - Martin Luther King Jr. (Widely respected today, but heavily criticized during his life and still politically polarizing in some circles.)

5. "The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library." - Albert Einstein (Generally beloved, but Einstein was targeted in his day for being a pacifist, socialist, and critic of nationalism.)

6. "You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation." - Brigham Young (Founder of Brigham Young University, but also a polygamist and controversial religious leader with strong theocratic beliefs.)

7. "Education is a weapon whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." - Joseph Stalin (A chilling quote from a dictator, but still accurate in the abstract. I wouldn't recommend quoting this one without serious framing.)

8. "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." - Herbert Spencer (A key figure in early sociology but also associated with social Darwinism.)

9. "All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education." - Walter Scott (Influential literary figure but criticized for romanticizing imperial Britain.)

10. "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." - Alvin Toffler (Forward-thinking futurist, though his tech-optimism has critics.)

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While I may agree of most of them, that doesn't mean I agree with everything the authors ever did. I mean... what the hell is a library? :)

They are building a huge library (a place filled with newspapers, books and journals) in my smallish town in Colombia. It's across from the local tech/trade school where I sometimes teach. With the students doing their best to get by on their homework assignments using AI, I wonder how much use it's going to get, at least for academic purposes.

I was explaining to my gf that we actually used to go to libraries for research. There was no other option. She asked where we got our ideas for text if not from AI. We spent an hour going through an example for her.

Yeah, we have whole new generations of people who have never needed to use a card catalog.

Technically, we use AI to get other peoples' ideas.  I just feel like young people are missing the lessons in doing proper research and citing sources.

Matt In university, we read "Madame Bovary". I thought outside the box and my paper was about how Monsieur Homais wasn't the bumbling apothecary, but really the sneaky villain pulling the strings leading to the demise of Emma and Charles. I had a ton of references and examples. The professor wrote on the top of my paper, "Don't write such idiotic ideas."  Ahhh, the great American education system, stay inside the lines, don't think, regurgitate what you've been taught.

My kids and I have had similar experiences.  I explained that people who lack the ability to consider a new idea are found in all walks of life and it doesn't make them bad people, just a little disappointing.  

I like this one.
Einstein's thoughts on education, "Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."  I think I saw it on this web page.  Ever since it's been on my mind due to I'm a deep thinker.