Jamie Said:

I'm writing an essay for a competition and need help?

We Answered:

This site has tons of quotes regarding your topic: source below

It should be recognised that the proper status of teachers and due public regard for the profession of teaching are of major importance.”
UNESCO (Art. 5 of 1996 Recommendation)

“Modern cynics and skeptics see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.”
John F. Kennedy

“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.”
John F. Kennedy

“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.”
John F. Kennedy

“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”
Khalil Gibran

“A true disciple shows his appreciation by reaching further than his teacher.”
Aristotle

“Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.”
Aristotle

“Bitter are the roots of study, but how sweet their fruit.”
Cato

“Teach the children so that it willnot be necessary to teach the adults.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in. That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
Benjamin Franklin

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.”
Plato

“The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.”
Plutarch

“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well”
Alexander the Great

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
Henry Adams

“Teacher appreciation makes the world of education go around.”
Helen Peters

“What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”
Soren Kierkegaard

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
Andy McIntyre

Andrew Said:

I want to enter a young authors competition?

We Answered:

Do it if you must, but having served on the judges committees for several authors and other creative competitions, I can tell you first hand that most of these are rigged.

When I first got invited to be a judge -- it's a long story how that happened -- I naively went into it thinking, wow, I can really play a part in rewarding someone with real talent and getting their career going!

But, as it turns out, those contests aren't about picking the most talented. More often than not, they are meant to ENCOURAGE young artists but REWARD specific people who have pre-existing political connections to the contest organizers. It isn't always an obvious political connection either. It could be as little as a major judge knowing a relative of competitor, and wanting to be able to go to a party in the future and congratulate that relative in person.

On two separate occassions, there was a clear winner based on talent alone, and in one case, the judges had even unanimously agreed who the winner was, some no-name poor kid whom it turned out had been a bit of a trouble maker in school (I found out later), but WOW this kid could WRITE! We ALL agreed. It was no contest. This kid deserved it, and the second place choice was really good but missing some things here and there.

Well, don't you know, they read the results, and the second place kid we all picked ended up placing FIRST!!! WTF? Apparently they decided that the trouble maker couldn't have possibly written his story. (But we, as judges, interviewed every one of the authors, and we grilled this kid. We even asked him questions about writing style! This kid was legit. There was no way he fooled us. He wrote his story, I would stake my life on that. We all would have.)

BUT, the head judge had the power to overrule our choice, and they did. This kid (now second place) was so disappointed. It crushed him. I don't know whatever happened to him, whether he went on to write or gave up right there and then. But that was the end of my interest in EVER being a judge again.

Sure enough, I found out that the kid picked for first place had a mom who worked for PBS. Interestingly enough, the topic of his story was the topic of a PBS show that aired weeks later. Makes ME wonder whether HE actually wrote HIS story, because there were some things that he never really answered during our interview. Seemed like an honest kid, but in hindsight it made me wonder, and he really avoided answering some of the questions and we hadn't noticed at the time.

Anyway, enter if you like just because you want some encouragement or exposure, but DON'T enter with an expectation or hope to "win".

Frankly, now that I went through that experience, I've noticed that the winners of MOST contests are never the best of the bunch. That kind of politics probably happens in every single contest ever held.