Inspiring Grading Quotes

The best way to measure how much you've grown isn't by inches or the number of laps you can now run around the track, or even your grade point average-- though those things are important, to be sure. It's what you've done with your time, how you've chosen to spend your days, and whom you've touched this year. That, to me, is the greatest measure of success.

It’s pretty confusing.” “Good. Be confused. Confusion is where inspiration comes from.

I would teach how science works as much as I would teach what science knows. I would assert (given that essentially, everyone will learn to read) that science literacy is the most important kind of literacy they can take into the 21st century. I would undervalue grades based on knowing things and find ways to reward curiosity. In the end, it's the people who are curious who change the world.

Our life is like a land journey, too even and easy and dull over long distances across the plains, too hard and painful up the steep grades; but, on the summits of the mountain, you have a magnificent view--and feel exalted--and your eyes are full of happy tears--and you want to sing--and wish you had wings! And then--you can't stay there, but must continue your journey--you begin climbing down the other side, so busy with your footholds that your summit experience is forgotten.

I had a very wise mother. She always kept books that were my grade level in our house.

Anna remembered her fifth grade teacher, Mr. White, telling her that hatred wasn't the worst of emotions. If one hated, one still cared. Indifference was the most inhuman.

…time has a way of leading a person along a crooked path. Sometimes the path is hard to hold to and people fall off along the way. They curse the road for its steep grades and muddy ruts and settle themselves in hinterlands of thorn and sorrow, never knowing or dreaming that the road meant all along to lead them home. Some call that road a tragedy and lose themselves along it. Others, those that see it home, call it an adventure.

She succeeds because she is loved and respected. - Kailin Gow, Amazon Lee and The Red Jade General Lady Liang of Song

Positive Words Are Blessings - Kailin Gow, Amazon Lee Adventures

Acts of Kindness Transcends All Languages - Kailin Gow, Amazon Lee Adventures

I don't want to just survive

True class can never receive the highest grade..for its grade is endless

My priority is not about grades. I seek yearn for knowledge, skills and wisdom.

Teachers always say—"we will never know unless they tell us”. We tell them, but they ignore us… …I did tell you, I always tell you.

Bullies have issues within themselves and they are uncomfortable in their skin. So, they’d rather make someone feel bad to pick themselves up.

You do not have power over me to make me feel bad about myself.

My grandfather was crying. The kind of quiet that is quiet and a secret. The kind of crying that only I noticed. I thought about him going into my mom's room when she was little and hitting my mom and holding up her report card and saying that her bad grades would never happen again. And I think now that maybe he meant my older brother. Or my sister. Or me. That he would make sure that he was the one to work in a mill. I don't know if that's good or bad. I don't know if it's better to have your kids be happy and not go to college. I don't know if it's better to be close with your daughter or make sure she has a better life than you do. I just don't know.

Nearly all men have weak hearts, in one way or another.

One might say, I am too young to experience bullying. Believe it or not, bullying happens to kids who are younger than me.

Teachers just don’t understand bullying hurts.

I always tell my teachers, and I thought it was going to get better.

What’s the point in telling the teacher when the innocent people are ignored and get in trouble, and the bad kids always get away with everything?

When I am at school, I smile to block the hurt. When I am with my family I can always be myself.

We shouldn’t give anyone the ability to rob our children of happiness. Bullying shouldn't be taken lightly. Bullying is a Silent Killer!

I can speak up for myself, but I decided you are not worth my time. You do not have the power to bully me anymore. I know who I am.

Do not stand up against a bully alone.

Do not ignore being bullied, because it will never stop.

Stand firm, speak up—because silence is not golden, instead, it is deadly. Do not ignore being bullied, because it will never stop.

He closed his grade book and asked hopefully, "What inspired you? Was it Hawthorne?" I stared at him. He had to be kidding.

My priority is not about grades. I yearn for knowledge, skills and wisdom.

If your teachers don’t listen, tell someone who you trust. Let them be aware of the situation, regardless of whether or not it is ongoing. Let them know every single time it happens.

I tried explaining, but my voice wasn’t heard. How is that fair? I wondered to myself—why wasn’t my voice heard and why do the good kids always get in trouble for defending themselves?

I might be little but I am fierce. I might be patient, but I am quick, and when I am quiet that means I am focused. You have a fire under your feet and nobody can put out those flames.

When I am being bullied, my teachers never listen. They always think I am making it up—or they will try to sugar-coat the situation. They fail to realize that children have feelings too, and we deserve to be heard.

This has been the worst year because teachers do not understand bullying hurts. This has been a rough year because I had to fight for peace. But this has been the best year ever because I finally took up for myself.

I had to defend myself because I was tired of hurting and being bullied.

I tell my teachers, but they never do anything!

I did what you told me to do. I always tell my teachers, and I thought it was going to get better.

Words hurt my feelings. It really hurts when everyone else laughs too. It is not a good feeling. Not a good feeling at all.

Bullies know exactly what they are doing! They make it seem like it was a mistake to the teacher’s face—and the teachers always fall for it.

I tried telling my teacher about it, but she/he ignored me and told me ‘not right now’ and to get in line.

I did tell you, I always tell you.

I have to defend myself because if I don’t, I am going to be a target for everyone to push around.

I tried explaining, but like always, it went unheard.

We are deeply hurting inside and out because our feelings are constantly being ignored.

Bullies always get away with doing wrong, because most of the time they never get caught.

When your teachers do not do anything about it—it is sad when you have to take matters in your own hands. It is scary. I was scared when I fought back, but I had to do it.

When I smile around my family it is real, but when I am at school, I smile to block the hurt.

When I am at school, I smile to block the hurt.

To be honest, teachers just don’t understand bullying hurts.

When my child was bullied and called names for years, you all didn’t care. Now all of a sudden, since he/she is taking up for him/herself, it’s a problem.

I want to turn every person who has been bullied into their own hero!

I want to turn every person who has been bullied into their own hero—if I can do it, others can do it too. I am proud of myself.

One wish I would like to be granted is for teachers to understand bullying hurts. Bullying tears a person down, inside and out.

One wish I would like to be granted is for teachers to understand bullying hurts. Bullying tears a person down, inside and out. It stings and deeply pierces the heart.

I wish teachers would take bullying seriously because we, as students, are hurting. We tell the teacher for a reason.

Bullying shouldn't be taken lightly. Bullying is a Silent Killer!

How can a person feel good for making someone else feel bad? I do not understand.

I wish teachers would take bullying seriously because we, as students, are hurting.

I am learning that bullies cannot break me—because their words are empty, because I matter. I am loved. I am supported. I love myself too much for someone to tear me down.

Stand firm, speak up—because silence is not golden, instead, it is deadly.

Think of a world where “Detachment”, “Gratitude” and “Empathy” were subjects included in every grade school’s curriculum. A new generation would emerge with an attitude of peace, contentment and an overall appreciation for everything and everyone

You think it’s because they’re lying? Nonsense! I like it when people lie! Lying is man’s only privilege over all other organisms. If you lie--you get to the truth! Lying is what makes me a man. Not one truth has ever been reached without first lying fourteen times or so, maybe a hundred and fourteen, and that’s honorable in its way; well, but we can’t even lie with our own minds! Lie to me, but in your own way, and I’ll kiss you for it. Lying in one’s own way is almost better than telling the truth in someone else’s way; in the first case you’re a man, and in the second—no better than a bird! The truth won’t go away, but life can be nailed shut; there are examples. Well, so where are we all now? With regard to science, development, thought, invention, ideals, aspirations, liberalism, reason, experience, and everything, everything, everything, we’re all, without exception, still sitting in the first grade! We like getting by on other people’s reason--we’ve acquired a taste for it! Right? Am I right?

Teachers just don’t understand how I feel inside. They think since they asked us to apologize, their job is done. It isn’t done, because I still hurt from the name-calling, hitting, humiliation, sleepless nights, and from feeling alone and depressed at school.

I am tired of you all tolerating bullying at your school! You all should be ashamed of yourselves! Take the wool off of your eyes and see the truth for what it is--and it is the bullying; known as the Silent Killer!

Do not stand up against a bully alone. If your teachers don’t listen, tell someone who you trust. Let them be aware of the situation, regardless of whether or not it is ongoing. Let them know every single time it happens.

The question is not “Can you make a difference?” You already do make a difference. It’s just a matter of what kind of a difference you want to make, during your life on this planet. (Taken from Black and Buddhist, thinking critically and teaching differently in the primary grades by Mary Cowhey)

I did not want to fight. I had to fight. If I didn’t, everyone else would have picked on me. Not only would I have had one bully, but maybe two, three, four or who knows how many. I had to do what I had to do since the principal, assistant principal, and my teachers weren’t doing anything about it.

I also try to treat people the way I want to be treated. I guess other people do not think the same as I do.

I was miserable going to school every day.

It is not fair to be treated this way.

I shouldn’t be scared of bullies, because bullies are the ones who are scared. That is why they bully people.

Bullies want to act like they are hard, but inside they are afraid.

Some students are mean, spoiled, rude, and seem as though they do not have a loving bone in their bodies.

My teachers always say they will talk to the students… Yeah right, that is what all of my teachers say, but the same students bully me over and over again.

I guess since it was two against one—my truth didn’t hold enough weight. They played the innocent role.

I am not afraid of you. I do not fear you; you do not scare me. You are a big bully who is afraid, and scared of yourself!

When I tell them, they think I am always making it up, and they never believe me. They never do anything about it.

I feel better knowing it is okay to take up for myself.

How is it fair that the respectful children always get in trouble and the bullies get away with shattering lives? You all need to put a stop to bullying instead of condoning it.

I might be little but I am fierce. I might be patient, but I am quick, and when I am quiet that means I am focused.

What is a student supposed to do? When we try to prevent a situation, we are told to be quiet and sit down. The teachers never listen, yet they always say, tell the teacher. Why? When teachers don’t listen, they do not care, and they just do not understand.

Stand firm, speak up—because silence is not golden, instead, it is deadly. Do not ignore being bullied, because it will never stop. Throughout my challenges with being bullied, I learned I have a choice, I have a voice, I have power over my thoughts, and my bully does not have power over me. Do not stand up against a bully alone.

I tell my teachers, but they never do anything! They would tell us to apologize. I do not understand. why do I have to apologize? After the other person apologizes, they hit me or call me names more quietly.

I’ve learned to bully doesn’t only involve attacking someone physically or verbally; it is so much more. Bullying consists of invading other people’s property, humiliation, mind games (pretending to be someone’s friend), manipulation, making threats, spreading rumors, showing aggressive behavior, and/or excluding someone from a group on purpose.

I did tell you, I always tell you. Not all the time, because nothing is ever done so I stopped telling my teachers. If one teacher isn’t around—I would tell another teacher, but he/she too will ignore what I am saying.

My teachers would think the problem was solved. It wasn’t… because the same person would still pick on me, just more quietly, so the teacher wouldn’t hear him. It only got worse, and more people began to pick on me because they knew they were not going to get into trouble. I was miserable going to school every day.

I guess since it was two against one—my truth didn’t hold enough weight. They played the innocent role. They said I was picking on them. I tried explaining, but my voice wasn’t heard. How is that fair? I wondered to myself—why wasn’t my voice heard and why do the good kids always get in trouble for defending themselves?

Bullies have issues within themselves and they are uncomfortable in their skin. So, they’d rather make someone feel bad to pick themselves up. I wonder why people want to be so cruel with their words. The kids that bully me are so rude, nasty and disrespectful. How can a person feel good for making someone else feel bad? I do not understand.

Juggling and balancing effectively required that we make clear, legacy-driven choices about what we're trying to keep in the air and how we sequence our movements down the beam. Because the ultimate grade in life is not based on how far and fast we've walked the beam or how many things we’ve juggled—it’s based on how much we've enjoyed the exercise.

Reading every day with children can't guarantee perfect outcomes for any family—not in grades, not in happiness, not in relationships. But it is as close to a miracle product as we can buy, and it doesn't cost a nickel. As a flawed, fallible person with an imperfect temper, I know that reading every night is not just the nicest thing I've done with my children but represents, without question, the best I have been able to give them as their mother.

I am tired of you all tolerating bullying at your school! You all should be ashamed of yourselves! You all need to put a stop to bullying instead of condoning it. Take the wool off of your eyes and see the truth for what it is--and it is the bullying; known as the Silent Killer!

One might say, I am too young to experience bullying. Believe it or not, bullying happens to kids who are younger than me. When I am being bullied my teachers never listen. They always think I am making it up—or they will try to sugar-coat the situation. They fail to realize that children have feelings too, and we deserve to be heard. Teachers just don’t understand bullying hurts.

How is the fair that the respectful children always get in trouble, but the bullies always get away with shattering lives. I am tired of you all tolerating bullying at your school! You all should be ashamed of yourselves! You all need to put a stop to bullying instead of condoning it. Take the wool off of your eyes and see the truth for what it is--and it is the bullying; known as the Silent Killer!

It's like people you see sometimes, and you can't imagine what it would be like to be that person, whether it's somebody in a wheelchair or somebody who can't talk. Only, I know that I'm that person to other people, maybe to every single person in that whole auditorium. To me, though, I'm just me. An ordinary kid. But hey, if they want to give me a medal for being me, that's okay. I'll take it. I didn't destroy a Death Star or anything like that, but I did just get through the fifth grade. And that's not easy, even if you're not me.

I think our challenge as parents is to rise above that preference for the child of least resistance and to think beyond short-term success as a criterion—particularly if success is defined by conventional and insipid standards. Don’t we want our kids to be inspiring rather than spend their lives just collecting tokens (grades, money, approval)? Don’t we want them to think in the plural rather than focusing only on what will benefit them personally? Don’t we want them to appraise traditions with fresh eyes and raise questions about what seems silly or self-defeating or oppressive, rather than doing what has always been done just because it’s always been done?

And I am proud, but mostly, I’m angry. I’m angry, because when I look around, I’m still alone. I’m still the only black woman in the room. And when I look at what I’ve fought so hard to accomplish next to those who will never know that struggle I wonder, “How many were left behind?” I think about my first-grade class and wonder how many black and brown kids weren’t identified as “talented” because their parents were too busy trying to pay bills to pester the school the way my mom did. Surely there were more than two, me and the brown boy who sat next to me in the hall each day. I think about my brother and wonder how many black boys were similarly labeled as “trouble” and were unable to claw out of the dark abyss that my brother had spent so many years in. I think about the boys and girls playing at recess who were dragged to the principal’s office because their dark skin made their play look like fight. I think about my friend who became disillusioned with a budding teaching career, when she worked at the alternative school and found that it was almost entirely populated with black and brown kids who had been sent away from the general school population for minor infractions. From there would only be expulsions or juvenile detention. I think about every black and brown person, every queer person, every disabled person, who could be in the room with me, but isn’t, and I’m not proud. I’m heartbroken. We should not have a society where the value of marginalized people is determined by how well they can scale often impossible obstacles that others will never know. I have been exceptional, and I shouldn’t have to be exceptional to be just barely getting by. But we live in a society where if you are a person of color, a disabled person, a single mother, or an LGBT person you have to be exceptional. And if you are exceptional by the standards put forth by white supremacist patriarchy, and you are lucky, you will most likely just barely get by. There’s nothing inspirational about that.

I tell my teachers, but they never do anything! They would tell us to apologize. I do not understand, why do I have to apologize? After the other person apologizes, they hit me or call me names more quietly. Teachers just don’t understand how I feel inside. They think since they asked us to apologize, their job is done. It isn’t done, because I still hurt from the name-calling, hitting, humiliation, sleepless nights, and from feeling alone and depressed at school.

The Anne Rice books are a lot about infection. I read "Interview With the Vampire" a million times when I was in seventh and eighth grade. Also, [writing Gavriel's backstory] definitely came from those books: I sat down and reread them all and thought a lot about… the way in which vampirism is pushing away from humanity in interesting ways, and creating something new from humanity. I imprinted on those books pretty hard. Tanith Lee's "Sabella or the Blood Stone" was a big inspiration. I absolutely loved her books; when I was a kid, I wrote many bad Tanith Lee pastiches. Susie McKee Charnas' "The Vampire Tapestry." Poppy Z. Brite's "Lost Souls." Nancy Collins' "Sunglasses After Dark," which sounds like the most '80s title ever. It's about a vampire named Sonja Blue, and she goes around killing vampires. She's the only vampire who's half-alive. It's a really fun, blood-filled romp. It's very "Blade" before "Blade"--with a lady.

Qualities such as honesty, determination, and a cheerful acceptance of stress, which can all be identified through probing questionnaires and interviews, may be more important to the company in the long run than one's college grade-point average or years of "related experience." Every business is only as good as the people it brings into the organization. The corporate trainer should feel his job is the most important in the company, because it is. Exalt seniority-publicly, shamelessly, and with enough fanfare to raise goosebumps on the flesh of the most cynical spectator. And, after the ceremony, there should be some sort of permanent display so that employees passing by are continuously reminded of their own achievements and the achievements of others. The manager must freely share his expertise-not only about company procedures and products and services but also with regard to the supervisory skills he has worked so hard to acquire. If his attitude is, "Let them go out and get their own MBAs," the personnel under his authority will never have the full benefit of his experience. Without it, they will perform at a lower standard than is possible, jeopardizing the manager's own success. Should a CEO proclaim that there is no higher calling than being an employee of his organization? Perhaps not-for fear of being misunderstood-but it's certainly all right to think it. In fact, a CEO who does not feel this way should look for another company to manage-one that actually does contribute toward a better life for all. Every corporate leader should communicate to his workforce that its efforts are important and that employees should be very proud of what they do-for the company, for themselves, and, literally, for the world. If any employee is embarrassed to tell his friends what he does for a living, there has been a failure of leadership at his workplace. Loyalty is not demanded; it is created. Why can't a CEO put out his own suggested reading list to reinforce the corporate vision and core values? An attractive display at every employee lounge of books to be freely borrowed, or purchased, will generate interest and participation. Of course, the program has to be purely voluntary, but many employees will wish to be conversant with the material others are talking about. The books will be another point of contact between individuals, who might find themselves conversing on topics other than the weekend football games. By simply distributing the list and displaying the books prominently, the CEO will set into motion a chain of events that can greatly benefit the workplace. For a very cost-effective investment, management will have yet another way to strengthen the corporate message. The very existence of many companies hangs not on the decisions of their visionary CEOs and energetic managers but on the behavior of its receptionists, retail clerks, delivery drivers, and service personnel. The manager must put himself and his people through progressively challenging courage-building experiences. He must make these a mandatory group experience, and he must lead the way. People who have confronted the fear of public speaking, and have learned to master it, find that their new confidence manifests itself in every other facet of the professional and personal lives. Managers who hold weekly meetings in which everyone takes on progressively more difficult speaking or presentation assignments will see personalities revolutionized before their eyes. Command from a forward position, which means from the thick of it. No soldier will ever be inspired to advance into a hail of bullets by orders phoned in on the radio from the safety of a remote command post; he is inspired to follow the officer in front of him. It is much more effective to get your personnel to follow you than to push them forward from behind a desk. The more important the mission, the more important it is to be at the front.