Scipione
on Teaching, Learning and Careers
Brian Lamb:
"I first got interested in military history and history in general as a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin. I was a premed. I was going to follow in my father's footsteps. Then I went into a course in American History that the university required you to take. I walked in and the professor -- his name was Dr. William B. Hesseltine -- had been talking about three minutes and suddenly I wasn't a premed anymore. I was a history major. After that lecture I went up to him and I said: "I want to do what you do for a living. How do I go about doing that?"
(Interview with the late historian and author Stephen Ambrose, Chapter 15 in: Brian Lamb. Booknotes (America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing and the Power of Ideas). New York: Times Books (Random House), 1997, pp. 53-56)
David G. Winter in Obituary for David C. McClelland:
"The most distinctive features of McClelland's teaching and lecturing style were the extraordinarily broad range of topics discussed and his casual, almost free-association manner of spinning out ideas and thinking on his feet. At the end of 50 minutes, in the words of one student writing for the university's course evaluation guide: 'I saw God'."
(American Psychologist, May 2000, pp. 540-541)
John R. Anderson in Obituary for Herbert A. Simon:
"Herbert Simon was one of the greatest American intellectuals of the 20th Century (and died at age 84 on February 9, 2001). I would like to briefly review his life, his fame (Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, 1978) and his influence, which extends far beyond psychology. Many different fields claim Herb as their own -- political science, economics, computer science, and psychology are perhaps the principal four. I am reminded of a story Herb told about how he amused himself as a young man when he used to travel by train across America. He would start up a conversation with some fellow traveler, inquire about that person's profession, and carefully listen as they described what they did. When he was confident he understood the language of that profession, he would reveal to the traveler that he too shared that profession and they would try to maintain that deception for the rest of the trip."
(American Psychologist, Jun/Jul 2001, pp. 516-518)
Henry Brooks Adams:
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."
John Dewey:
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
Anonymous Quotes in Advertisement for J.P Morgan:
"I will assume nothing. I will challenge everything. I will rush to the defense of the facts."
"I will not always have the solution. But I will always find it."
(Fortune Magazine, 8-16-99, p. 80)
Samuel Johnson:
"Knowledge is of two kinds, we know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it."
(Samuel Johnson, Buswell's Life, 1775)
Thomas Paine:
"Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish it."
(Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, I)
Caption in Magazine Cartoon:
Shows a 50ish business executive guest lecturing in a high school class and being asked this embarrassing question: "What did you want to do before you started doing what you're doing?"
Former Graduate Student at Montclair State University:
Letter to Dr. Scipione: "Do you realize what you did? I was making a ton of money as a retail stock broker but hated it. Then I walked into your Market Research class and discovered a whole new world and new career. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"