Susan Jacoby

"America's idealization of the self-made man - one who succeeds by his own wit and industriousness without advantages concerned by either a privileged family background or formal education - did not easily accommodate respect for those who devoted their lives to teaching and learning. 'Those who can, do; and those who can't, teach' is an adage that would have seemed ridiculous to Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the hiring of a school teacher was one of the two fundamental markers of civilization in frontier communities (the other being the presence of a minister.)"

Susan Jacoby