"If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn."
- Ignacio Estrada
Adaptation
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
- Nelson Mandela
Education
"All children with special needs have a right to be part of a family, a community and society."
- Angela Dare
Inspiration
"In special education, there’s too much emphasis placed on the deficit and not enough on the strength."
- Temple Grandin
Belief
"Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or in the same way."
- John Evans
Adaptation
"What most Special Education teachers are really angels disguised as extraordinary humans."
- Joe Martin
Inspiration
"A good teacher isn’t someone who gives the answers out to their kids but is understanding of needs and challenges and gives tools to help other people succeed."
- Justin Trudeau
Leadership
"I touch the future. I teach."
- Christa McAuliffe
Inspiration
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."
- Henry Adams
Education
"Some people change the world. And some people change the people who change the world, and that’s you."
- Kij Johnson
Inspiration
"Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge, and children with special needs inspire a very, very special love."
- Sarah Palin
Love
"Parenting a child with special needs will be the greatest challenge of your life, and if you make good choices, it may also prove one of the most rewarding."
- Judy Winter
Adversity
"Children with special needs are unique individuals."
- Neena Dash
Awareness
"Education is a shared commitment between dedicated teachers, motivated students and enthusiastic parents with high expectations."
- Bob Beauprez
Teamwork
"Great education is a combination of a supporting environment, dedicated teachers and students who take joy in learning."
- Hermann J Steinherr
Education
"If you look behind every exceptional person there is an exceptional teacher."
- Stephen Hawking
Inspiration
"Invest in our teachers, and our children will succeed."
- Barack Obama
Empowerment
"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire."
- William Butler Yeats
Inspiration
"Special education is not a place. It's a service."
- Loretta Claiborne
Education
"Every child deserves a champion: an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists they become the best they can possibly be."
- Rita Pierson
Empowerment
"Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world."
- Malala Yousafzai
Empowerment
"Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way."
- George Evans
Education
"Every student can learn, just not on the same day or in the same way."
- George Evans
Adaptation
"Inclusion is not a strategy to help people fit into the systems and structures which exist in our societies; it is about transforming those systems and structures to make it better for everyone."
- Diane Richler
Inspiration
"Inclusive education is not a privilege. It is a fundamental human right."
- Ban Ki-moon
Inspiration
"We need to give every individual the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of their background or circumstance."
- Cory Booker
Motivation
"Inclusive education seeks to address the learning needs of all children, with a specific focus on those who are vulnerable to marginalization and exclusion. The goal is to promote opportunities for all children to participate and be treated equally."
- Andie Fong Toy
Inspiration
"It shouldn’t matter how slowly a child learns. What matters is that we encourage them to never stop trying."
- Robert John Meehan
Motivation
"When inclusive education is fully embraced, we abandon the idea that children have to become ‘normal’ in order to contribute to the world. We begin to look beyond typical ways of becoming valued members of the community, and in doing so, begin to realize the achievable goal of providing all children with an authentic sense of belonging."
- Norman Kunc
Inspiration
"Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world."
- Malala Yousafzai
Education
"A good special education teacher is hard to find and even harder to hang on to."
- Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
Adversity
"I decided to study special education and fell in love with working with individuals with autism. That’s what I planned to do with my life."
- Clay Aiken
Aspirations
"When you listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become wiser, more inclusive, and better as an organization."
- Pat Wadors
Inspiration
"Teachers can make such a profound impact on our lives and should be honored as heroes."
- Rainn Wilson
Compassion
"You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it."
- J.D. Salinger
Determination
"It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom."
- Michael Morpurgo
Education
"Teaching is the greatest act of optimism."
- Colleen Wilcox
Optimism
"The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth."
- Dan Rather
Inspiration
"What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches."
- Karl Menninger
Education
"A good teacher is like the rising sun that comes to fill the empty and dark minds with the light of the education"
- Anamika Mishra
Education
"Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching kids what counts is best."
- Bob Talbert
Education
"It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength."
- Maya Angelou
Compassion
"When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become wiser, more inclusive, and better as an organization."
- Pat Wadors
Inspiration
"Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need."
- Rick Riordan
Motivation
"The secret in education lies in respecting the student."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Education
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it."
- Steve Jobs
Success
"When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t."
- Thomas A. Edison
Resilience
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible!"
- Audrey Hepburn
Optimism
"The best way to predict the future is to create it."
- Peter Drucker
Vision
"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Belief in Self
"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."
- Albert Einstein
Adaptation
"The only real limitation on your abilities is the level of your desires. If you want it badly enough, there are no limits on what you can achieve."
- Brian Tracy
Ambition
"The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said."
- Peter Drucker
Insight
"The highest result of education is tolerance."
- Helen Keller
Education
"No child left behind requires states and school districts to ensure that all students are learning and are reaching their highest potential. Special education students should not be left out of this accountability."
- Dianne Feinstein
Education
"For those with learning disabilities, today's tools for differentiation no longer hold the stigma they used to nor highlight disabilities, but provide opportunities to find success in the classroom."
- Sharon LePage Plante
Education
"When you judge someone based on a diagnosis, you miss out on their abilities, beauty, and uniqueness."
- Sevenly.org
Awareness
"All of the children of silence must be taught to sing their own song."
- Thomas Gallaudet
Inspiration
"Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care."
- Anonymous
Compassion
"The only disability in life is a bad attitude."
- Scott Hamilton
Overcoming Obstacles
"The gap between the abilities and capacities of children related to their learning, adjustment and development found at the time of their birth, may further be widened by the nature of the environmental difference encountered by them in their nourishment and education."
- S. K. Mangal
Education
"There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book."
- Frank Serafini
Education
"Special Education is a service, not a place!"
- Anonymous
Awareness
"My teacher gave me the best gift of all… Believing in me!"
Belief in Self
"Every child is gifted. They just unwrap their packages at different times."
Growth
"Teachers are those who help find strengths, wipe away tears, overpower demons and conquer fears."
Compassion
"Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning."
Inspiration
"It takes a big heart to shape little minds."
Compassion
"The influence of a good teacher can never be erased."
Education
"Every student is capable of success"
Belief in Self
"Inclusion is not a choice, it’s a human right"
Respect
"A good education can change anyone. A good teacher can change everything!"
Education
"Children learn more from who you are than what you teach."
Education
"See the able, not the label."
Motivation
"A child with special needs.. requires love, requires guidance, requires encouragement, requires positive influences, requires a life teacher… JUST LIKE ALL OTHER CHILDREN."
Compassion
"You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails"
Adaptation
"It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you react to it"
Resilience
"Different doesn’t mean difficult"
Belief
"Our job is to teach the kids we have. Not the ones we used to have. Not the ones we would like to have. The ones we have right now…all of them."
Motivation
"Every student can learn, just now on the same day or in the same way."
Motivation
"It’s not about the grade, it’s about the effort"
Hard Work
"Different is not less"
Belief in Self
"Only a special person can hear what a child cannot say."
Compassion
"Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when I know there are footprints on the moon."
Motivation
"Don’t underestimate me. I know more than I say, I think more than I speak, and I notice more than you realize."
Motivation
"No Child Left Behind requires states and school districts to ensure that all students are learning and are reaching their highest potential. Special Education students should not be left out of these accountability mechanisms."
Education
"If you desire to make a difference in the world, you must be different from the world."
Motivation
"Fair isn’t everybody getting the same thing…Fair is everybody getting what they need in order to be successful."
Motivation