December 29, 2002
Textual Variants

Brian Micklethwait of Brian's Education Blog quotes an old saw:

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

(I've inserted a couple of commas that are grammatically dubious but rhetorically helpful.)

I've always liked the rarer extended or interpolated variants:

1. For high school:

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach, coach.

2. For college and graduate school:

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach, teach people to teach.

Although I'm a teacher, none of these actually apply to me. It's not like there's anything I could do with Latin other than teach it.

Posted by Dr. Weevil at December 29, 2002 02:04 PM
Comments

Doc, I always liked: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, become Dean.

I told that one to the Dean of Admissions at my college. He loved it. Actually, some of my best teachers were practioners with real jobs in the field. Usually, they taught because they liked it and felt an obligation "to give back."

Posted by: CGeib on December 30, 2002 08:31 PM

There was a good Doonesbury cartoon, long ago when the strip was funny. A professor is protesting to university president King about budget cuts. "If you touch a penny of my budget I'll move to private industry."

President King replies, "Private industry? Herbert, you're a Latin teacher."

"And a damned fine one. I'd be snapped up in a minute."

Posted by: Michael Lonie on January 1, 2003 02:23 AM