Derek Bok Quotes

Powerful Derek Bok for Daily Growth

About Derek Bok

Derek Curtis Bok (born July 13, 1930) is an esteemed American academic and legal scholar, who served as the President of Harvard University from 1971 to 1991. Born in New York City to a family of immigrants from Russia and Poland, Bok's early years were marked by a strong emphasis on education. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and later graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1950. Bok's academic pursuits led him to study law at Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude in 1954. His legal career began as a clerk for Associate Justice Harold Hitter of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. He later served as a professor of law at Harvard and became Dean of the Law School from 1966 to 1971, during which time he implemented significant reforms in legal education. In 1971, Bok was elected as the 25th President of Harvard University. During his tenure, he expanded financial aid programs, established new schools and research centers, and oversaw the renovation of Harvard's campus. He also wrote extensively on a variety of topics, including education, law, and public policy. Some of Bok's notable works include "Universities and the Future of America" (1987), which critiques the state of American higher education, and "Our Underachieving Schools: A Report to the Nation" (1994), co-authored with Richard R. Riley, where they discuss educational reform in the United States. Post-presidency, Bok remained active in academic circles, serving as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and teaching as a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He continues to write, advocate for education reform, and is regarded as one of the most influential educational leaders of the 20th century.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"If you think education is expensive, try estimating the cost of ignorance."

The quote emphasizes that investing in education is essential for personal and societal growth, while neglecting it (ignorance) can lead to substantial costs in terms of individual opportunities lost, as well as the negative impact on society at large. Education equips individuals with knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities, making them more capable of contributing positively to their communities and the world. Conversely, a lack of education (ignorance) can limit potential and potentially lead to harmful decisions or actions that can have long-lasting consequences. Essentially, Derek Bok's quote highlights the importance of investing in education as an investment in one's future and society's progress.

"The goals of a college education should be to help students become more independent, more self-confident, and more capable of making decisions and solving problems on their own."

This quote by Derek Bok emphasizes that the purpose of higher education goes beyond academic knowledge acquisition. It aims to foster independence, confidence, decision-making skills, and problem-solving abilities in students. In simpler terms, college education equips students with the tools necessary for self-reliance and critical thinking, preparing them to navigate their lives effectively after graduation.

"Universities that have lost touch with their primary mission of teaching undergraduates are in deep trouble, for it is the education of undergraduates that gives a university its lifeblood."

This quote emphasizes the critical importance of universities focusing on their fundamental role: educating undergraduate students. By neglecting this core mission, universities risk losing their vitality and purpose. The educational experience provided to undergraduates is what truly defines a university, giving it life and sustenance. Neglecting this responsibility places these institutions in jeopardy.

"The very purpose of a university is to make available men and women who are well-educated and trained in their specialties, and who can apply their knowledge to the solution of the problems which confront us all."

Derek Bok's quote emphasizes that the fundamental role of a university is to educate individuals and equip them with expertise in their respective fields. This knowledge should then be applied towards resolving societal issues and challenges that we all face collectively. In essence, universities serve as crucial institutions for cultivating intellectually capable people who can contribute positively to society through their specialized skills and problem-solving abilities.

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

This quote emphasizes the consequence of abstaining from political participation. When individuals choose not to engage in politics, they risk having policies and decisions made by those who may be less informed, less experienced, or simply inferior in terms of understanding and managing complex societal issues. The message underscores the importance of civic engagement and participation in the political process as a means to ensure that competent leaders are making decisions for the greater good.

I believe that Harvard can have, and must have, a strong affirmative action program that reflects our commitment to equal opportunity while fully respecting the academic standards of the University.

- Derek Bok

Strong, Affirmative Action, Respecting

The first country to adopt happiness as an official goal of public policy is the tiny little country of Bhutan in Asia near China and India.

- Derek Bok

Country, China And India, Public Policy

I think one thing that does cause unhappiness is protracted anxiety and worry.

- Derek Bok

Anxiety, Worry, Think, Unhappiness

For some students, especially in the sciences, the knowledge gained in college may be directly relevant to graduate study. For almost all students, a liberal arts education works in subtle ways to create a web of knowledge that will illumine problems and enlighten judgment on innumerable occasions in later life.

- Derek Bok

College, Some, Liberal Arts, Directly

Again and again, universities have put a low priority on the very programs and initiatives that are needed most to increase productivity and competitiveness, improve the quality of government, and overcome the problems of illiteracy, miseducation, and unemployment.

- Derek Bok

Needed, Again, Very, Illiteracy

Efforts to develop critical thinking falter in practice because too many professors still lecture to passive audiences instead of challenging students to apply what they have learned to new questions.

- Derek Bok

Practice, New, Still, Passive

Once you start worrying about a national football championship, then you begin to worry about getting the quality of athlete, and the numbers needed, to win a national championship. And that worry leads to pressure to compromise academic standards to admit those athletes.

- Derek Bok

Numbers, Needed, About, National Championship

What we are doing in educating students is trying to prepare them to live more fulfilling lives for the decades after they graduate. And trying to provide a better, richer, fairer, more decent society for the generations after.

- Derek Bok

Doing, Prepare, Lives, Richer

Economists who have studied the relationship between education and economic growth confirm what common sense suggests: The number of college degrees is not nearly as important as how well students develop cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving ability.

- Derek Bok

Education, College, Critical, Common Sense

There are no tests similar to SATs to tell us how much undergraduates know. State legislators, who appropriate billions of dollars each year to higher education, are naturally interested in finding out what they are getting for their money.

- Derek Bok

Education, Year, Appropriate, Legislators

I won't say there aren't any Harvard graduates who have never asserted a superior attitude. But they have done so to our great embarrassment and in no way represent the Harvard I know.

- Derek Bok

Say, Graduates, Any, Asserted

There's a great deal of difference between thinking reflectively about moral issues and achieving higher standards of ethical behavior.

- Derek Bok

Deal, About, Great Deal, Moral Issues

Teaching methods are often inadequate for the goals faculties are trying to achieve. Important courses such as expository writing and foreign languages are frequently taught by untrained graduate students and underpaid adjunct teachers.

- Derek Bok

Achieve, Methods, Untrained, Goals

As countries embrace mass higher education, the cost of maintaining universities increases dramatically relative to an elite system.

- Derek Bok

Education, Embrace, Cost, Maintaining

Most high governmental officials who speak of education policy seem to conceive of education in this light - as a way to ensure economic competitiveness and continued economic growth. I strongly disagree with this approach.

- Derek Bok

Education, Ensure, Conceive, Economic

Ever since economists revealed how much universities contribute to economic growth, politicians have paid close attention to higher education.

- Derek Bok

Education, Contribute, Economic

I don't think the alternative to Yale is jail by any means. On the other hand, there is a mass of research that does show that there are real advantages to your subsequent career in going to selective institutions.

- Derek Bok

Think, Other, Means, Yale

Fewer than half of all university professors publish as much as one article per year.

- Derek Bok

Year, University, Half, Article

I think any self-respecting educational institution ought to judge its policies by its best estimate of what their long-term consequences for their students and for the society will be.

- Derek Bok

Think, I Think, Educational, Estimate

In 1968, the situation at Harvard was not one of which we can be proud. In that year, the proportion of minority persons in salary and wage positions was approximately 3 per cent. Virtually no minority workers were employed on Harvard construction projects.

- Derek Bok

Proud, Projects, Which, Approximately

The most obvious purpose of college education is to help students acquire information and knowledge by acquainting them with facts, theories, generalizations, principles, and the like. This purpose scarcely requires justification.

- Derek Bok

Education, Purpose, College, Scarcely

Critics of American colleges typically attribute the failings of undergraduate education to a tendency on the part of professors to neglect their teaching to concentrate on research. In fact, the evidence does not support this thesis, except perhaps in major research universities.

- Derek Bok

Education, Fact, Evidence, Concentrate

Good teaching is creating really interesting generalizations out of war stories.

- Derek Bok

Interesting, Stories, Generalizations

I think the minority students that we admit to Harvard are every bit as meritorious as the white students that we admit.

- Derek Bok

Think, Admit, I Think, Harvard

The University has a moral obligation to provide equal opportunities to women, minority persons and all other groups who work or seek to work at Harvard.

- Derek Bok

Other, Moral Obligation, Harvard

If we are prepared to invest the necessary time and effort, affirmative action can contribute to Harvard's quality and not detract from it.

- Derek Bok

Invest, Affirmative Action, Harvard

I suspect that no community will become humane and caring by restricting what its members can say.

- Derek Bok

Caring, Restricting, Humane, Suspect

I think it's very important to emphasize that there are many, many different educational institutions in what we call higher education, and they educate an enormous diversity of students. I think all of those institutions have to define particular roles for themselves; they can't do everything at once.

- Derek Bok

Education, I Think, Very, Educate

Colleges and universities, for all the benefits they bring, accomplish far less for their students than they should. Many students graduate without being able to write well enough to satisfy their employers... reason clearly or perform competently in analyzing complex, non-technical problems.

- Derek Bok

Reason, Benefits, Bring, Well Enough

Apart from finding a first job, college graduates seem to adapt more easily than those with only a high school degree as the economy evolves and labor-market needs change.

- Derek Bok

College, Needs, Graduates, Apart

I don't regard the fact that there's a disparity in test scores nearly as importantly as I do the need for diversity, because I know from long experience that test scores, though useful, are a very limited measure of things that matter in choosing students.

- Derek Bok

Fact, Very, Scores, Disparity

Education, and I regret to say this as an educator, but there's no indication that education has a direct effect on happiness.

- Derek Bok

Education, Happiness, Regret, Educator

Although professors regard improving critical thinking as the most important goal of college, tests reveal that seniors who began their studies with average critical thinking skills have progressed only from the 50th percentile of entering freshmen to about the 69th percentile.

- Derek Bok

College, Average, Reveal, Studies

The college that takes students with modest entering abilities and improves their abilities substantially contributes more than the school that takes very bright students and helps them develop only modestly.

- Derek Bok

College, More, Very, Modestly

Despite the hours spent debating different models of general education, the choices faculties make rarely lead to any significant difference in the cognitive development of undergraduates.

- Derek Bok

Development, Hours, Models, Faculties

Early admission programs tend to advantage the advantaged.

- Derek Bok

Admission, Tend, Advantage, Early

Doctoral training is devoted almost entirely to learning to do research, even though most Ph.Ds who enter academic life spend far more time teaching than they do conducting experiments or writing books.

- Derek Bok

Experiments, Almost, Entirely

Colleges do not merely offer preparation for the future; they occupy four years of a student's life, and an institution should do what it can to make these years absorbing and enjoyable.

- Derek Bok

Student, Colleges, Occupy, Absorb

The vast majority of students probably emerge from college with an adequate grasp of no more than a single method of inquiry. Even this capacity may erode over time if it does not relate to experiences and problems that recur in the student's later life.

- Derek Bok

College, Student, Adequate, Emerge

Universities are in a position where they can think very creatively.

- Derek Bok

Think, Very, Universities, Creatively

Greater inequality in Europe has made people less happy.

- Derek Bok

Happy, Inequality, Made, Europe

The oldest of the arts and the youngest of the professions.

- Derek Bok

Arts, Professions, Youngest, Oldest

Freshly minted Ph.Ds typically teach the way their favorite professors taught.

- Derek Bok

Teach, Favorite, Taught, Professors

I think it's sort of an outrage that companies should have to hire firms to teach the college graduates they employ how to write.

- Derek Bok

College, Think, Employ, Outrage

What college is all about is some kind of 4-year game about who is going to end up with the highest grades. And I don't mean to say that academic achievement isn't important. But it is, after all, a means to an end.

- Derek Bok

College, Some, Means, Highest

There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot.

- Derek Bok

Law, Far, Too, Afford

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