Quotes by Jill Telford

They say you can tell a lot about a country by the way it treats its prisoners…I believe the same can be said for how a country treats its children

It doesnt matter the materials but what you do and how you interact. Relationships are the most important in the art of teaching. A school can have the most beautiful stuff but its the care and commitment of a teacher. What matters most is a true teacher with the real stuff inside and helping others discover that real stuff inside themselves.

An educator...a good one that is, inspires others to be even better than herself.

I work backwards with the ending in mind as I create art, stories, poems and books. Always in a process of becoming.

Be the kind of grown up you needed as a child.

Most often it is in heartache that we love more boldly.

People say they walk on the shoulders of giants. True, but have you ever walked like one?

Be simple. Be direct. Be clear. Dont worry about being correct. Worry about being real.

Create something. Create something ugly. Create something beautiful.  I dont care what it is. Create it. 

Start each day asking, How do I want others to feel? Then act accordingly. xo

Education is not filling up a box but seeing what you can create with one and dont you ever forget that!

A poem a day keeps the doctor away.

Forget the American dream...whats your dream? The thing that keeps you up at night...the thing that makes you happy...the thing that keeps your spirit going. Do that thing. Dont label it a hobby or what you do in your spare time type of thing...label that thing you do the thing you love to do. The thing you were born to do. When you stop doing what you love you lose a huge part of yourself. Dont get lost.

I dont live to work. I work to live. Before I die I know I lived.

I never wanted a too die for house, or a too die for car. I always wanted a too die for life.If you were to die tomorrow would you feel like you did everything you wanted to? Loved everyone and meant it? Lived with honesty and integrity? Stood up for what you believed in? Did you work to live or did you live to work? Those that hurt you or upset you did you try to work it out? Did you still love them from a distance even if they hurt you so bad? If not work to change and make it right before its too late.Remember the house, the car, the money and the material possessions you cant take with you when your gone. All you have is YOU and what YOU were about. Remember that.

Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt. Lies. Words hurt. The words we remember. Well, the hurt feeling the words caused stays with us forever.

The brain. Where words mean something. The heart. Where words feel something. When both work together. Kaboom.

A few lessons learned as a teacher: Ive learned that if you whisper, children will listen...a scribble can be anything (I mean anything!) a monster, a cat, a mom, a dad--our job is to ask to find out and pay attention--usually the most challenging student needs the most challenges to keep them learning and engaged---most of all we must care and the rest handles itself. xo

Learning is not filling up a box but seeing and imagining what we can create with it.

I dont really enjoy experiencing pain. No one does. But we will become less human if we learn to detach ourselves from one another to the point that when we experience death of a beautiful being (our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, our brothers, our soul mates, our friends etc.) that it will not bother us that we will not feel. But see thats suppression. It will bother us somewhere deep inside. So, love someone. Hold them tight. Dont fear the loss. Fear the part of being too afraid to love someone. Love Everyone. Its inevitable: we all die. Thats the ugly part of life. But Love and being alive is so beautiful and so strong that the love, the memories stay even in death. Life is love, life is being alive to feel pain. The love the beautiful love always remains. Love. Life. Joy. Peace