“A country’s competitiveness starts not on the factory floor or in the engineering lab. It starts in the classroom.”
~Lee Iacocca, American automotive executive
Talking Straight (1988) with Sonny Kleinfeld, New York, NY: Bantam Books, July 1989 edition, p. 236
Extended excerpt: [From a book of autobiographical essays & thoughts on various topics. Quoted excerpt appears in chapter XIII: “The School Crisis”]
“A country’s competitiveness starts not on the factory floor or in the engineering lab. It starts in the classroom. We’ve got to get cracking on education – at all levels – or we’ll get run over by the Far East.” (p. 232)
Source: Library – Talking Straight (1988|July 1989 Bantam Book edition) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-553-27805-3
“I’d really love to meet the guy I’m supposed to be. I’d hire him in a second.”
~Lee Iacocca, American automotive executive
Talking Straight (1988) with Sonny Kleinfeld, New York, NY: Bantam Books, July 1989 edition, p. 55
Extended excerpt: [From a book of autobiographical essays & thoughts on various topics. Quoted excerpt appears in chapter III: “Fame and Faith”]
“The fact is, the myth about me has gone so far beyond the reality that it’s ridiculous. I’d really love to meet the guy I’m supposed to be. I’d hire him in a second.” (p. 55)
Source: Library – Talking Straight (1988|July 1989 Bantam Book edition) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-553-27805-3
“In a completely rational society, teachers would be at the very tip of the pyramid, just above “king,” not near the bottom. In that society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers, and the rest of us would have to settle for something less. Passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest responsibility and the highest honor anyone could have.”
~Lee Iacocca, American automotive executive
Remarks to the National Education Association (3 March 1989) transcript in “I gotta tell you”: Speeches of Lee Iacocca, ed. Matthew W. Seeger, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994, p. 298
Misquote notes: Some Internet websites have shared an abbreviated version of Iacocca’s quote, and often the altered quote changes the Iacocca’s “settle for something less” to “settle for something else.”
Although it’s possible that Iacocca repeated this same idea in another written or spoken work, to date we have not been able to locate a source linking him to the paraphrased version:
Original text: “In a completely rational society, teachers would be at the very tip of the pyramid, just above “king,” not near the bottom. In that society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers, and the rest of us would have to settle for something less.
Misquote (or re-quote, yet unverfied): “In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.”
Extended excerpt: [Speech to meeting of the National Education Association (NEA)]
“We’re really upside down. In a completely rational society, teachers would be at the very tip of the pyramid, just above “king,” not near the bottom. In that society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers, and the rest of us would have to settle for something less. Passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest responsibility and the highest honor anyone could have.” (p. 298)
Source: Library – I Gotta Tell You: Speeches of Lee Iacocca (1994) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-8143-2546-7
“[M]aybe nothing says more about the decline of American education than what’s happened to the prestige of classroom teaching in this country. The biggest difference between the American and Japanese schools may not be the test scores, but the fact that teachers in Japan are revered and honored, while teachers in this country are usually regarded…as just another public employee group.”
~Lee Iacocca, American automotive executive
Remarks to the National Education Association (3 March 1989) transcript in “I gotta tell you”: Speeches of Lee Iacocca, ed. Matthew W. Seeger, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994, p. 298
Extended excerpt: [Speech to meeting of the National Education Association (NEA)]
“And maybe nothing says more about the decline of American education than what’s happened to the prestige of classroom teaching in this country. The biggest difference between the American and Japanese schools may not be the test scores, but the fact that teachers in Japan are revered and honored, while teachers in this country are usually regarded, I hate to say it, but it’s true, as just another public employee group.” (p. 298)
Source: Library – I Gotta Tell You: Speeches of Lee Iacocca (1994) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-8143-2546-7
“There’s a world of difference between a strong ego, which is essential, and a large ego – which can be destructive.”
~Lee Iacocca, American automotive executive
Iacocca: An Autobiography (January 1984) with William Novak, Boston, MA: G.K. Hall, January 1984, p. 98
Extended excerpt: [Autobiography]
“There’s a world of difference between a strong ego, which is essential, and a large ego – which can be destructive. The guy with a strong ego knows his own strengths. He’s confident. He has a realistic idea of what he can accomplish, and he moves purposefully toward his goal.
But the guy with a large ego is always looking for recognition. He constantly needs to be patted on the back. He thinks he’s a cut above everybody else. And he talks down to the people who work for him.” (p. 98)
Source: Library – Iacocca: An Autobiography (January 1984) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-8161-3889-3
“To me, education is the price of admission into our democracy. Having a strong long-term educational program is the core of a good strong nation.”
~Lee Iacocca, American automotive executive
Talking Straight (1988) with Sonny Kleinfeld, New York, NY: Bantam Books, July 1989 edition, p. 237
Extended excerpt: [From a book of autobiographical essays & thoughts on various topics. Quoted excerpt appears in chapter XIII: “The School Crisis”]
“To me, education is the price of admission into our democracy. Having a strong long-term educational program is the core of a good strong nation. It will take time to be developed, but it certainly shouldn’t waver with a budget. I’m all for spending cuts, but that’s a gamble we can’t afford.” (p. 237)
Source: Library – Talking Straight (1988|July 1989 Bantam Book edition) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-553-27805-3
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