“Teaching creates all other professions” (teaching adage)

David Haselkorn, the president of the Belmont, Mass.-based Recruiting New Teachers Inc., a nonprofit group that promotes teaching as a profession, said in 1996:
 
“Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other professions possible.”
 
The quotation was used by President Bill Clinton and was included in Promising Practices: New Ways to Improve Teacher Quality (1998), a report that evolved from the President’s Summit on Teacher Quality. 
 
“Teaching creates all other professions”—a shortened version of Haselkorn’s quotation—has been cited in print since at least 2007. 
 
 
The Quote Garden
Quotations about Teachers   
Teaching creates all other professions.  ~Author Unknown
       
16 September 1996, Boston (MA) Globe, “Upgrading teachers,” pg. A14:
David Haselkorn, president of the Belmont-based Recruiting New Teachers and an adviser to the commission, calls for a “national conversation” on the topic. “Teaching is the essential profession,” said Haselkorn, “the one that makes all other professions possible.”
 
8 October 1996, USA Today, “Teaching seen as vital, but not touted as a job” by Tamara Henry, pg. 1D:
“Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other professions possible,” says David Haselkorn, president of the nonprofit teacher recruitment group.
 
Google Books
Puppies for Sale, and Other Inspirational Tales:
A “litter” of stories & anecdotes that hug the heart & snuggle the soul

By Dan Clark and Michael Gale
Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications
1997
Pg. 93:
Teaching Is the Profession That Makes All Other Professions Possible
Nobody in our world would even have a job if it weren’t for our teachers. They are the smartest people in the world.
     
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (jack bagley)
Date: 1997/01/21
Subject: Re: Ennis Cosby Loser
 
First of all, how DARE you consider teaching a waste of a life?  Can you spell, Loser-who-truly-IS-a-loser?  If so, thank a teacher.  Can you sign your name to your paycheck every week?  If so, thank a teacher.  Teaching is the most necessary, honorable and noble profession there is, you sanctimonious son of a bitch.  It makes ALL other professions possible. 
   
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From: “Gleason Sackman”


Date: 1998/10/16
Subject: K12> *TEACHERS AND TECHNOLOGY: MAKING THE CONNECTION* After the Wires
 
Chris Dede on how Technology Changes the Role of the Teacher
Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other possible. Without well-qualified, caring, and committed teachers, neither improved curricula and assessments, nor safe schools—not even the highest standards in the world—will ensure that our children are prepared for the challenges and opportunities in America’s third century. More than ever before in our history, education will make the difference between those who will prosper in the new economy and those who will be left behind. Teaching is the profession that is shaping this education and therefore America’s future—molding the skills of our future workforce and laying the foundation for good citizenship and full participation in community and civic life.
   
Google Books
Standards and Cchooling in the United States:
An Encyclopedia, Volume 1

Edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Danny K. Weil
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
2001
Pg. 204:
Promising Practices: New Ways to Improve Teacher Quality (1998), a report that evolved from the President’s Summit on Teacher Quality, states that “teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other professions possible.”
     
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (VognoDuut120)
Date: 01 Jan 2003 08:30:58 GMT
Local: Wed, Jan 1 2003 2:30 am
Subject: Mathematics in 21st Century: Bangladesh Perspective
 
I quote from the 1997 State of the Union Address by President W.J. Clinton: “Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other professions possible. Without good teachers, the highest standards in the world will not ensure that our children are prepared to be the nation’s future scientists, or productive citizens.”
 
UKScrappers
babyfairy
20-04-2007, 07:09 PM
(...)
Teaching creates all other professions
 
Google Books
Teaching:
Professionalization, Development and Leadership

By David Johnson and Rupert Maclean
Dordrecht: Springer
2008
Pg. 227:
While the idea that “teaching is the profession on which all other professions rest” is inspirational and provides the direction for professional leadership, there is a wide chasm between the ideal and the reality.
   
Google Books
Teachers:
Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes

By Andrews McMeel Publishing
Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel
2008
Pg. 92:
Teaching is the essential profession—the one that makes all other professions possible.
David Haselkorn
         
Newsweek
I Am Not A Babysitter
Oct 10, 2008 8:00 PM EDT
It is said that teaching is the profession that creates all other professions.
 
Bethalona
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
“Teaching Creates All Other Professions” (Author Unknown)
 
FWD
Making the Grade
November 14, 2011 10:11 am in Next Generation Assessment by Maggie Waples
A wise old saying states that “teaching creates all other professions.” I believe there’s a lot of truth in this, but I’d like to amend it a bit to read that “Good teaching creates all other professions.”