I don't know who said this sentence at the earliest and under what circumstances. In short, there are still many leaders who talk about it and regard it as a wise saying. However, as a teacher who has worked in the front line for a long time, I want to make it clear that this is actually a complete lie and an absurd fallacy.
First of all, this sentence violates the basic principles of education. Everyone knows that education is not a teacher's business, but a two-way interaction. How can we talk about education without students? Moreover, students have personality differences, even newborn babies are not really a blank sheet of paper, and can be smeared casually. Different students have great differences in IQ, comprehension and acceptance, but the teaching objectives are the same. This will inevitably lead to good and bad grades for students. If we don't judge by academic performance and comprehensive quality, it is even more impossible to train everyone into high-quality talents.
Secondly, this sentence exaggerates the role of education. Its subtext is actually "Education is omnipotent". Is education everything? If education is everything, why does the country set up prisons? Just invite those prisoners to school for education. Education is not everything. No matter how good the education is, it can't train every student into an excellent talent unless every student of yours is an excellent person in the world. More than 2,000 years ago, Mencius was filled with emotion: "I wish to be educated by talents in the world." This shows the importance of excellent students to teachers. Not to mention modern society, schools of all levels and types are scrambling for high-quality students everywhere, which is the best proof.
To say the least, even if education is omnipotent, teachers can't be omnipotent. Teachers are just ordinary people, not omnipotent gods. They also have their own secular desires, joys and sorrows, and even have their own shortcomings. How can we ask every teacher to educate every student well? Of the 3,000 disciples of Confucius, only 72 were trained as "sages". Even Confucius did, not to mention our ordinary teacher today.
In fact, compared with other industries, we can also see the absurdity of this sentence: there are no students who can't teach, only coaches who can't teach; There are no incurable patients, only incurable doctors; No employees can't manage, only leaders can't manage; There is no war that can't be won, only soldiers who can't fight ... These absurd remarks don't conform to the logic of life. So, why would anyone believe this lie in education? This idealized statement exaggerates people's subjectivity and ignores the limitations of objective conditions, which reminds people of the slogan of the Great Leap Forward period: how bold people are and how productive they are! Three years ahead of Britain and five years ahead of the United States. ......
Perhaps, the proponent of this "famous saying" in education just uses it to encourage himself, which is understandable, but if someone regards it as a golden rule and requires all teachers to abide by it, it is suspected of being out of their minds!