Mothers and Teachers

From Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal (p.18):

"In my experience the most forceful and aggressive mothers are always the least inspired, the most unmusical of souls, all of them profoundly unsuccessful women who wear their daughters on their breast like a medal, like a bright deflection from their own unshining selves."

(p.240):

"We expect our teachers every year to start anew, to sever a year's worth of progress and forged connection, to unravel everything they've built and move back to begin work on another child."