Quote collection
321 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The aim of education should not be to teach how to use human energies to improve the environment, for we are finally beginning to realize that the cornerstone of education is the development of the human personality, and that in this regard education is of immediate importance for the salvation of mankind."
"How does he achieve this independence? He does it by means of a continuous activity. How does he become free? By means of constant effort. we know that development results from activity. The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences."
"To have a vision of the cosmic plan, in which every form of life depends on directed movements which have effects beyond their conscious aim, is to understand the child's work and be able to guide it better."
"A great deal of time and intellectual force are lost in the world, because the false seems great and the truth so small and insignificant."
"Work is necessary; it can be nothing less than a passion; a person is happy in accomplishment."
"The ancient saying, "There is nothing in the intellect which was not first in some way in the senses," and senses being explorers of the world, opens the way to knowledge."
"Education must start from birth."
"When mental development is under discussion, there are many who say, 'How does movement come into it? We are talking about the mind.' And when we think of intellectual activity, we always imagine people sitting still, motionless. But mental development must be connected with movement and be dependent on it. It is vital that educational theory and practice should be informed by that idea."
"The teacher’s first duty is to watch over the environment, and this takes precedence over all the rest. It’s influence is indirect, but unless it be well done there will be no effective and permanent results of any kind, physical, intellectual or spiritual."
"It is not in human nature for all men to tread the same path of development, as animals do of a single species."
"Independence is not a static condition; it is a continuous conquest, and in order to reach not only freedom, but also strength, and the perfecting on one's powers, it is necessary to follow this path of unremitting toil."
"But if for the physical life it is necessary to have the child exposed to the vivifying forces of nature, it is also necessary for his psychical life to place the soul of the child in contact with creation."
"The child becomes a person through work."
"Happiness is not the whole aim of education. A man must be independent in his powers and character; able to work and assert his mastery over all that depends on him."
"We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master."
"The child has other powers than ours, and the creation he achieves is no small one; it is everything."
"The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child."
"The concept of an education centered upon the care of the living being alters all previous ideas. Resting no longer on a curriculum, or a timetable, education must conform to the facts of human life."
"The greatest source of discouragement is the conviction that one is unable to do something"
"How often is the soul of man - especially in childhood - deprived because he is not allowed to come in contact with nature."