Quotes on Holistic education

For many years I have been a collector of quotes. I love how they convey so much in so few words. Since I began leading keynotes and playshopsfor teachers and child care professionals, I have grown a particular fondness for quotes on child learning and development. Below is a list of my favourites [and I have snuck in a few of my own quotes]. I hope they inspire you to engage the heart and mind of children in loving and playful ways.

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Check out Vinces book:Let the Fire Burn ~ Nurturing the Creative Spirit of Children, A Childrens Book for Adults

Related reading:
Playful Quotes for the Child in your Heart
Inspiring Quotes to Ignite Imagination, Wonder and Laughter
Inspiring, Troubling and More: Research and Stories on Child Learning and Development

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The word education comes from the Latin educere = e- [out of] + -ducere [to draw]. Education is not just about putting information in. We have forgotten that it, in fact, begins in the childs heart. ~ Vince Gowmon

By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man; body, mind and spirit. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~ Stacia Tauscher

Kids dont remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are. ~ Jim Henson

Teaching is not about answering questions but about raising questions opening doors for them in places that they could not imagine. ~ Yawar Baig

A child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasnt been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him. ~ Pablo Casals

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults. ~ F. Douglas

To take children seriously is to value them for who they are right now rather than adults-in-the-making. ~ Alfie Kohn

Every day, in a 100 small ways, our children ask, Do you hear me? Do you see me? Do I matter? Their behavior often reflects our response. ~ L.R. Knost

A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, toalways bebusy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires. ~ Paulo Coelho

You cannot make people learn. You can only provide the right conditions for learning to happen. ~ Vince Gowmon

Love is the supreme form of communication. In the hierarchy of needs, love stands as the supreme developing agent of the humanity of the person. As such, the teaching of love should be the central core of all early childhood curriculum with all other subjects growing naturally out of such teaching.~ Ashley Montagu

Remember: everyone in the classroom has a story that leads to misbehavior or defiance. 9 times out of 10, the story behind the misbehavior wont make you angry. It will break your heart. ~ Annette Breaux

I really love being human. But some days I really wish I could be fairy. ~ Greta, age 4

The work of education is divided between the teacher and the environment. ~ Maria Montessori

If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow. ~ Alfie Kohn

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ~William Butler Yeats

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. ~Albert Einstein

Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves.~ Jean Piaget

Encouraging a child means that one or more of the following critical life messages are coming through, either by word or by action: I believe in you, I trust you, I know you can handle this, You are listened to, You are cared for, You are very important to me. ~ Barbara Coloroso

If you trust play, you will not have to control your childs development as much. Play will raise the child in ways you can never imagine. ~ Vince Gowmon

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

The trouble with over-structuring is that it discourages exploration. ~ Jay Giedd, Neuroscientist, University of California

Let the child be the scriptwriter, the director and the actor in his own play. ~ Magda Gerber

Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn. ~O. Fred Donaldson

Since the jobs that our preschoolers will do probably dont exist yet, our priority is to teach them the skills to adapt and inquire and question and cooperatelife skills. So much more useful than rigid concepts such as the alphabet. ~ Caroline Bellouse

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign? ~ Albert Einstein

When you are born into a world where you dont fit in, its because you were born to help create a new one. ~ Anonymous

Anything you can teach in an indoor classroom can be taught outdoors, often in ways that are more enjoyable for children. ~ Cathy James

The more risks you allow your children to make, the better they learn to look after themselves. ~ Roald Dahl

Putting your students emotional needs first is important because without feeling safe and understood, no instructional strategy will be effective. ~ Jasper Fox, Sr.

A spirited, unruly student is preferable. Its much easier to direct passion than to try and inspire it. ~ Joan Desmond

Be sure that in your educating you are not manufacturing obedient citizens, but rather unleashing powerful, creative souls. ~ Vince Gowmon

For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does just for fun and things that are educational. The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play. ~ Penelope Leach

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. ~ Mother Teresa

We are raised in a culture that values expertise over exploration. ~ Nina Wise

Kids deserve the right to think that they can change the world. ~ Lois Lowry

Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together. ~ Scott Hayden

Our children should be properly introduced to the world in which they live. ~ Thomas Berry

The more you teach / push those things that can be measured, the more kids will grow up feeling like they dont measure up. ~ Vince Gowmon

Children more than ever, need opportunities to be in their bodies in the world jumping rope, bicycling, stream hopping, and fort building. Its this engagement between limbs of the body and bones of the earth where true balance and centeredness emerge. ~ David Sobel

If we want our children to move mountains, we first have to let them get out of their chairs. ~ Nicolette Sowder

I believe that to teach them effectively you must touch their hearts long before you begin to teach their minds ~ Vicki Savini, from Ignite The Light

I keep trying to convey the pleasure every parent and teacher could feel while observing, appreciating and enjoying what the infant is doing. This attitude would change our educational climate from worry to joy. Can anybody argue about the benefits for a child who is appreciated and enjoyed for what she can do and does naturally? I believe this issue is so basic, so important, that it cannot be overstated. ~ Magda Gerber

If we love our children and want them to thrive, we must allow them more time and opportunity to play, not less. Yet policymakers and powerful philanthropists are continuing to push us in the opposite direction toward more schooling, more testing, more adult direction of children, and less opportunity for free play. ~ Dr. Peter Gray

In this modern world where activity is stressed to the point of mania, quietness as a childhood need is too often overlooked. ~ Margaret Wise Brown

When we give children advice or instant solutions, we deprive them of the experience that comes from wrestling with their own problems. ~ Adele Faber

Too much leading and we create anxiety for children. Too much following and the same is true. In wisdom we find balance between the two. ~ Vince Gowmon

If we taught babies to talk as most skills are taught in school, they would memorize lists of sounds in a predetermined order and practice them alone in a closet. ~ Linda Darling -Hammond

Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a childs soul. ~ Friedrich Froebel

With children, it is the joint moments of delight that build the social brain. ~ Mariah Moser

I shouldnt have to defend play for children any more than I should have to defend their eating, sleeping, and breathing. ~ Rae Pica

Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before. ~ Loris Malaguzzi

When our little people are overwhelmed by big emotions it is our job to share our calm, not join their chaos. ~ L.R. Knost

So often children are punished for being human. Children are not allowed to have grumpy moods, bad days, disrespectful tones, or bad attitudes. Yet, us adults have them all the time. None of us are perfect. We must stop holding our children to a higher standard of perfection than we can attain ourselves. ~ Rebecca Eanes

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice safe playpen. When theyre finished, I climb out. ~ Erma Bombeck

No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship. ~ James Comer

Instead of teaching children to get there, why not let them be here? Where is there anyway? The world needs more here than there. ~ Vince Gowmon

Ask any child development expert, and they will tell you that children do not develop in a straight line. There are no average children. There are no standard children. ~ Cassi Clausen

The activities that are the easiest, cheapest, and most fun to do such as singing, playing games, reading, storytelling, and just talking and listening are also the best for child development. ~ Jerome Singer

The moment I decided to follow instead of lead, I discovered the joys of becoming part of a small childs world. ~ Janet Gonzalez-Mena

Its not so much what children learn through play, but what they wont learn if we dont give them the chance to play. Many functional skills like literacy and arithmetic can be learned either through play or through instruction the issue is the amount of stress on the child. However, many coping skills like compassion, self-regulation, self-confidence, the habit of active engagement, and the motivation to learn and be literate cannot be instructed. They can only be learned through self-directed experience [i.e. play]. ~ Susan J. Oliver

Children dont need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear. ~ Emma Thompson

If a child is acting disruptive within the school system, dont be too quick to assume there is something wrong with her. She simply may be doing her best to say that the system is not large enough to house the fullness of her creative spirit. ~ Vince Gowmon

Either we spend time meeting childrens emotional needs by filling their cup with love, or we spend time dealing with behaviors caused from their unmet needs. Either way, we spend the time. ~Pam Leo, Connecting Through Filling The Love Cup

Im more interested in arousing enthusiasm in kids than in teaching the facts. The facts may change, but that enthusiasm for exploring the world will remain with them the rest of their lives. ~ Seymour Simon

Everything we do as teachers must ensure that the childs inherent desire to learn is kept alive. ~ Robert John Meehan

Rather than books and lectures, nature itself is childrens best teacher. ~ Coffey

Perhaps if tearful little boys were comforted instead of shamed there wouldnt be so many angry men struggling to express and empathize with emotions. ~ Lelia Scholl

To raise a child who is comfortable enough to leave you means youve done your job. They are not ours to keep, but to teach how to soar on their own. ~ Anonymous

True play is child-initiated and child-directed. It can occur on a blank playground. It can occur with a few tires. Children can play and do play when all they are given is space and time. ~ Heather Shumaker

Remind yourself daily: While education is useful, its love that children and the world need. A deeply loved child with only some education will go much further than a well educated child lacking love. ~ Vince Gowmon

Close observation of children at play suggests that they find out about the world in the same way as scientists find out about new phenonoma and test new ideasduring this exploration, all the senses are used to observe and draw conclusions about objects and events through simple, if crude, scientific investigations. ~ Judith Roden

If a child is poor in math but good at tennis, most people would hire a math tutor. I would rather hire a tennis coach. ~ Deepak Chopra

Children dont know how to ask for what they dont know they need. Their asking comes in the form of behaviour. ~ Bonnie Harris

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~ Alvin Toffler

Schooling prepares children for jobs, yet getting a job is not what life is about. Life exists in the space between all we deem important. ~ Vince Gowmon

The people who are horrified by the idea of children learning what they want to learn when they want to learn it have not accepted the very elementary psychological fact that people [all people, of every age] remember the things that are important to them the things they need to know and forget the rest. ~ Daniel Quinn

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them. ~ Leo Buscaglia

To give a child a mechanical toy is equivalent to playing for him ~ Walter Wood

Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best. ~ Bob Talbert

Trust children. Nothing could be more simple, or more difficult. Difficult because to trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted. ~ John Holt

The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. ~ Mark Van Doren

The soul is healed by being with children. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Do not train children to learn by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. ~ Plato

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ~ Henry Adams

The best education does not happen at a desk, but rather engaged in everyday living hands on, exploring, in active relationship with life. ~ Vince Gowmon

Kids bullied into obeying parents and teachers may resist not because theyre hard to handle but because theyve been treated as a thing to be handled. ~ Alfie Kohn

Learning is a result of listening, which in turn leads to even better listening and attentiveness to the other person. In other words, to learn from the child, we must have empathy, and empathy grows as we learn. ~Alice Miller

A lot of what we do with children is well intentioned interference. ~ Niki Buchan

The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but dont tell you what to see. ~ Alexandra K. Trenfor

Strong-willed children become adults who change the world as long as can hang on for the ride and resist the temptation to tame the spirit out of them. ~ Sarah Stogryn

Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily. ~ Finnish saying

Teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in their lives. ~ Thomas Berry

If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns ~ Rita Dunn

Discipline is helping a child solve a problem. Punishment is making a child suffer for having a problem. To raise problem solvers, focus on solutions, not retribution. ~ L.R. Knost

When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become. ~ Louis Pasteur

If we want children to become creative leaders then we must learn to follow their lead at an early age. ~ Vince Gowmon

Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning. ~ William Arthur Ward

We see how early childhood experiences are so important to lifelong outcomes, how the early environment literally becomes embedded in the brain and changes its architecture. ~ Andrew S. Garner

Ive come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. Its my personal approach that creates the climate. Its my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a childs life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. ~ Haim G. Ginott

What we are teaches the child far more than what we say, so we must be what we want our children to become. ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce

It is vital that when educating our childrens brains we do not neglect to educate their hearts. ~ Dalai Lama

A child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasnt been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him. ~ Casals

These people have learned not from books, but in the fields, in the wood, on the river bank. ~Anton Chekhov

A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge and wisdom in the pupils. ~ Ever Garrison

The best way to preserve a childs vision is to let them see things their way rather than yours. Jacob Liberman, Wisdom from an Empty Mind

We have forgotten that children are designed by nature to learn through self-directed play and exploration, and so, more and more, we deprive them of freedom to learn. ~ Peter O. Gray

This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life but leave it free to develop. ~ Maria Montessori

The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibilitythese three forces are the very nerve of education. ~ Rudolf Steiner

We are raised in a culture that values expertise over exploration. ~ Nina Wise

Children learn and listen more willingly when they are met with kindness, empathy and patience; when their core need for connection or attachment is met. ~ Vince Gowmon

As with everything else about childrens behavior, theres nothing like a good role model. If you value play, your child will, too. ~ Madeline Levine

You dontremember the timesyour dad held your handle bars.You remember the dayhe let go. ~Lenore Skenazy

Movement is the door to learning. ~ Paul E. Dennison

Children understand and remember concepts best when they learn from direct personal experience. ~ Joseph Cornell

So often, children are punished for being human. Children are not allowed to have grumpy moods, bad days, disrespectful tones, or bad attitudes, yet we adults have them all the time! We think if we dont nip it in the bud, it will escalate and we will lose control. Let go of that unfounded fear and give your child permission to be human. We all have days like that. None of us are perfect, and we must stop holding our children to a higher standard of perfection than we can attain ourselves. All of the punishments you could throw at them will not stamp out their humanity, for to err is human, and we all do it sometimes. ~ Rebecca Eanes, The Newbies Guide to Positive Parenting

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. ~ Maya Angelou

Rushing childrens development is a formula for turning them into who they are not. Letting them play is a kind means of meeting them where they are and encouraging their authentic unfolding. ~ Vince Gowmon

Do not educate your child to be rich. Educate him to be happy, so that when he grows up he knows the value of things not the price. ~ Unknown

What is essential is to realize that children learn independently, not in bunches; that they learn out of interest and curiosity, not to please or appease the adults in power; and that they ought to be in control of their own learning, deciding for themselves what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. ~ John Holt

When we deny children play, we are denying them the right to understand the world. ~ Erika & Nicholas Christakis

Children always learn, but not necessarily what you want them to learn. ~Dr.Lillian Katz, University of Illinois

I cherish the occasions when my daughter manages to do something for the first time, or does something better than shes ever done it before. But I try to resist the knee-jerk tendency to say, Good job! because I dont want to dilute her joy. I want her to share her pleasure with me, not look to me for a verdict. I want her to exclaim, I did it! [which she often does] instead of asking me uncertainly, Was that good? ~ Alfie Kohn

So much developmental trauma can be avoided if we simply give children the right to exercise their natural right to play, to move, to explore the outdoors unsupervised if we let children be children! ~ Vince Gowmon

Children grow up hearing how broken the environment is, how broken beyond repair. Plant strawberries together, make wild medicines, paint the sunrise. Show them proof that for every act of destruction, they can sow a seed, however small, of beauty. ~ Nicolette Sowder

Looking back, I realize that nurturing curiosity and the instinct to seek solutions are perhaps the most important contributions education can make. ~ Paul Berg

Childrens emotions are as real as yours. Just because they might get sad over the colour of their cup, does not make their feelings any less real. ~ Rebekah Lipp

Children are not the people of tomorrow, but people today. They are entitled to be taken seriously. They have a right to be treated by adults with tenderness and respect, as equals. ~ Janusz Korczak

Grown men can learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show them many things that older people miss. ~ Black Elk

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. ~Eugene Ionesco

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children. ~ Charles R. Swindoll

All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants ~ J.W. Gardner

Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree. ~ Marian Wright Edelman

Dont educate a child to become something or someone, educate to help them explore and celebrate who they already are. ~ Vince Gowmon

There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. ~ Kofi Annan

Asking kids to meet target on standardized tests is like making them meet a sales quota. Our kids are not commodities. ~ K.L. Nielsen

Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls. ~ Erin Kenny

The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the childs own natural desire to learn. ~ Maria Montessori

There can never be too much nature inside a classroom. It is the antidote to the fast-paced, stressful world in which many young children live. Equally important, it encourages an appreciation of the natural world on which we depend. ~ Condie Ward

Its not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. Its our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless. ~ L.R. Knost

Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold. ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce, Contemporary American scholar

Parenthood is about raising and celebrating the child you have, not thechildyou thought youd have. Its about understanding yourchild is exactly the person they are supposed to be. And, if youre lucky, they might be the teacher who turns you into the person youre supposed to be. ~ Unknown

Teaching is learning. They are inseparable. The humility of a teacher is born when this is realized. Only then does teaching really begin. ~ Vince Gowmon

A baby is born with a need to be loved and never outgrows it. ~ Frank A. Clark

Children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions. ~Alfie Kohn

We keep thinking as adults that we need to control the way they do things. I wish wed get out of that. They know how to play, they know how to structure their own play they need that time to grow responsibly. ~ Debbie Rhea

The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. ~ Maria Montessori

Children come into the world exquisitely designed, and strongly motivated, to educate themselves. They dont need to be forced to learn; in fact, coercion undermines their natural desire to learn. ~ Peter Gray

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. ~ Albert Einstein

Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is. ~ Yoda

The real magic wand is the childs own mind. ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ~ Picasso

It is not intellect but rather imagination that is the source of creativity. What if imagination was nurtured as much if not more in school? ~ Vince Gowmon

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ~ Lily Tomlin

Good teachers are those who know how little they know. Bad teachers are those who think they know more than they dont know. ~ R. Verdi

An environmental-based education movementat all levels of educationwill help students realize that school isnt supposed to be a polite form of incarceration but a portal to the wider world. ~ Richard Louv

The ultimate gift we can give the world is to grow our tiny humans into adult humans who are independent thinkers, compassionate doers, conscious questioners, radical innovators, and passionate peacemakers. Our world doesnt need more adults who blindly serve the powerful because theyve been trained to obey authority without question. Our world needs more adults who challenge and question and hold the powerful accountable. ~ L.R. Knost

If it hasnt been in the hand and body, it cant be in the brain. ~ Bev Bos

If we want children to play BIG in the world, then lets let them play in small ways to start. ~ Vince Gowmon

Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write and count. It is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace that is right for each individual child. Earlier is not better. ~ Magda Gerber

A naughty child doesnt exista child who acts out is simply a child with unmet needs.~ Birgitte Coste, Positive Parenting Ally

Movement isnt a break from learning; movement is learning, and the opportunities for thoughtful exploration in the classroom are endless. ~Aleta Margolis

Teach children what to think and you limit them to your ideas. Teach children how to think and their ideas are unlimited. ~ Sandra Parks

A child learns when time. Some want to read at age three and some dont care until age eight. There is no right or wrong way, no best timeline. If a child shows no interest in reading or math, its because he or she has something far more important to explore. ~ Vince Gowmon

The secret in education lies in respecting the student. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

When children pretend, theyre using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero. ~ Fred Rogers

It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self. ~ D.W. Winnicott, British pediatrician

To effectively teach a child one must reach the child in mind-body-heart, not just intellect, not just the linear-left brain we make such a priority. ~ Vince Gowmon

Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements. ~ Maria Montessori

It is not attention that the child is seeking, but love. ~ Sigmund Freud

Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is known, or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds? ~ Jean Piaget

We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way. ~ John Holt

Explain to me again: how come we treat reading and mathematics as more important than learning to get along with one another? ~ Pennie Brownlee

Classroom management is not about having the right rules its about having the right relationships. ~ @SteeleThoughts

So you pull me from my play, my all consuming play to learn maths with brightly coloured bits of plastic. Whilst I sit there learning with you, all I can think about is getting back to my play my all consuming play where I was measuring, using shapes, making patterns, counting, solving problems and THINKING until I got pulled away to come and learn maths with you. ~ Elaine Bennett

The more adults turn play into a project, the more it loses its very essence. The gifts derived from play are suffocated by unnecessary structure and hovering, leaving little room for the child to learn, develop and enjoy his or her explorations. ~ Vince Gowmon

When you teach a child something, you take away forever the chance for him to discover it himself. ~ John Piaget

Deep meaning lies often in childish play. ~ Johann Friedrich von Schiller

Do notkeep children to their studies by compulsion but by play. ~ Plato

Learning is alive when experiential, relevant and joyful. It is all but dead when limited to disassociated rationale and sedentariness. ~ Vince Gowmon

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs since the payment is pure love. ~ Mildred B. Vermont

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about. ~ Angela Schwindt

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. ~ Albert Einstein

Children dance before they know there is anything that isnt music. ~ William Stafford

The art of teaching lies in knowing the balance between structure and flow, telling and asking, speaking and silence. ~ Vince Gowmon

Children first realize they can make a difference when parents listen, then respond with sensitivity. ~ Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer

Children remind us to treasure the smallest of gifts, even in the most difficult of times. ~ Allen Klein

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. ~ Clay P. Bedford

The best teacher of children, in brief, is one who is essentially childlike. ~ H. L. Mencken

Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity. ~ Kay Redfield Jamison

The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child. ~ Knights of Pythagoras

The teacher and the taught create the teaching. ~ Ancient Eastern saying

Stop trying to turn children into someone they are not. Instead, let them unfold into who no human can imagine them to be. ~ Vince Gowmon

One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. ~ Carl Jung

Your image of the child is where teaching begins. ~ Loris Malaguzzi

Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning how to learn. ~ Loris Malaguzzi

Dont walk in front of me, I may not follow. Dont walk behind me, I may not lead. Just walk beside me, and be my friend. ~ Albert Camus

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own Benjamin Disraeli

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right mans brow. ~ Charles Brower

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature. ~ Tom Robbins, novelist

Ive learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~Maya Angelou

Structure is akin to a fence surrounding a playground. While it is needed, if it is too close, it will stifle exploration and learning. ~ Vince Gowmon

Learning is not a spectator sport. ~ D. Blocher

When one teaches, two learn. ~ Robert Heinlein

Dont worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you. ~ Robert Fulghum

On Children
by Kahlil Gibran, from his beautiful book The Prophet

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Lifes longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
for they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you,
for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.