Certain Periods In History Suddenly Lift Humanity

I Am Beginning To Suspect All Elaborate And Special Systems Of Education. They Seem To Me To Be Built Upon The Supposition That Every Child Is A Kind Of Idiot Who Must Be Taught To Think. Whereas If The Child Is Left To Himself, He Will Think More And Better , If Less "showily." Let Him Come And Go Freely, Let Him Touch Real Things And Combine His Impressions For Himself... Teaching Fills The Mind With Artificial Associations That Must Be Got Rid Of Before The Child Can Develop Independent Ideas Out Of Actual Experiences.

Is It Not True, Then, That My Life With All Its Limitation Touches At Many Points The Life Of The World Beautiful? Everything Has Its Wonders, Even Darkness And Silence, And I Learn, Whatever State I May Be, Therein To Be Content.

People Seldom See The Halting And Painful Steps By Which The Most Insignificant Success Is Achieved.

The Wrong Things Are Predominantly Stressed In The Schools - Things Remote From The Student's Experience And Need.

Language Grows Out Of Life, Out Of Its Needs And Experiences...language And Knowledge Are Indissolubly Connected; They Are Interdependent. Good Work In Language Presupposes And Depends On A Real Knowledge Of Things.