What if all the forces of society were bent upon developing [poor] children? What if society's business were making people instead... of profits? How much of their creative beauty of spirit would remain unquenched through the years? How much of this responsiveness would follow them through life?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We do not have to get our children to learn; only to allow and encourage them in their learning. We do not have to dictate what th...ey should learn; only to discern and respond to what it is that they are learning. Such responsiveness is at once the most educational and the most loving.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
His misfortune was that he loved youth--he was weak to it, it kindled him. If there was one eager eye, one doubting, critical mind..., one lively curiosity in a whole lecture-room full of commonplace boys and girls, he was its servant. That ardour could command him. It hadn't worn out with years, this responsiveness, any more than the magnetic currents wear out; it had nothing to do with Time.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Being apart is always experienced by the child, at some level, as the equivalent of being left. There is an unspoken belief, "If y...ou loved me most of all, if I was the most important thing in your life, you would never leave me." The only way to reconcile the child with this unmovable conviction is to provide abundant proof, through emotional availability and responsiveness, that he does not need to be the only important thing in your life in order to be loved well enough and deeply enough.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »