Helping children at a level of genuine intellectual inquiry takes imagination on the part of the adult. Even more, it takes the co...urage to become a resource in unfamiliar areas of knowledge and in ones for which one has no taste. But parents, no less than teachers, must respect a child's mind and not exploit it for their own vanity or ambition, or to soothe their own anxiety.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The child to be concerned about is the one who is actively unhappy, [in school].... In the long run, a child's emotional developme...nt has a far greater impact on his life than his school performance or the curriculum's richness, so it is wise to do everything possible to change a situation in which a child is suffering excessively.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Children's view of the world and their capacity to understand keep expanding as they mature, and they need to ask the same questio...ns over and over, fitting the information into their new level of understanding.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For the child whose impulsiveness is indulged, who retains his primitive-discharge mechanisms, is not only an ill-behaved child bu...t a child whose intellectual development is slowed down. No matter how well he is endowed intellectually, if direct action and immediate gratification are the guiding principles of his behavior, there will be less incentive to develop the higher mental processes, to reason, to employ the imagination creatively. . . .LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts and cultiva...te these. There are hundreds and hundreds of ways to succeed and many, many different abilities that will help you get there.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: S...o? Did you learn anything today? But not my mother. "Izzy," she would say, "did you ask a good question today?" That difference--asking good questions--made me become a scientist.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whenever parents become overly invested in a particular skill or accomplishment, a child's fear of failure multiplies. This is why... some children refuse to get into the pool for a swimming lesson, or turn their back on Daddy's favorite sport.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One of the great privileges of being a parent is witnessing, close up, the flourishing of a young mind. But that's not the only be...nefit. In trying to make the world a more interesting and comprehensible place for their child, parents often find their own intellectual interests rekindled.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »