|
| ||||
My Educational Philosophy |
Excerpts from Inaugural Address at Saint AndrewsThere is nothing in which an untrained mind shows itself more hopelessly incapable, than in drawing the proper general conclusions from its own experience. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews Education is one of the subjects which most essentially require to be considered by various minds, and from a variety of points of view. For, of all many-sided subjects, it is the one which has the greatest number of sides. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews What professional men should carry away with them from a University, is not professional knowledge, but that which should direct the use of their professional knowledge . . . ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews Reforms, worthy of the name, are always slow, and reform even of governments and churches is not so slow as that of schools, for there is the great preliminary difficulty of fashioning the instruments; of teaching the teachers. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews It is not the utmost limit of human acquirement to know only one thing, but to combine a minute knowledge of one or a few things with a general knowledge of many things. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews What an utter failure a system of education must be, if it has not given the pupil a sufficient taste for reading to seek for himself those most attractive and easily intelligible of all kinds of knowledge! ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews Facts are the materials of our knowledge, but the mind itself is the instrument; and it is easier to acquire facts, than to judge what they prove, and how, through the facts which we know, to get to those which we want to know. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews Without knowing the language of a people, we never really know their thoughts, their feelings, and their type of character: and unless we do possess this knowledge, of some other people than ourselves, we remain, to the hour of our death, with our intellects only half expanded. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews When we want really to know what a person thinks or says, we seek it at first hand from himself. We do not trust another person's impression of his meaning, given in another person's words; we refer to his own. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews To have a high standard of excellence often makes the whole difference of rendering our work good when it would otherwise be mediocre. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews We all observe, and we all reason, and therefore, more or less successfully, we all ascertain truths: but most of us do it very ill, and could not get on at all were we not able to fall back on others who do it better. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews If you want to know whether you are thinking rightly, put your thoughts into words. [This] forces us to think clearly, even when it cannot make us think correctly. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews The winds and waves too are very unfeeling. Would you advise those who go to sea to deny the winds and waves—or to make use of them, and find the means of guarding against their dangers? ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews It is a very imperfect education which trains the intelligence only, but not the will. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews There is nothing which spreads more contagiously from teacher to pupil than elevation of sentiment: often and often have students caught from the living influence of a professor a contempt for mean and selfish objects, and a noble ambition to leave the world better than they found it, which they have carried with them throughout life. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews It is not the teacher's business to impose his own judgment, but to inform and discipline that of his pupil. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews We should not trust our judgment when it has been formed in ignorance of the evidence. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews Art, when really cultivated, and not merely practised empirically, maintains, what it first gave the conception of, an ideal Beauty, to be eternally aimed at, though surpassing what can be actually attained; and by this idea it trains us never to be completely satisfied with imperfection in what we ourselves do and are: to idealize, as much as possible, every work we do, and most of all, our own characters and lives. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews Those who know how to employ opportunities will often find that they can create them: and what we achieve depends less on the amount of time we possess, than on the use we make of our time. ~ John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address at Saint Andrews Students who are never required to do what they cannot do never do what they can do. ~ John Stuart Mill
|
||||
Educational Philosophy | Quotations
by Topic | Top of page |
