|
| ||||
My Educational Philosophy |
Instead of the
difficult task of educating a child, I now undertake the easier task of
writing about it. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile When it is only a matter of sailing against the wind it is enough to tack, but when the sea runs high and you want to stay where you are, you must throw out the anchor. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Your first duty is to be humane. Love childhood. Look with friendly eyes on its games, its pleasures, its amiable dispositions. Which of you does not sometimes look back regretfully on the age when laughter was ever on the lips and the heart free of care? Why steal from the little innocents the enjoyment of a time that passes all too quickly? ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Unhappiness consists in the excess of desire over power. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Excessive severity and excessive indulgence are equally to be avoided. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile The surest way to make your child unhappy is to accustom him to get everything he wants. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Give with pleasure, refuse with regret, but let your refusals be irrevocable. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile If you are a wise man you will observe your pupil carefully before saying a word to him. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Remember that before you dare undertake the making of a man you must be a man yourself. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile The impetuous passions have a great effect on the child who witnesses them. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile [Punishment] should always come to [children] as the natural consequence of their bad conduct. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Be virtuous and good yourselves, and the examples you set will impress themselves on your pupils' memories, and in due season will enter their hearts. . . . ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile I do not like explanatory speeches. Young people pay little attention to them and rarely remember them. Give them facts. I cannot say often enough that we allow too great power to words. With our babbling education we only make babblers. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Is there no way of bringing together all the lessons scattered through a multitude of books and grouping them together round some common object which, even at this age, might be easy to see, interesting to follow and thought-provoking? ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile The time for faults is the time for fables. Censure of an offender under cover of a fiction gives instruction without offence. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile It is by doing good that we become good. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Let us be on guard against presenting the truth to those unable to comprehend it. The effect of that is to substitute error for truth. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile He speaks little, because he has no desire to attract notice. For the same reason he only speaks about things that are of practical value, being too well informed ever to be a babbler. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile As I have said elsewhere, taste is simply the art of appreciating the little things, but since the pleasure of life depends on a multitude of little things, such concern is not unimportant. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile It is not good for man to be alone. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Extend the law of necessity into the sphere of morals and learn to lose whatever can be taken from you, and to rise above the chances of life. . . . [The good things] will not possess you but you will possess them; and you will discover that in this passing world man only enjoys what he is ready to give up. You will not have the illusion of imaginary pleasures, it is true, but neither will you suffer the sorrows that attend them. When you no longer attach an undue importance to life you will pass your own life untroubled and come to the end of it without fear. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile For my part I am firmly convinced that anyone who only knows the people among whom he lives does not know mankind. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Nowhere is it possible to live a free and independent life, doing ill to do one, fearing ill from no one. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile The more I examine the work of men in their institutions, the more I see that in seeking independence they make themselves slaves. To avoid being carried away by the torrent of things they form a thousand attachments: then when they try to take a step forward they are surprised to find themselves being held back. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Knots which are too tightly drawn break. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile All through life a man has need of a counsellor and guide. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile "But remain the teacher of the young teachers. Advise and direct us, and we will be ready to learn. I will have need of you as long as I live." ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
|
||||
Educational Philosophy | Quotations
by Topic | Top of page |
