Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Education

QUOTATIONS BY TOPIC

MODELING

The child will always attend more to what a teacher does than to what the same teacher says. ~ William James, Talks to Teachers

Children need models rather than critics. ~ Joseph Joubert

"Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, as quoted by Mark Edmundson, Why Read?, p. 100

You must do nothing before him, which you would not have him imitate. ~ John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education

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

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. ~ Carl Jung

Remember that before you dare undertake the making of a man you must be a man yourself. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile

Choose as a guide one who you will admire more when you see him act than when you hear him speak. ~ Seneca

The immediate influence of behavior is always more effective than that of words. ~ Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, p. 101

At the same time the parents must not set great store by their own clothes, nor admire themselves; for here, as everywhere, example if all-powerful, and either strengthens or destroys good precepts. ~ Immanuel Kant, Thoughts on Education

The teacher who meets with most success is the teacher whose own ways are the most imitable. A teacher should never try to make the pupils do a thing which she cannot do herself. . . . Children admire a teacher who has skill. ~ William James, Talks to Teachers

Extraordinariness is most likely to emerge if aspiring individuals are exposed to extraordinary models; ponder the lessons embodied in those models; and have the opportunity to enact critical practices in a relatively protected setting. ~ Howard Gardner, Extraordinary Minds

For have you not perceived that imitations, whether of bodily gestures, tones of voice, or modes of thought, if they be persevered in from an early age, are apt to grow into habits and a second nature? ~ Plato, The Republic

The impetuous passions have a great effect on the child who witnesses them. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile

With some people it is want of discipline and instruction on their own part, which makes them in turn unfit educators of their pupils. ~ Immanuel Kant, Thoughts on Education

Social psychologists have amply documented that people have a powerful urge to do as their neighbors do. . . . But [they] point out that human conformity . . . has genuine rationale in social life—indeed, two rationales. The first is informational, the desire to benefit from other people's knowledge and judgment. . . . [the second is] normative, the desire to follow the norms of a community, whatever they are. ~ Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate, Chapter 4

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

The teacher must pounce upon the most listless child, and wake him up. The habit of prompt and ready response must be kept up. Recapitulations, illustrations, examples, novelty of order, and ruptures of routine,--all these are means for keeping the attention alive and contributing a little interest to a dull subject. Above all, the teacher must himself be alive and ready, and must use the contagion of his own example ~ William James, Talks to Teachers

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Last updated:
September 19, 2008 4:23 PM