Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Education

QUOTATIONS BY TOPIC

SCHOOLING

What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch out of a meandering brook. ~ Henry David Thoreau

An educational enterprise that fails to take the risks involved becomes stagnant and eventually alienating. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 15

Children should sometimes be released from the narrow constraint of school, otherwise their natural joyousness will soon be quenched. ~ Immanuel Kant, Thoughts on Education

School is a place of compulsory culture. ~ Immanuel Kant, Thoughts on Education

The best claim we can make for the higher education, the best single phrase in which we can tell what it ought to do for us, is then, exactly what I said: it should enable us to know a good man when we see him. ~ William James, "Social Value of the College Bred"

All our arts and sciences and institutions are but so many quests of perfection on the part of men; and when we see how diverse the types of excellence may be, how various the tests, how flexible the adaptations, we gain a richer sense of what the terms "better" and "worse" may signify in general. Our critical sensibilities grow both more acute and less fanatical. ~ William James, "Social Value of the College Bred"

Students become teachers unable, and subconsciously unwilling, to affect a system in need of reform. ~ Frank Pajares, Teachers’ Beliefs and Educational Research

It is as important to the speculative mind, as it is sad to one who loves his fellow-men, to see how those in high rank generally care only for their own concerns, and take no part in the important experiments of education. ~ Immanuel Kant, Thoughts on Education

Education is an admirable thing, but from time to time it is well to remember that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

One need only cast a casual glance at the American landscape to see that attending to the psychological well-being of students is both a noble and necessary enterprise. ~ Frank Pajares, Toward a Positive Psychology of Academic Motivation

The criterion of the value of school education is the extent in which it creates a desire for continued growth . . . ~ John Dewey, Democracy and Education

He is lucky who does not find that in order to make progress, in order to go ahead intellectually, he does not have to unlearn much of what he learned in school. ~ John Dewey, Experience and Education

Whether scientific talent is sought, or simply the more general ability to profit from advanced study, evidence of self-motivation, perseverance, curiosity, initiative, strong interests, and ability to work hard and independently are as important as grades and test scores. ~ Kenneth Eble, The Craft of Teaching

Many of our schools are in what might be called a crisis of caring. ~ Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminist Approach to Ethics and Moral Education

In most matters of achieving mastery, we also want learners to gain good judgment, to become self-reliant, to work well with each other. And such competencies do not flourish under a one-way "transmission" regimen. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 21

Any system of education, any theory of pedagogy, any "grand national policy" that diminishes the school's role in nurturing its pupils' self-esteem fails at one of its primary functions. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 38

If . . . school is an entry into the culture and not just a preparation for it, then we must constantly reassess what school does to the young student's conception of his own power (his sense of agency) and his sensed chances of being able to cope with the world both in school and after (his self-esteem). ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 39

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Last updated:
April 19, 2009 10:52 AM