TSUNESABURO MAKIGUCHI

The essence of education is not to transfer knowledge; it is to guide the learning process, to put responsibility for study in the student's own hands...[and] place people on their own path of discovery and invention.

The community … is the world in miniature. If we encourage children to observe directly the complex relations between the people and the land, between nature and society, they will grasp the reality of their homes, their school, the town, village or city, and will be able to understand the wider world.

What then is the purpose of national education? Rather than devise complex theoretical interpretations, it is better to start by looking to the lovely child who sits on your knee and ask yourself: What can I do to assure this child will be able to lead the happiest life possible?

Cooperative living can develop only as individual persons become able to see their own weaknesses and strengths as well as the weaknesses and strengthen of others.

True happiness comes only through sharing in the trials and successes of other persons and of our community. Hence it is essential that any true conception of happiness contain the promise of full commitment to the life of the society.

The community … is the world in miniature. If we encourage children to observe directly the complex relations between the people and the land, between nature and society, they will grasp the reality of their homes, their school, the town, village or city, and will be able to understand the wider world.

True happiness comes only through sharing in the trials and successes of other persons and of our community. Hence it is essential that any true conception of happiness contain the promise of full commitment to the life of the society.

The essence of education is not to transfer knowledge; it is to guide the learning process, to put responsibility for study in the student's own hands...[and] place people on their own path of discovery and invention.

What then is the purpose of national education? Rather than devise complex theoretical interpretations, it is better to start by looking to the lovely child who sits on your knee and ask yourself: What can I do to assure this child will be able to lead the happiest life possible?

Cooperative living can develop only as individual persons become able to see their own weaknesses and strengths as well as the weaknesses and strengthen of others.