Cognitive Skills Quotes

It is not merely that Johnny can't read, or even that Johnny can't think. Johnny doesn't know what thinking is, because thinking is so often confused with feeling. … The phrase ‘I feel’ is often used by American students to introduce a conclusion, rather than say ‘I think,’ or ‘I know,’ much less ‘I conclude.’ Unfortunately, ‘I feel’ is often the most accurate term…

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.

I like vocabulary and I actually read a book called 'Word Freak,' which is about a guy who basically went into competitive Scrabble for a year. But having a big vocabulary and being good at Scrabble are not the same thing.

One thing that I do find really sexy is a girl who's good at crossword puzzles.

I've been so lucky and blessed because words and stuff come so easy to me. I have a good memory.

Schools train people to be ignorant, with style. They give you the equipment that you need to be a functional ignoramus. American schools* do not equip you to deal with things like logic; they don't give you the criteria by which to judge between good and bad in any medium or format; and they prepare you to be a usable victim for military-industrial complex that needs manpower.

The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.

You should carefully study the Art of Reasoning, as it is what most people are very deficient in, and I know few things more disagreeable than to argue, or even converse with a man who has no idea of inductive and deductive philosophy.

Organized common (or uncommon) sense -- very basic knowledge -- is an enormously powerful tool. There are huge dangers with computers. People calculate too much and think too little.

One must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.

I taught at the FBI for four decades - how to think outside of the box and deal with social engineering.

Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man.

Learning how to learn is life's most important skill.

The way you have to think in chess is good for everyday thinking, really, especially for brothers in the urban community who never take that second look, never take that second thought.

In today's world, learning has become the key to economic prosperity, social cohesion and personal fulfillment. We can no longer afford to educate the few to think, and the many to do.

Reason and the ability to use it are two separate skills.

When you have solved the problem of controlling the attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem of its education.

I am not that smart.

Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.

Chess is not dominoes

Tennis doesn't encourage any kind of intellectual development.

Chess is an effective means to educate and train the human intellect.

Man, you're no smarter than me. You're just a fancier kind of stupid.

Cognitive and character skills work together as dynamic complements; they are inseparable. Skills beget skills. More motivated children learn more. Those who are more informed usually make wiser decisions.

Being a musician, there aren't that many ways for me to consciously use a more strategy, math-based part of my brain.