socio-emotional development Quotes

There is a good deal of excellent research on child's play. It has shown conclusively that through play, with the freedom of action it allows and the stressless environment in which it occurs, children discover, relate to and define themselves and their world. ...It is, therefore, paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play.

GDP does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play

Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child's? If this were then subjected to an appropriate course of education one would obtain the adult brain.

Teaching which ignores the realities of children will be rejected as surely as any graft which attempts to ignore the body's immune system.

Play is not only our creative drive; it's a fundamental mode of learning.

Look closely at those who patronize you. Half are unfeeling, half untaught.

Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting.

The fact that people can forget these simple truths when intellectualizing about children shows how far modern doctrines have taken us. They make it easy to think of children as lumps of putty to be shaped instead of partners in a human relationship.

Educators need to know what happens in the world of the children with whom they work. They need to know the universe of their dreams, the language with which they skillfully defend themselves from the aggressiveness of their world, what they know independently of the school, and how they know it.

Anything having to do with what is happening inside people has political significance to me. That is why I like the term "holistic politics."

Real education should enable one to utilise the knowledge one has acquired to meet the challenges of life and to make all human beings happy as far as possible.