Educator Quotations | Page 2

In traditional schools, you're penalized for making a mistake. But that won't work in the new information culture, in the digital world we live in today.

When kids play, they are working on imagining the kind of world we live in.

And they understand that to be an effective member of a democracy, you have to accept responsibility.

Just the concept of personal freedom within a democracy, for instance, is a relatively young idea - only about 300 years old in this country.

If you watch young children play, you will notice that they create games, characters, situations, whole worlds in which they immerse themselves with intense concentration.

Educators are still spending way too much time trying to control what kids learn, bending the content to their own purposes, hoping beyond hope to change - by using technology - but not change too much.

But, if you observe children learning in their first few years of life, you can see that they can and do learn on their own - we leave them alone to crawl, walk, talk, and gain control over their bodies. It happens without much help from parents.

Whenever culture has gone through a radical change, as ours has - from industrial age to information age - there are people who will deny that things have changed; they resist it and refuse to change.

Some go on to trade schools or get further training for jobs they are interested in. Some go into the arts, some are craftsmen, some take a little time out to travel, and some start their own businesses. But our graduates find and work at what they want to do.

I followed the rules, and I was a high achiever.