Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific - this tube squeaks, say, or a squish then a press then a pull causes the music to play. But it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions.

The brain is highly structured, but it is also extremely flexible. It's not a blank slate, but it isn't written in stone, either.

Babies and young children are like the research and development division of the human species, and we grown-ups are production and marketing.

Some people say that parents don't matter, and that's not true at all. The irony is that we pay attention to all these things that don't matter, and not to what does matter, such as parents having enough resources to provide an environment where their children have both security and freedom.

To support the people we care about is intrinsic, it is not instrumental. It's not something we do because we're hoping to get some other outcome.

Caring, whether for children or the dying, shouldn't be instrumental. It should be an intrinsic, moral good.

Because we imagine, we can have invention and technology. It's actually play, not necessity, that is the mother of invention.