I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think.

Education in the light of present-day knowledge and need calls for some spirited and creative innovations both in the substance and the purpose of current pedagogy.

The processes of teaching the child that everything cannot be as he wills it are apt to be painful both to him and to his teacher.

We imagine that we want to escape our selfish and commonplace existence, but we cling desperately to our chains.

The wrong things are predominantly stressed in the schools - things remote from the student's experience and need.

It is a rare privilege to watch the birth, growth, and first feeble struggles of a living mind; this privilege is mine.

A strenuous effort must be made to train young people to think for themselves and take independent charge of their lives.