Misbehavior and punishment are not opposites that cancel each other - on the contrary they breed and reinforce each other.

Only if a child feels right can he think right.

While parents possess the original key to their offspring's experience, teachers have a spare key. They, too, can open or close the minds and hearts of children.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.

Whenever I hear about a child needing something, I ask myself, 'Is it what he needs or what he wants?' It isn't always easy to distinguish between the two. A child has many real needs which can and should be satisfied. His wants are a bottomless pit. He wants, for example, to sleep with his parents. He needs to be in his own bed. At Christmas he wants every toy advertised on television. He needs only one or two.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.

A modern teacher educates children to value their emotions.