We need to conceive of ourselves as "agents" impelled by self-generated intentions.

Education must, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.

It is sentimentalism to assume that the teaching of life can always be fitted to the child's interests, just as it is empty formalism to force the child to parrot the formulas of adult society. Interests can be created and stimulated.

Apollo without Dionysus may indeed be a well-informed, good citizen but he's a dull fellow. He may even be 'cultured,' in the sense one often gets from traditionalist writings in education. . . . But without Dionysus he will never make and remake a culture.

The main characteristic of play - whether of child or adult - is not it content but its mode. Play is an approach to action, not a form of activity.

Agency presupposes choice.

We are storytelling creatures, and as children we acquire language to tell those stories that we have inside us.