The word constructionism is a mnemonic for two aspects of the theory of science education underlying this project. From constructivist theories of psychology we take a view of learning as a reconstruction rather than as a transmission of knowledge. Then we extend the idea of manipulative materials to the idea that learning is most effective when part of an activity the learner experiences as constructing a meaningful product.

Now more people are doing work that requires individual decision-making and problem-solving, and we need an educational system that will help develop those skills.

You can't think seriously about thinking without thinking about thinking about something.

Do away with curriculum. Do away with segregation by age. And do away with the idea that there should be uniformity of all schools and of what people learn.

Rather than pushing children to think like adults, we might do better to remember that they are great learners and to try harder to be more like them.

I do think that we'd do better if we just offered all the bureaucrats in the Department of Education very attractive early retirements. But whether you want to abolish the department is another matter. Maybe there's room for recruiting a lot of visionary people who would do very good things: develop new techniques, new ideas, foster innovative models, disseminate those ideas.

If a kid really is retarded and can only come up to a certain level, he will still have more success if what he learns is connected with something important to him.