I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.
Interpretation
Education should empower individuals to think independently and critically.
In this quote, Robin Williams emphasizes the true purpose of education as a means to cultivate independent thinking rather than merely accumulating knowledge. He advocates for an educational approach that encourages students to question, analyze, and form their own opinions, fostering creativity and individuality.
In practice
In a speech about educational reform, one might quote this to highlight the importance of nurturing independent thought in students.
It's that idea that you can have one drink - and no you can't. Within a week I was drinking heavily. It was so quick that even I was like, 'Wow.' Because you have that initial warm feeling going, 'Oh, I remember this'. And your body does, too. And your body goes, 'Yeah, so do I'. Then the demon voice comes, 'Yeah, so do I. You know what would be great? You know we bought a little bottle before? A full bottle would be wonderful'.
Sometimes over things that I did, movies that didn't turn out very well - you go, 'Why did you do that?' But in the end, I can't regret them because I met amazing people. There was always something that was worth it.
I've never been asked to appear on 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!,' so I guess I mustn't be on the professional skids just yet.
The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'
I write on big yellow legal pads - ideas in outline form when I'm doing stand-up and stuff. It's vivid that way. I can't type it into an iPad - I think that would put a filter into the process.
Beer commercials usually show big men, manly men, doing manly things: "You've just killed a small animal. It's time for a light beer." Why not have a realistic beer commercial, with a realistic thing about beer, where someone goes, "It's 5:00 in the morning. You've just pissed on a dumpster. It's Miller time."
I love walking into a bookstore. It's like all my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me.
There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.
The court generally moves in small steps rather than in one giant step.
I never get any protests from children. All you get are giggles of mirth and squirms of delight. I know what children like.
This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.
There is a whole industry in America of people who want to write, and those who teach it. Even if the students don't end up writing, what's good about them taking the courses is, they become great readers, learning to appreciate the writing.
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