Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them too quickly, we keep them from reinventing it themselves.
Jean PiagetRead
Chance... in the accommodation peculiar to sensorimotor intelligence, plays the same role as in scientific discovery. It is only useful to the genius and its revelations remain meaningless to the unskilled.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Chance can lead to discoveries, but only to those who possess the skill to understand them.
In this quote, Jean Piaget highlights the importance of chance in the process of learning and discovery, particularly in the realm of sensorimotor intelligence. He emphasizes that while chance events can provide opportunities for insight, it is only those with the necessary skills or genius who can make sense of these revelations, suggesting that context and ability play critical roles in interpreting random occurrences.
Themes
ChanceIntelligenceDiscoveryGeniusSkillLearning
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on cognitive development, this quote can be used to discuss the role of chance in learning.
More from Jean Piaget
All quotes →Logical activity is not the whole of intelligence. One can be intelligent without being particularly logical.
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Children's games constitute the most admirable social institutions. The game of marbles, for instance, as played by boys, contains an extremely complex system of rules - that is to say, a code of laws, a jurisprudence of its own.
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Everyone knows that at the age of 11-12, children have a marked impulse to form themselves into groups and that the respect paid to the rules and regulations of their play constitutes an important feature of this social life.
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Play is the work of childhood.
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The goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things.
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