Anything that is worth teaching can be presented in many different ways. These multiple ways can make use of our multiple intelligences.
Howard GardnerRead
The countries who do the best in international comparisons, whether it's Finland or Japan, Denmark or Singapore, do well because they have professional teachers who are respected, and they also have family and community which support learning.
Interpretation
Successful countries prioritize education through respected teachers and supportive communities.
In this quote, Howard Gardner emphasizes the importance of professional teachers and an engaged community in fostering effective education systems. He highlights that nations renowned for their educational successes, like Finland and Japan, owe this achievement not only to well-trained and respected educators but also to the involvement of families and communities that value and support learning, thereby creating a holistic environment for academic growth.
In practice
During a seminar on educational reform, this quote can illustrate the importance of community in learning.
Anything that is worth teaching can be presented in many different ways. These multiple ways can make use of our multiple intelligences.
I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place
What we want... is for students to get more interested in things, more involved in them, more engaged in wanting to know; to have projects that they can get excited about and work on over long periods of time, to be stimulated to find things out on their own.
If Confucius can serve as the Patron Saint of Chinese education, let me propose Socrates as his equivalent in a Western educational context - a Socrates who is never content with the initial superficial response, but is always probing for finer distinctions, clearer examples, a more profound form of knowing. Our concept of knowledge has changed since classical times, but Socrates has provided us with a timeless educational goal - ever deeper understanding.
But once we realize that people have very different kinds of minds, different kinds of strengths -- some people are good in thinking spatially, some in thinking language, others are very logical, other people need to be hands on and explore actively and try things out -- then education, which treats everybody the same way, is actually the most unfair education.
We've got to do fewer things in school. The greatest enemy of understanding is coverage... You've got to take enough time to get kids deeply involved in something so they can think about it in lots of different ways and apply it.
Denial of childhood and denial of freedom are the biggest sins which humankind has been committing and perpetuating for ages.
You can present the material, but you can't make me care.
Education isn't something you can finish
The best morals kids get from any book is just the capacity to empathize with other people, to care about the characters and their feelings. So you don't have to write a preachy book to do that. You just have to make it a fun book with characters they care about, and they will become better people as a result.
I can remember only a few of the strange and curious words now dead but living and spoken by the English people a thousand years ago.
Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.
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