A book, like a landscape, is a state of consciousness varying with readers.
Ernest DimnetRead
Education is the methodical creation of the habit of thinking.
Interpretation
Education fosters critical thinking habits.
This quote emphasizes that education is not merely about rote learning or accumulation of facts; rather, it is a systematic process that cultivates the ability to think critically and independently. By developing a habit of thinking, individuals are empowered to analyze, evaluate, and make informed decisions in various aspects of their lives.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of education at a local school, I would quote Dimnet to emphasize that fostering critical thinking should be a priority.
A book, like a landscape, is a state of consciousness varying with readers.
The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.
The object of reflection is invariably the discovery of something satisfying to the mind which was not there at the beginning of the search.
But because we've all been readers, we know what the experience is like, and we hope that what certain writers have given to us, we will give to someone.
Censoring books that deal with difficult, adolescent issues does not protect anybody. Quite the opposite. It leaves kids in the darkness and makes them vulnerable. Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them
Employers, like most people, tend to trust their intuitions. But when employers decide whom to hire, they trust those intuitions far more than they should.
Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.
Libraries are not just for reading in, but for sociable thinking, exploring, exchanging ideas and falling in love. They were never silent. Technology will not change that, for even in the starchiest heyday of Victorian self-improvement, libraries were intended to be meeting places of the mind, recreational as well as educational.
All too often, technology is treated as a silver bullet for perceived problems in education. This sometimes leads to knee-jerk investments, using scarce resources to invest in software or hardware without a clear notion of how either might actually empower learning.
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