Lots of people talk to animals... Not very many listen, though... That's the problem.
The Eeyore Educational System sees childhood as a waste of time, a luxury that society cannot afford . . . Put children in school at the earliest age possible; load them down with homework; take away their time, their creativity, their play, their power; then plug them into machines.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the educational system for stifling children's creativity and play in favor of rote learning.
Benjamin Hoff's quote presents a critical perspective on the conventional educational system, suggesting that it prioritizes structure and conformity over the natural development and creativity of children. By advocating for early schooling and heavy homework loads, he argues that the system diminishes children's imaginative play and autonomy, which are crucial for their growth and learning. The metaphor of 'plugging them into machines' indicates a concern over how education can turn vibrant individuals into uniform, machine-like outputs, lacking depth and creativity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an educational reform discussion to highlight the importance of creativity in children's learning.
More from Benjamin Hoff
All quotes →The masters of life know the way, for they listen to the voice within them, the voice of wisdom and simplicity, the voice that reasons beyond cleverness and knows beyond knowledge.
How can you get very far, If you don't know who you are? How can you do what you ought, If you don't know what you've got? And if you don't know which to do Of all the things in front of you, Then what you'll have when you are through Is just a mess without a clue Of all the best that can come true If you know What and Which and Who.
The honey doesn't taste so good once it is being eaten; the goal doesn't mean so much once it is reached; the reward is no so rewarding once it has been given. If we add up all the rewards in our lives, we won't have very much. But if we add up the spaces *between* the rewards, we'll come up with quite a bit. And if we add up the rewards *and* the spaces, then we'll have everything - every minute of the time that we spent.
We don't need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that's within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things begin to work for us.
And when you try too hard, it doesn't work. Try grabbing something quickly and precisely with a tensed-up arm; then relax and try it again. Try doing something with a tense mind. The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard-one that thinks too much.
Similar quotes
Learning to sing one's own songs, to trust the particular cadences of own's voices, is also the goal of any writer.
Anyone can be a moral individual, concerned with human rights and problems; but only a college professor, a trained expert, can solve technical problems by 'sophisticated' methods. Ergo, it is only problems of the latter sort that are important or real.
One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.
The schools must fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will.
From this I conclude that the best education for the situations of actual life consists of the experience we acquire from the study of serious history. For it is history alone which without causing us harm enables us to judge what is the best course in any situation or circumstance.
The best solution to income inequality is providing a high-quality education for everybody. In our highly technological, globalized economy, people without education will not be able to improve their economic situation.