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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education should empower children to innovate and explore, rather than just accumulating knowledge.
Jean Piaget emphasizes that the primary aim of education is not merely to fill students with information, but to inspire and enable them to think creatively and engage in discovery. By fostering an environment where children can invent and try new things, education cultivates individuals who can contribute uniquely to society, rather than just replicate existing knowledge.
Themes
EducationCreativityInnovationChild DevelopmentLearning
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about modern education, this quote can emphasize the importance of creativity in teaching.
More from Jean Piaget
All quotes →Logical activity is not the whole of intelligence. One can be intelligent without being particularly logical.
Jean PiagetRead
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.
Jean PiagetRead
Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society . . . but for me and no one else, education means making creators. . . . You have to make inventors, innovators...not conformists
Jean PiagetRead
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