I'd teach them to read and to dream and to look at the stars and wonder. I'd teach them the value of imagination. I'd teach them to play every bit as hard as they worked. And I'd teach them that all the brains in the world can't compensate for love.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of imagination, balance in life, and the irreplaceable value of love over intellect.
In this quote, Karen Marie Moning expresses a profound educational philosophy that goes beyond mere academic learning. She stresses the significance of nurturing imagination and curiosity in children, encouraging them to dream and explore the world around them. Moning also highlights the importance of a balanced life, where play is as crucial as hard work, and ultimately asserts that emotional connections and love are paramount—far surpassing intellectual achievements alone.
In practice
During a speech at a graduation ceremony to inspire young minds.
All my life, up until that moment, I'd had a warm, protective blanket wrapped around me, knitted of aunts and uncles, purled of first and second and third cousins, knot-tied with grandmas and grandpas and greats. That blanket had just dropped from my shoulders. I felt cold, lost and alone.
One day you do meet a man who kisses you and you can’t breathe around it and you realize you don’t need air. Oxygen is trivial. Desire makes life happen. Makes it matter. Makes everything worth it. Desire is life. Hunger to see the next sunrise or sunset. To touch the one you love. To try again.
I wasn't prepared for death. Nobody is. You lose someone you love more than you love yourself, and you get a crash course in mortality. You lie awake night after night, wondering if you really believe in heaven and hell and finding all kinds of reasons to cling to faith, because you can't bear to believe they aren't out there somewhere, a few whispered words of a prayer away.
Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.
Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act.
Because you don't learn anything unless you can find the patience to read. TV takes that away from you. It robs you from your mind.
Books were the window from which I looked out of a rather meager and decidedly narrow room onto a rich and wonderful universe. I loved the look and feel of books, even the smell... Libraries were treasure houses. I always entered them with a slight thrill of disbelief that all their endless riches were mine for the borrowing.
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
The knowledge we now consider knowledge proves itself in action. What we now mean by knowledge is information effective in action, information focused on results. Results are outside the person, in society and economy, or in the advancement of knowledge itself. To accomplish anything this knowledge has to be highly specialized.
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