Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that society should prepare young people for adulthood earlier by assigning them adult responsibilities and opportunities.
Eric Hoffer argues that a stable society might require the elimination of adolescence as a distinct phase, advocating for the early introduction of adult responsibilities and opportunities to the youth. He believes that this would allow young individuals to engage in meaningful actions rather than just scholastic pursuits, thus fostering a more responsible and action-oriented generation capable of contributing to society.
In practice
In a speech about educational reform, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of practical skills for students.
Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains.
A person cannot teach another person directly; a person can only facilitate another's learning
It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.
There are some people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.
Some people seem to think that good dancers are born, but all the good dancers I have known are taught or trained.
I want my kids to graduate from high school. But that's not enough. I also want them to go to college. Why? Because rich people's kids go to college. And if that's good enough for them, it's good enough for my kids. Because you know what? College graduates don't tend to go to jail as frequently as nongraduates.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.