I lived in a plenty tough neighborhood. When somebody called me a 'dirty little Guinea', there was only one thing to do-break his head. When I got older, I realized that you shouldn't do it that way. I realized that you've got to do it through education. Children are not to blame. It is the parents. How can a child know whether his playmate is an Italian, a Jew or Irish, unless the parents have discussed it in the privacy of their homes.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a journey from reacting with violence to choosing education as a means to combat prejudice.
Frank Sinatra's quote highlights the importance of education in shaping children's understanding of diversity and social issues. He reflects on his past, where he responded to insults with violence, but later acknowledges that this approach is misguided. Instead, he emphasizes that it's the responsibility of parents to educate their children, so they learn to respect others regardless of their background, thus aiming for a more harmonious society.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of educating children about acceptance.
With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.
When lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday, cash me out.
There have been many accolades uttered about Elvis' talent and performances through the years, all of which I agree with wholeheartedly. I shall miss him dearly as a friend. He was a warm, considerate and generous man.
Dare to wear the foolish clown face.
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
I think my greatest ambition in life is to pass on to others what I know.
Every day seems to bring news about another for-profit college scam. Hundreds of thousands of students have been deceived, misled, and harassed into enrolling at these schools where they end up with a mountain of debt and a worthless degree.
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
I think that the reader should enrich what he is reading. He should misunderstand the text; he should change it into something else.
One trend that bothers me is the glorification of stupidity, that the media is reassuring people it's alright not to know anything. That to me is far more dangerous than a little pornography on the Internet.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
The usual way the people are taught to think in amerika is that each subject is in a little compartment and has no relation to any other subject. For the most part, we receive fragments of unrelated knowledge, and our education follows no logical format or pattern. It is exactly this kind of education that produces people who don’t have the ability to think for themselves and who are easily manipulated.
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