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 principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done-men who are creative, inventive, and discovers. The second goal of education is to form minds which can be critical, can verify, and not accept everything they are offered.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education should nurture creativity and critical thinking rather than mere memorization.
Jean Piaget emphasizes that the primary objective of education is to cultivate individuals who are innovative and capable of original thought, rather than just replicating the knowledge of past generations. He asserts a secondary goal of education is to develop critical thinkers who can analyze information and challenge accepted norms, rather than passively accepting them.
Themes
EducationCreativityCritical ThinkingInnovationLearning
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a conference on innovative teaching methods might use this quote to emphasize the importance of fostering creativity.
More from Jean Piaget
All quotes →Logical activity is not the whole of intelligence. One can be intelligent without being particularly logical.
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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
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.
Jean PiagetRead
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