In talking with scholars, I observe that they lost on ruder companions those years of boyhood which alone could give imaginative literature a religious and infinite quality in their esteem.
Interpretation
Emerson suggests that the imaginative quality of literature is often diminished when scholars are disconnected from the raw experiences of youth.
Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the impact of childhood experiences on the appreciation of literature. He argues that scholars, in their pursuit of knowledge, may lose touch with the more visceral and imaginative aspects of life that can enrich their understanding of literature. The 'ruder companions' of youth offer a richness to life that contributes to a deeper, more spiritual appreciation of literary works, contrasting with the often structured and formal education of scholars.
In practice
In a lecture on the importance of experiential learning, this quote serves to illustrate how childhood encounters shape our understanding of art.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
The normal curve is a distribution most appropriate to chance and random activity. Education is a purposeful activity and we seek to have students learn what we would teach. Therefore, if we are effective, the distribution of grades will be anything but a normal curve. In fact, a normal curve is evidence of our failure to teach.
Nature and education are somewhat similar. The latter transforms man, and in so doing creates a second nature.
I didn't see myself any different from my white counterparts in school. I just didn't! I thought I could do what they did. And what I didn't do well, I thought people were going to give me the opportunity to do well, because maybe they saw my talent, so they would give me a chance. I had no idea that they would see me completely different.
But, children, you should never let Such angry passions rise; Your little hands were never made To tear each other's eyes.
Knowledge, like air, is vital to life. Like air, no one should be denied it.
There is no common standard for education about diagnosis. Distinguishing between bipolar depression and major depressive disorder, for example, can be difficult, and mistakes are common. Misdiagnosis can be lethal. Medications that work well for some forms of depression induce agitation in others.
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