What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
The schoolmaster is the person who takes the children off the parents' hands for a consideration. That is to say, he establishes a child prison, engages a number of employee schoolmasters as turnkeys, and covers up the essential cruelty and unnaturalness of the situation by torturing the children if they do not learn, and calling this process, which is within the capacity of any fool or blackguard, by the sacred name of Teaching.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques traditional schooling by comparing it to imprisonment and highlighting the harsh realities of the educational system.
George Bernard Shaw's quote presents a critical view of the traditional educational system, likening the role of the schoolmaster to that of a jailer who takes custodial control of children. The argument suggests that instead of fostering genuine learning and growth, schools often perpetuate cruelty and discipline through punitive measures while masquerading these actions under the guise of teaching, revealing the deeper societal issues regarding education's true nature and purpose.
Themes
EducationTeachingSchoolLearningCritique
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on educational reform, this quote can be used to illustrate the shortcomings of traditional teaching methods.
More from George Bernard Shaw
All quotes →Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.
George Bernard ShawRead
Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!
George Bernard ShawRead
Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
George Bernard ShawRead
Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
George Bernard ShawRead
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
George Bernard ShawRead
Similar quotes
My filmmaking education consisted of finding out what filmmakers I liked were watching, then seeing those films. I learned the technical stuff from books and magazines, and with the new technology you can watch entire movies accompanied by audio commentary from the director. You can learn more from John Sturges' audio track on the 'Bad Day at Black Rock' laserdisc than you can in 20 years of film school. Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.
Paul Thomas AndersonRead
It's important to read a book, but also to hold the book, to smell the book... it's perfume, it's incense, it's the dust of Egypt.
Ray BradburyRead
When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend.
Joshua FoerRead
You must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.
ConfuciusRead
Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It IS education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching. There are no uneducated people; only most people are educated wrong. The true task of culture today is not a task of expansion, but of selection-and-rejection. The educationist must find a creed and teach it.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Equality of opportunity is meaningless for those who do not have the capabilities to take advantage of it.
Ha-Joon ChangRead