What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Learning often feels like a loss at first, as it challenges our previous knowledge.
This quote by George Bernard Shaw highlights the paradox of learning: while gaining knowledge is invaluable, it often requires us to let go of old beliefs or understandings, which can feel uncomfortable or like a loss. This discomfort is a natural part of personal growth and development, suggesting that true education involves both the acquisition of new insights and the relinquishment of outdated concepts.
Themes
LearningGrowthKnowledgeExperienceEducation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a graduation speech emphasizing the challenges of learning.
More from George Bernard Shaw
All quotes βMarriage 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
To exterminate our popular vices is a work of far more importance to the character and happiness of our citizens than any other improvements in our system of education.
Noah WebsterRead
We should be teaching young girls to take up space. Nothing is as important as taking up space in society and cementing yourself.
Zozibini TunziRead
Experience by itself teaches nothing... Without theory, experience has no meaning. Without theory, one has no questions to ask. Hence, without theory, there is no learning.
W. Edwards DemingRead
Extemporaneous speaking should be practised [sic] and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance.
Abraham LincolnRead
The natural inclination of a child is to take pleasure in the use of the mind no less than of the body. The child's primary business is learning. It is also the primary entertainment. To retain that orientation into adulthood, so that consciousness is not a burden but a joy, is the mark of the successfully developed human being.
Nathaniel BrandenRead
Teaching is a profession in which capacity building should occur at every stage of the career - novices working with accomplished colleagues, skillful teachers sharing their craft, and opportunities for teacher leadership.
Randi WeingartenRead