Working with children is the easiest part of educating for democracy, because children are still undefeated and have no stake in being prejudiced.
Margaret HalseyRead
The stress laid on upward social mobility in the United States has tended to obscure the fact that there can be more than one kind of mobility and more than one direction in which it can go. There can be ethical mobility as well as financial, and it can go down as well as up.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that social mobility isn't just about climbing the financial ladder; it can also involve ethical considerations, and movement can occur in various directions.
Margaret Halsey's quote challenges the conventional notion of upward social mobility, suggesting that the pursuit of success should not solely focus on financial gains. Instead, it highlights the importance of ethical growth and acknowledges that one's journey can also lead to downward movements in values or morality, inviting a broader understanding of what it means to progress in society.
Themes
Social MobilityEthical GrowthSuccessFinancial MobilityDirection
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the true measures of success in society, I might quote, 'The stress laid on upward social mobility...'
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Those that think that wealth is the proper thing for them cannot give up their revenues; those that seek distinction cannot give up the thought of fame; those that cleave to power cannot give the handle of it to others. While they hold their grasp of those things, they are afraid of losing them. When they let them go, they are grieved and they will not look at a single example, from which they might perceive the folly of their restless pursuits - such men are under the doom of heaven.
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Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
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What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.
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There are, and always have been, destructive pseudo-scientific notions linked to race and religion; these are the most widespread and damaging. Hopefully, educated people can succeed in shedding light into these areas of prejudice and ignorance, for as Voltaire once said: "Men will commit atrocities as long as they believe absurdities."
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A city is the place of availabilities. It is the place where a small boy, as he walks through it, may see something that will tell him what he wants to do his whole life.
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