If I were again beginning my studies, I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics.
Interpretation
Galileo emphasizes the importance of mathematics as a foundation for learning.
In this quote, Galileo reflects on his own academic journey and suggests that if he had the chance to start over, he would prioritize studying mathematics first. He references Plato, indicating that he believes a strong mathematical background is essential for a deeper understanding of the world and other fields of knowledge.
In practice
Teachers can use this quote to emphasize the importance of foundational subjects in education.
It has always seemed to me extreme presumptuousness on the part of those who want to make human ability the measure of what nature can and knows how to do, since, when one comes down to it, there is not one effect in nature, no matter how small, that even the most speculative minds can fully understand.
We must say that there are as many squares as there are numbers.
Science proceeds more by what it has learned to ignore than what it takes into account.
The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.
Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed.
That sculpture is more admirable than painting for the reason that it contains relief and painting does not is completely false. ... Rather, how much more admirable the painting must be considered, if having no relief at all, it appears to have as much as sculpture!
No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.
You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns.
There is no education system in the world - none at all - that's better than its average teacher.
In a television interview, I said that diversity in our children's books should include the adventures of disabled children, travellers and gipsies, LGBT teens, different cultures, classes, colours, religions. It shouldn't be a token gesture, nor do such stories need to be 'issue-based'.
Every book in the world is out there waiting to be read by me.
It is one thing to take as a given that approximately 70 percent of an entering high school freshman class will not attend college, but to assign a particular child to a curriculum designed for that 70 percent closes off for that child the opportunity to attend college.
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