Quotes

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
–Albert Einstein

This is a great quote! What do you think about the role of imagination in a child’s life? In an adults?

Personally, I love watching the imagination of children. Anything is possible, and they are so creative in their endeavors. In a majority of cases, I think that it is healthy to let children engage in imaginary play - it helps them to broaden their horizons and experience their world.

With adults, I think that it is unrealistic to live in a completely imaginary world, but it is still nice to engage in imaginary activities. Whether it is reading a book, or playing with kids, opening up these doors in our mind can help us to see things from a different perspective. For me, it also helps me when prioritizing my life; it helps me to live life with no regrets.

“Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.”
–Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

How many facts do you remember from high school? Have you ever looked back at an old test or exam and wonder who wrote down those answers?

This situation isn’t too unusual for me. Personally, it wasn’t until graduate school that information started to “stick” for me, and this is primarily because I had to walk into a lab and apply my knowledge. I certainly did not want to be the one responsible for blowing the lab up!

For me, college was a time of self-discovery. I spent a lot of time figuring out what I did not like, and ended up loving biology purely by chance (an elective course). I wish that I had opportunities prior to college to help me out with this - I could have saved myself some money!

Which brings us back to the original quote. I think that all kids should have an understanding of all the basic subjects, but is it really necessary to make kids take 4 years of science, or math, or history, if they really know that they don’t like it? In addition, given the opportunity, many kids could have their fill of these subjects indirectly through other coursework - for example, an art class could teach history, or basic finance could teach math.

Especially with the internet these days, people can always go back and refresh their memories via online courses (or sometimes just a google search will do!) In my opinion, material would be more likely to “stick” in these situations, since the person is hungry for the knowledge…

What do you think?

“We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is how I felt after I obtained my undergraduate degree, and I had multiple majors! I think that today’s education system is failing a majority of children, and they end up leaving college with a sheet of paper and a lot of debt, but not much else.

Even in elementary school and high school, the thirst for learning is replaced by the pressure to get good grades and do well on standardized tests. As a tutor, I constantly see students who have no concern for anything except what the correct answer is. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs.

On the other hand, if you take a look at American politics, it seems like as long as you learn how to be greedy and deceitful, you can become very rich. Perhaps if this is a personal life goal, a bellyful of words is all you really need!

“A child must learn early to believe that she is somebody worthwhile, and that she can do many praiseworthy things.”
–Benjamin Mays

There is so much truth to this statement. What would this world be like today if every person, as a child, believed that they were a worthwhile individual? I don’t think that the world would be perfect by any means, but it would be a lot better than it is today!

I think that most people can agree that children represent hope because of their unlimited potential. If we, as adults, can help children understand how important they are to us, then hopefully their future (and our own) will be brighter. For me personally, this means trying my best to not take my son for granted, and living with him in the moment as much as possible.

By no means am I saying that raising children is a walk in the park. But I do know that one of the only reasons that I turned out to be a decent kid was because I had a grandmother who took the time to let me know how much I meant to her. If I can do the same thing for my son that she did for me, then it will be a small testimony to what a wonderful person she is.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
–Abraham Lincoln

What good advice from Honest Abe! We all need to remember the importance of preparation - it is one of the keys to being an educated person and citizen. Preparation also helps us to save energy and time in the long run.

It is amazing to me to see so many people who are extremely frazzled, but do not make changes in their life to help them be more prepared in their daily activities. Simple things such as laying out clothes the night before, getting the coffee maker ready, and making lunch ahead of time can make a huge difference in starting the day out right.

What type of person are you? Are you prepared or generally frazzled? If you are the frazzled type, are you actively seeking out ways to change?

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
–Robert Frost

I think that this quote is interesting. In the best cases, this quote is true.

However, I have some colleagues, including my former boss, who is a genius in his field, but his temperament is unpredictable at best. He is very self-confident, though, and this is one of his greatest strengths. On the other side of the spectrum, I have seen people who are self-confident but are ignorant, and are not very temperamental. It is almost like they don’t know any better.

If I could add a condition to this quote, I would include that the greatest leaders are educated (not necessarily by a traditional education), and can listen to opposing viewpoints without losing their temper or self-confidence. What do you think?

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
– Jim Rohn

What do you think of this quote? I think that there is a lot of truth to this statement.

To start with, our schools generally do not teach personal finance or investing courses. Teaching simple concepts such as balancing a checkbook and how credit cards work could go a long way in helping our youth to become financially responsible citizens.

Secondly, there is a shift in today’s society in terms of holding one job for an extended period of time. Formal education can help people get their feet in the door, but people need to increasingly keep their resume and experience relevant in order to move ahead to the next position or next job. Continuing on with more formal education can help with this, but only to a point. These days, it’s much more about networking and self-learning. That’s just my opinion…

“Learning to love and accept ourselves is basic to human education. So is learning to language emotion in a positive way. Ultimately when we learn to truly love and accept ourselves, we’ll be able to live well and love each other and every thing we encounter.”
–-Barbara Hoberman Levine

It is the first line of this quote that strikes me the most. I agree that loving and accepting ourselves is fundamental to our growth as individuals. However, these days, our children are not learning how to do this - would you agree or disagree?

What can we do to change this? What responsibility do the parents have? What about the schools? And the surrounding community?

On a different note, do you think that most adults truly love and accept themselves? We want our children to not rely on television commercials for opinions and material possessions to keep them happy, but they see us want the latest clothes, fancy car, or new electronic gadget…

“It is not sufficient, and it may actually undermine our democracy, to concentrate on producing people who do well on standardized tests and who define success as getting a well-paid job.”
–Nel Noddings

What do you think of this quote? I think that it is completely true. We need to have a more individualized approach to education. I am not sure how to do this, but it does need to happen. And while standardized tests are important comparative benchmarks, they should not be an indicator of the potential of an individual child.

A well-paid job is also nice, but should not be an indicator of success. However, the prevalence of this belief is apparent in society today. Perhaps the dream of the huge McMansion and Hummer will begin to wane given the current financial crisis?

Regardless, there still seems to be an unfortunate dichotomy between some of the most personally rewarding professions and the pay scale of these jobs. Teachers and emergency medical technicians are two professions that immediately come to mind. What should be done about this?

“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.”
–Anatole France

I like this quote a lot. As someone who has a graduate degree, I can say firsthand that a Ph.D. or an M.D. does not mean that you are educated. Some of the most educated people I have met did not graduate high school!

I do like to think that I can more easily admit when I do not know something now. I am not sure if this is a result of education, or just a result of age. Of course, one could argue that we become more educated as we age due to life’s experiences!

What do you think? Is there a correlation between living life and education? Or should education be considered in the more traditional sense when thinking of this quote?