Intelligence is what you use when you don’t know what to do.
When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.
The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.
Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds, capable of discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life?
Play is the answer to how anything new comes about.
Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them too quickly, we keep them from reinventing it themselves.
Every time we teach a child something, we keep him from inventing it himself. On the other hand, that which we allow him to discover for himself will remain with him visible for the rest of his life.
Play is the work of childhood.
Children require long, uninterrupted periods of play and exploration.
Teaching means creating situations where structures can be discovered.
What is desired is that the teacher cease being a lecturer, satisfied with transmitting ready-made solutions. His role should rather be that of a mentor stimulating initiative and research.
What we see changes what we know. What we know changes what we see.
Experience precedes understanding.
During the earliest stages the child perceives things like a solipsist who is unaware of himself as subject and is familiar only with his own actions.