Jean Piaget Quotes

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.

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.

Play is the work of childhood.

When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.

Children require long, uniterrupted periods of play and exploration

What we see changes what we know. What we know changes what we see.

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?

The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done-men who are creative, inventive, and discovers. The second goal of education is to form minds which can be critical, can verify, and not accept everything they are offered.

Play is the answer to how anything new comes about.

Teaching means creating situations where structures can be discovered.

Experience precedes understanding.

Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society . . . but for me and no one else, education means making creators. . . . You have to make inventors, innovators...not conformists

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.

Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do.

How can we, with our adult minds, know what will be interesting? If you follow the child...you can find out something new.

What is desired is that the teacher ceased being a lecturer, satisfied with transmitting ready-made solutions. His role should rather be that of a mentor stimulating initiative and research.

We learn more when we are compelled to invent.

Each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely.

Only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent, or gradual.

The essential functions of the mind consist in understanding and in inventing, in other words, in building up structures by structuring reality.

True interest appears when the self identifies itself with ideas or objects, when it finds in them a means of expression and they become a necessary form of fuel for its activity.

It is with children that we have the best chance of studying the development of logical knowledge, mathematical knowledge, physical knowledge, and so forth.

How much more precious is a little humanity than all the rules in the world.

Everytime we teach a child something, we prevent him from inventing it himself.

To understand is to invent.