Tuesday, December 11, 2007

This is a nice quote I found scrolling across the top of my gmail account today:

Abraham Joshua Heschel - "Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge."

This is precisely why I'm homeschooling Caleb. Right now, he and Anda are full of wonder and delight and they love learning. I don't want him to learn the idiom of intelligent people because it is full of doubt, criticism, posturing, and name dropping. I remember distinctly the day in high school when I realized that many of my intelligent friends didn't think anything themselves. They just quoted and synthesized well.

Hooray Wonder!

I see as a corollary that action and change are not the results of criticism and doubt, but the results of wonder, support, and encouragement. "Helpful criticism" is an anti-motivator, just like doubt is an anti-educator.

1 comment:

morelightthanburden said...

I totally agree!! This is also how I feel about education now.