Maryanne Wolf Quotes

I think with every book you realize you are partway through and there is something really elementary that you should have researched.

The level of ignorance is declining, and the ability to accumulate data and manipulate it for various ends is increasing.

Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.

In fourth grade, I learned that reading was serious business, not just a pleasant way to pass the time, and that like medicine or engineering, it had a definite, valuable purpose: to foster 'comprehension.'

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.

Just because I try to read a lot of stuff doesn't mean I can fully conceptualize all of these intense, big, abstract ideas.

I just love to read, learn, and think through complex things.

I'm concerned, as I guess all middle-aged people are, about the younger generations' level of literacy.

When everybody has access to an avalanche of information, becoming a master thinker is very important in your life-long security.

In a sense, there's a great truth to that, but, also I was a great reader.

I think I learned a lot from reading in general - even from reading badly written books.

He whose wisdom cannot help him, gets no good from being wise.

I don't seem to be able to learn from experience or anything useful. History doesn't help me. Precedents don't inform my experience.

Coaches give you too much information. I've been allowed to develop that intuitive ability in my career and lifetime.

Is it possible that literacy standards are falling because young Australians are growing up in a culture in which they can be entertained and informed, and in which they can communicate effectively, without having to master any but the most rudimentary literacy skills?

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 know and what you don't.

Just think of the opportunities we can unlock by making education as addictive as a video game. This type of experiential, addictive learning improves decision-making skills and increases the processing speed and spatial skills of the brain. When was the last time your child asked for help with a video game?

Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.

The center line of science literacy - which not many people tell you, but I feel this strongly, and I will go to my grave making this point - is how you think.

We're not that much smarter than we used to be, even though we have much more information - and that means the real skill now is learning how to pick out the useful information from all this noise.

If we talk about literacy, we have to talk about how to enhance our children's mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives.

One of the very important characteristics of a student is to question. Let the students ask questions.

My parents encouraged thought. You'll get through life better if you learn how to think.

Economists who have studied the relationship between education and economic growth confirm what common sense suggests: The number of college degrees is not nearly as important as how well students develop cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving ability.

Why is it that our young kids all across America can solve the most complex problems in a video game involving executive decision making and analytical thinking, yet we accept the fact that they can't add or read?