Alan Bennett Quotes

For those without money, the road to that treasure house of the imagination begins at the public library.

A child's mind is its living room; it's going to be residing there for the rest of its earthly existence.

Creativity is the key to success in the future, and primary education is where teachers can bring creativity in children at that level.

In play, a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play, it is as though he were a head taller than himself.

The government can take smart steps to give all kids the healthy start they need to reach their full potential.

One of the reasons that I take such joy in being a trustee of the New York Public Library is the love of reading that I found as a child in the Saturday morning library events for preschoolers and first and second graders as I was growing up in Augusta, GA.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.

The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery.

You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

We didn't have a phone when I was a kid, and I was too shy to smash any public phones, and our town didn't have a pool hall either, so I had to hang out at the public library - and anyway, I told myself stories.

Once you've got a child to the point that they've discovered books, they're safe. There's a world of the imagination that when they're hurt or upset, they can move into, and it is wonderful.

It can no longer be an afterthought in a child's development that the analytical side is not of equal to the creative side. That the creative side can be pushed aside and we just push the analytical side. Especially with the development of a child's brain at the elementary levels.

Is letting our children watch TV a form of child abuse? If our children grow up knowing everything about Britney Spears and nothing about nature or faith, about anything, is that not a form of child abuse?

Children need to move to develop their brain; it's a natural urge. That's why boys will run after a ball and play soccer despite how many video games are available to them, and they can't help themselves from building with Lego bricks as well. They want to be creating something that's uniquely their own.

Children, in a way, are constant learners. Certainly sponge-like. Absorbing everything without careful analysis, even though, at the same time, they are certainly capable of incredible insights.

Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience.

Hand any four-year-old a fist full of crayons, and it is a very, very few who don't get busy with them, drawing, coloring, scribbling. I have not stopped scribbling.

My kids have grown up knowing that their mom made a big investment in making sure there was art and language instruction in school and books in the library. Hopefully, they've internalized that.

How do you think we build a future? I think we build it by investing in our kids and investing in education.

Odium has been cast upon our legislation on account of its forbidding the elements of education to be communicated to slaves. But, in truth, what injury is done to them by this? He who works during the day with his hands does not read in the intervals of his leisure for his amusement or the improvement of his mind. If there were any chance of their elevating their rank and condition in society, it might be a matter of hardship that they should be denied those rudiments of knowledge which open the way to further attainments.

The more efficient causes of progress seem to consist of a good education during youth whilst the brain is impressible, and of a high standard of excellence, inculcated by the ablest and best men, embodied in the laws, customs and traditions of the nation, and enforced by public opinion.

The goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things.

Play is the work of childhood.

One of the best things we can do for our country, for advancing our children, is to upgrade our child care system.

Elimination of child labour and access to education are like two sides of one coin. One cannot be achieved without the other.