Hope Jahren Quotes

In an era of parental paranoia, lawsuit mania and testing frenzy, we are failing to inspire our children's curiosity, creativity, and imagination. We are denying them opportunities to tinker, discover, and explore - in short, to play.

Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things.

I found working in the lab is so completely different than reading a textbook about it. You know, you're planning strategies; you're working with your own hands. There's essential satisfaction in running experiments.

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.

I believe that the best way to help people understand the world is to provide them with opportunities to actively explore, experiment, and express themselves.

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

An arts education helps build academic skills and increase academic performance, while also providing alternative opportunities to reward the skills of children who learn differently.

Children have such vibrant minds. They need to play. They need to be creative. They need to imagine. It's so important for their sense of self discovery. And it helps them learn problem-solving.

We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

Learners are encouraged to discover facts and relationships for themselves.

Engineering stimulates the mind. Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things. When the schools can offer that, you'll have an engineer for life.

It's endless, the amount of things that music touches on that can help kids grow that are very, very practical.

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.

Most intuitive ideas have to be clarified, so there is a trial and error process.

Children need to be exploring their physical world. They need to be learning the fundamental laws of physics by manipulating objects.

Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific - this tube squeaks, say, or a squish then a press then a pull causes the music to play. But it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions.

Good and bad ideas both come from the same fountain of speculation and experiment.

All children know when something is wrong and they can't understand something - they never need someone to tell them they're stupid. They need help in solving the problem.

Think small. Don't pretend you know the answers. Experiment; get feedback. These are all the premises of 'Think Like a Freak,' really.

My idea of artistry has always been 'try everything until you find out what works.'

I'm very inquisitive, and I always have questions and need to touch things to see how it works or why it works.

Children are just little scientists.

Just build things and find out if they work.

I like to really spend the time and figure it out and rehearsal is to try something that doesn't work. It's hard to do that, because you always want to go with your impulse thought and you wonder if that's the one, did that work, you know?

All great discoveries...are products as much of doubt as of certainty, and the two in opposition clear the air for marvelous accidents.