Ivan Illich Quotes

When you are 8 or 9, you should have a childhood. You should have adolescence. You should go through everything in a normal way.

When I was 12 years old, I read 'Nancy Drew' mysteries and biographies of Madame Curie and Florence Nightingale and books about girls who love horses or go to nursing school. I belonged to the Girl Scouts and got A's in school and rarely disobeyed my parents. I still kept a collection of Barbie dolls in my room, and I almost never spoke to boys.

I think growing up is difficult and it's a process that I'm always interested in, with kids and adults, they are often on two different universes.

I had a complicated life until I was 25. I was born in Bristol and was brought up by my mum and my stepfather in Edinburgh. He introduced me to books.

I didn't go to high school, but when I did go to school, I was actually in the group made up of cheerleaders; I just wasn't one of them. But I hung out with a bunch of different kids.

All children should have equal opportunities.

Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history. It kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents.

Experience tells us that people are not born with the innate ability nor the wish to see the Other as an equal individual in society. Pride in one’s separate identity can be so strong that it obscures the intrinsic value of other identities. Pluralism is a value that must be taught.

Education helps one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.

I have come here only to share the voices and dreams of our children - because they are all our children.

I remember when I was young, there was an older boy who was physically and mentally disabled. He had a speech impediment and walked with difficulty. The boys used to make fun of him. They teased and taunted him until sometimes he would cry.

If I had to do a lot of promotion as a kid, it would have been very intense. I'm really glad I got to go through high school, have a college experience, and have the last five years since then, just... being a person.

I wrote three books about growing up in the Bronx.

I think we all want to fit in at a young age.

When you're a kid, right, and you're surrounded by all these other kids, and let's say they don't have the same interests or the same goals or the same world view as you... It's difficult because a child doesn't know that there's another way. A child doesn't know that there's another place outside of the systems and hierarchies in school.

It is our job to ensure everyone feels included and empowered. We are living in a world that is increasingly diverse, and part of helping kids develop and be those successful leaders of tomorrow is helping them learn how to embrace multiculturalism and diversity.

It has to start from the playground and parents teaching kids that diversity is what makes us so wonderful.

I knew nothing of American History because I didn't pay attention to American History in school. Because I did not see myself in American History in school.

I liked school. I was creative and artistic and fit into most groups.

I do have a regular childhood.

Everyone wants to play. If you don't, normally you're not happy.

Education is necessary to unlearn privilege, unlearn exclusion, unlearn discrimination, unlearn prejudice, unlearn war.

When I was growing up, I didn't really know much about being popular or cliques or anything like that. In elementary school and middle school, you start to kind of realize what it's all about. There are cool kids, and then there's you, and you're just trying to figure out where you fit in.I learned a lot about acceptance and rejection,Those are the themes that you'll find spread throughout my music and weaved in throughout all of the lyrics. I really know what it's like to be accepted, and I also know what it's like to be rejected. And those are lessons I learned in Wyomissing.

Our premise is that inclusion leads to growth. So for those who are locked out, they lose development, and those who are in power lose market and growth.

I want to feel myself part of things, of the great drift and swirl: not cut off, missing things, like being sent to bed early as a child, the blinds being drawn while the sun and cheerful voices came through the chink from the garden.