Ruth J. Simmons Quotes

There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child CAN do, instead of what he cannot do.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

Really, children will support anything that is empowering to them.

Kids are great imitators. Give them something great to imitate.

Treat a child as though he already is the person he's capable of becoming.

It is necessary, then, to give the child the possibility of developing according to the laws of his nature, so that he can become strong, and, having become strong, can do even more than we dared hope for him.

The French believe that kids feel confident when they're able to do things for themselves, and do those things well. After children have learned to talk, adults don't praise them for saying just anything. They praise them for saying interesting things, and for speaking well.

There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.

For our children, you want them to build their own self-esteem and their own self-confidence. For your own child. You don't want it to come from somebody else because, if it does, that same person can take it away. You want them to learn the grind.

Never miss an opportunity to allow a child to do something she can and wants to on her own. Sometimes we're in too much of a rush--and she might spill something, or do it wrong. But whenever possible she needs to learn, error by error, lesson by lesson, to do better. And the more she is able to learn by herself the more she gets the message that she's a kid who can.

I've often said that we are doing something far more important than just selling cosmetics; we are changing lives.

A child must learn early to believe that she is somebody worthwhile, and that she can do many praiseworthy things.

What we are teaches the child far more than what we say, so we must be what we want our children to become.

Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?

Affirm people. Affirm your children. Believe in them, not in what you see but in what you don't see - their potential.

A quality education has the power to transform societies in a single generation, provide children with the protection they need from the hazards of poverty, labor exploitation and disease, and given them the knowledge, skills, and confidence to reach their full potential.

Since nothing appears to me to give Children so much becoming Confidence and Behavior, and so raise them to the conversation of those above their Age, as Dancing. I think they should be taught to dance as soon as they are capable of learning it.

There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build.

If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.

Every single child should have the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential.

The question for the child is not Do I want to be good? but Whom do I want to be like?

The question isn't so much "Are you parenting the right way?" as it is: "Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?"

Perhaps we have been misguided into taking too much responsibility from our children, leaving them too little room for discovery

The most inspirational man I knew only reached his potential by helping a child reach his.

We must become the people we want our children to be.