David Elkind Quotes

We need to do teacher training to educate them about what temperament means. Shyness is painful and you want to help a child with shyness - but the underlying temperament of being a careful, sensitive person is to be honoured, valued and respected.

If I can make one generalised statement, and generalised statements are never entirely true, nobody wants to be talked down to, kids included.

Never patronize a child.

Other species help children develop empathy.

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.

It is impossible to treat a child too well. Children are spoiled by being ignored too much or by harshness, not by kindness.

Teasing and a sense of humor, if you can develop that in your kids, and if you can exercise it with the kids, just makes for a pleasanter atmosphere.

I pride myself on being the nicest person in the room. My grandmother always told me, 'Manners will take you where money won't.' When I walk into a room, I say "hello" to everyone I don't care who the person is or what they do, it's simply being respectful.

When a child walks in the room, your child or anybody else’s child, do your eyes light up? That’s what they’re looking for.

Model the qualities that you want your children to show to each other.

When you touch - don't take. Touch people only when you are giving something - reassurance, support, encouragement, whatever

If you want to get something done, there is always an alternate route other than cursing somebody and belittling them. There's always an alternate route. If you want to get any message across. Everybody has an opinion, and everybody has their own way of doing things, but the bottom line is that when you affect someone else, you should pay closer attention to how you treat people.

All children should be loved, protected, nurtured --emotionally and intellectually-- respected, and never, under any circumstances, underestimated.

Teaching the child to treat boundaries seriously teaches the child to respect the rights and needs of others. Thinking of another's needs creates empathy.

Common courtesy plays a big role in happy marriages. People who are permanently married are polite to one another. They don't want to hurt one another's feelings, and they don't try to make the other one feel humiliated. People who are married for life are extremely kind to one another.

I'm good with telling people what I think, too, but I don't know why people are so content to treat each other poorly.

My meaning is, that no man can expect his children to respect what he degrades.

You cannot talk to people successfully if they think you are not interested in what they have to say or you have no respect for them.

You add value to people when you value them.

Be nice to old people.

I don't like to say mean things about people's hard work.

What a delight it is to respect people!

Those of us who are in this world to educate-to care for-young children have a special calling: a calling that has very little to do with the collection of expensive possessions but has a lot to do with worth inside of heads and hearts.

People always talked about a mother's uncanny ability to read her children, but that was nothing compared to how children could read their mothers.

My experience on this planet is that if you treat people with respect, they tend to treat you with respect.