If parents are the fixed stars in the childs universe, the vaguely understood, distant but constant celestial spheres, siblings are the dazzling, sometimes scorching comets whizzing nearby. Alison Gopnik More Quotes by Alison Gopnik More Quotes From Alison Gopnik The brain knows the real secret of seduction, more effective than even music and martinis. Just keep whispering, 'Gee, you are really special' to that sack of water and protein that is a body, and you can get it to do practically anything. Alison Gopnik real brain water Babies and young children are like the research and development division of the human species, and we grown-ups are production and marketing. Alison Gopnik research-and-development baby children The youngest children have a great capacity for empathy and altruism. There's a recent study that shows even 14-month-olds will climb across a bunch of cushions and go across a room to give you a pen if you drop one. Alison Gopnik empathy giving children On the Web we all become small-town visitors lost in the big city. Alison Gopnik visitors towns cities What teenagers want most of all are social rewards, especially the respect of their peers. Alison Gopnik peers teenager want The best scientific way to discover if one factor influences another is to do a controlled experiment. Alison Gopnik experiments influence way Animals are certainly more sophisticated than we used to think. And we shouldn't lump together animals as a group. Crows and chimps and dogs are all highly intelligent in very different ways. Alison Gopnik intelligent dog animal Childhood is a fundamental part of all human lives, parents or not, since that's how we all start out. And yet babies and young children are so mysterious and puzzling and even paradoxical. Alison Gopnik childhood baby children People talked about being a parent, or being a mother or a father. We don't talk about "wiving" our husbands or "friending" our friends, or "childing" our parents. We just talk about being in a relationship with those people. You don't measure whether your marriage was good based on whether or not your husband is better now than he was 10 years ago, or whether your friend is richer than when they first became your friend. The relationships between parents and children is a kind of love, rather than a kind of work. Alison Gopnik husband mother children Putting together philosophy and children would have been difficult for most of history. But very fortunately for me, when I started graduate school there was a real scientific revolution taking place in developmental psychology. Alison Gopnik real philosophy children Ineffective or weak brain connections are pruned in much the same way a gardener would prune a tree or bush, giving the plant a desired shape. Alison Gopnik brain tree giving The radio was an improvement on the telegraph but it didn't have the same exponential, transformative effect. Alison Gopnik telegraph radio improvement Preschool kids learn best when exploring, but kids in school learn best when they do things, interacting with a master. Unfortunately, our schools don't do much of either. Also, kids do need to learn how to deal with technology, and online education and otherwise using electronic devices as learning tools facilitates that. Alison Gopnik technology kids school Developmental scientists like me explore the basic science of learning by designing controlled experiments. Alison Gopnik like-me scientist design What happens when children reach puberty earlier and adulthood later? The answer is: a good deal of teenage weirdness. Alison Gopnik teenage answers children Philosophers and psychologists have long puzzled over the question of how we know as much as we do despite our limited experiences. One way is to see how children learn. Another example is consciousness. The concept is usually explored by armchair academics. Looking at kids expands our conceptions of consciousness. Alison Gopnik long kids children Becoming an adult means leaving the world of your parents and starting to make your way toward the future that you will share with your peers. Alison Gopnik leaving parent mean One of the most distinctive evolutionary features of human beings is our unusually long, protected childhood. Alison Gopnik childhood humans long It's turns out to be much easier to simulate a grandmaster chess player than it is to simulate a 2-year-old. Alison Gopnik player inspiring years Adults tend to think they have much free will. Kids younger than six are less sure. They may be more realistic! Alison Gopnik free-will kids thinking
