What makes knowledge automatic is what gets you to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice. Alison Gopnik More Quotes by Alison Gopnik More Quotes From Alison Gopnik Adults tend to think they have much free will. Kids younger than six are less sure. They may be more realistic! Alison Gopnik free-willkidsthinking We fear death so profoundly, not because it means the end of our body, but because it means the end of our consciousness - better to be a spirit in Heaven than a zombie on Earth. Alison Gopnik zombieheavenmean Young children seem to be learning who to share this toy with and figure out how it works, while adolescents seem to be exploring some very deep and profound questions: how should this society work? How should relationships among people work? The exploration is: who am I, what am I doing? Alison Gopnik profoundchildrenpeople There is a tension between our desire to get our kids to turn out a particular way versus letting them develop to be their own person. If there were a pill that would make my child turn out the way I wanted, I'm not sure I'd take it. Alison Gopnik desirekidschildren Caring, whether for children or the dying, shouldn't be instrumental. It should be an intrinsic, moral good. Alison Gopnik dyingcaringchildren I'm culturally Jewish but, like most scientists, an atheist: I don't believe there's a God or supernatural world. Buddhism offers guidance on what to do in a world without God: It opines that truly being present in the world‚ experiencing and hanging out with your loved ones, provides all the significance you could want. Alison Gopnik buddhismatheistbelieve Children are the most amazing thing in the universe, as far as I'm concerned. If you're worrying about how it's going to turn out, you aren't experiencing that day-to-day satisfaction of being with these incredible, extraordinary creatures. Every single one of them is the most incredible, extraordinary creature that you're ever going to want to see. I think the joy of having that deep relationship - that's the core of what being a parent is. Alison Gopnik worrychildrenthinking We pass our values, ideas and moral character on to our children, but we do that knowing that our children are going to revise our knowledge and reshape their values. There's something very paradoxical and profound about being a parent as opposed to parenting. We put in all this effort and energy not so that we can shape a child of a particular sort, but so that all sorts of possibilities can happen in the future. Alison Gopnik characterprofoundchildren We provide a secure, stable space for children to grow up in, so children will be able to take risks and have adventures and do things that are unexpected. If there isn't a risk that your children can fail, then you haven't succeeded as a parent. Alison Gopnik growing-upadventurechildren Instead of just saying, "I love my baby and I pick him up because he's adorable and it's so nice to cuddle with him," we practice attachment parenting. We let our children play outside and have age-appropriate freedoms and are labeled free-range parents. Alison Gopnik nicebabychildren The more obsessively we focus on what a particular food is going to do for us, the less healthy we've become. Simple pleasures become complicated. Alison Gopnik healthyfocussimple Some people say that parents don't matter, and that's not true at all. The irony is that we pay attention to all these things that don't matter, and not to what does matter, such as parents having enough resources to provide an environment where their children have both security and freedom. Alison Gopnik security-and-freedomchildrenpeople We don't wife our husbands and we don't child our parents. Alison Gopnik wifehusbandchildren To support the people we care about is intrinsic, it is not instrumental. It's not something we do because we're hoping to get some other outcome. Alison Gopnik supportcarepeople Asking questions is what brains were born to do, at least when we were young children. For young children, quite literally, seeking explanations is as deeply rooted a drive as seeking food or water. Alison Gopnik drivefoodwaterchildren If you just, pretty much, take a random 15-month-old, just sit and watch them for 10 minutes and count out how many experiments, how much thinking you see going on, and it will put the most brilliant scientist to shame. Alison Gopnik randomwillyouthinking The science can tell you that the thousands of pseudo-scientific parenting books out there - not to mention the 'Baby Einstein' DVDs and the flash cards and the brain-boosting toys - won't do a thing to make your baby smarter. That's largely because babies are already as smart as they can be; smarter than we are in some ways. Alison Gopnik youparentingsmartscience As adults, when we attend to something in the world we are vividly conscious of that particular thing, and we shut out the surrounding world. The classic metaphor is that attention is like a spotlight, illuminating one part of the world and leaving the rest in darkness. Alison Gopnik restdarknessattentionworld Our babies are like penguins; penguin babies can't exist unless more than one person is taking care of them. They just can't keep going. Alison Gopnik personlikekeep-goingcare We say that children are bad at paying attention, but we really mean that they're bad at not paying attention - they easily get distracted by anything interesting. Alison Gopnik saybadattentionchildren
