You read a bunch of books and you get a bunch of how-tos, and you take a bunch of classes and you learn a bunch of techniques. You set yourself goals and benchmarks. I think people have imported that into their experience of taking care of children. Alison Gopnik More Quotes by Alison Gopnik More Quotes From Alison Gopnik A theory not only explains the world we see, it lets us imagine other worlds, and, even more significantly, lets us act to create those worlds. Developing everyday theories, like scientific theories, has allowed human beings to change the world. Alison Gopnik change-the-world see change world We know what makes babies smart and happy and thrive. It's having human beings who are dedicated to caring for them - human beings who are well supported, not stressed out and not poor. Alison Gopnik smart poor caring happy Like most parents, I think, my children have been the source of some of my most intense joys and despairs, my deepest moral dilemmas and greatest moral achievements. Alison Gopnik parents think moral children One of the best ways of understanding human nature is to study children. After all, if we want understand who we are, we should find out how we got to be that way. Alison Gopnik best nature children way One of the things I say is from an evolutionary point of view: probably the ideal rich environment for a baby includes more mud, livestock, and relatives than most of us could tolerate nowadays. Alison Gopnik view rich environment baby We have lots of evidence that putting investments in early childhood education, even evidence from very hard-nosed economists, is one of the very best investments that the society can possibly make. And yet we still don't have public support for things like preschools. Alison Gopnik best childhood support education What makes knowledge automatic is what gets you to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice. Alison Gopnik makes you practice knowledge Each new generation of children grows up in the new environment its parents have created, and each generation of brains becomes wired in a different way. The human mind can change radically in just a few generations. Alison Gopnik parents change mind children Successful creative adults seem to combine the wide-ranging exploration and openness we see in children with the focus and discipline we see in adults. Alison Gopnik discipline focus creative children
