Anne Sullivan

“Education in the light of present-day knowledge and need calls for some spirited and creative innovations both in the substance and the purpose of current pedagogy.”

“We are afraid of ideas, of experimenting, of change. We shrink from thinking a problem through to a logical conclusion.”

“I have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the gateway through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of the child.”

“No matter how mistaken Communist ideas may be, the experience and knowledge gained by trying them out have given a tremendous impetus to thought and imagination.”

“I need a teacher quite as much as Helen. I know the education of this child will be the distinguishing event of my life, if I have the brains and perseverance to accomplish it.”

“I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think.”

“We imagine that we want to escape our selfish and commonplace existence, but we cling desperately to our chains.”

“We have no firm hold on any knowledge or philosophy that can lift us out of our difficulties.”