4000 Years of Thinkers of Education

27 januari 2020

Het boek '4000 Years of Thinkers on Education', samengesteld door Henk Sissing en net uitgekomen, bevat honderden, zo niet duizenden, onderwijscitaten. De samensteller van de Bildungskalender publiceert deze keer in het Engels. Wij mogen een aantal citaten delen. 

'This book offers neither ready-made solutions, nor a 10-point plan for educational success, but instead a large number of important quotations by many thinkers across history and from many cultures worldwide. The conciseness, imaginative qualities and clarity of the quotations of great thinkers encourage us to reflect and also spark thoughts for discussion', schrijft Henk Sissing in de inleiding van 4000 Years of Thinkers on Education. Ahmed Aboutaleb zegt het zo: 'Groundbreaking moments in a lifetime are often connected to education. And what education can mean in a human life depends on the people working in education.' Het boek is ingedeeld in verschillende delen die worden ingeleid door onder meer: Gert Biesta, Paulien Meijer en Eddie Denessen. 

Ook is er een speciale website opgezet met suggesties voor hoe met de citaten gewerkt kan worden, zoals het starten van de vergadering met een favoriet citaat van een van de leraren, of het bespreken van het 'waarom': 'Whoever has a "why" he can live for, can tolerate almost any how' -Friedrich Nietzsche). 
 

Over leraren

'What office is there which involves more responsiblity, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honorable, than that of teaching?’ – Harriet Martineau 1802-1876 (Occupation, Volume 3, 1837)

The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it’ – Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778 (Émile, ou de l’éducation, 1763)

‘Knowledge or proficiency in pedagogical methods are not what matters in a teacher, but character and a certain presence that makes itself felt even before the teacher has spoken. The educator must have attained a degree of inner development, and must have become not merely learned, but inwardly transformed’ – Rudolf Steiner, 1861 – 1925 (The education of the child, 1922)

‘If one becomes aware that there can be peace and harmony for man only through right education, then one wil naturally give one’s whole life and interest to it’ – Jiddu Krishnamurti, 1895-1985 (Education and the significance of life, 1953) pag 101

‘A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself’ – Walter Bagehot, 1826-1877 (The works and life of Walther Bagehot, 1915).

‘Nine tenths of education is encouragement’ – Anatole France, 1844-1924 (Quoted in Philosophy of Education and Critical Thinking, 2016)

Over leerlingen

‘A child comes into the world with the perfect tool, the best learning invention ever created: play’ – Coen Free 1945-2017 (Bildungskalender, 2017) 190

Over schoolleiderschap

‘Never look down to test the ground before taking the next step; only he who keeps his eye on the far horizon will find the right road’ – Dag Hammaskjöld, 1905-1961 (Markings, 1964) 199

'What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people’ – Maori saying

4000 Years of Thinkers on Education (2020), Henk Sissing (Ed.), Boom Uitgevers, ISBN 978 90 5875 470 7