The mind of a learner: Iron, Marble, Receptacle or Flame?

Published by in schoolreform on October 23rd, 2008

I found this quotation about the mind of a learner this evening on the blog of the Tennessee State Board of Education:

We are to regard the mind not as a piece of iron to be laid upon the anvil and hammered into any shape, nor as a block of marble in which we are to find the statue by removing the rubbish, nor as a receptacle into which knowledge may be poured; but as a flame that is to be fed, as an active being that must be strengthened to think and feel–to dare, to do, and to suffer.
– Mark Hopkins, Induction address as president of Williams College, 1836.

Amen.

A flame
Creative Commons License photo credit: Dave Jones – one of many

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