32 Alison Gopnik Quotes for You to Enjoy

Alison Gopnik

American Psychologist

Born: Jun 16, 1955

Children Parents People Will World You

Related authors: Abraham Maslow Angela Duckworth B. F. Skinner Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Erich Fromm Erik Erikson Phil McGraw Wayne Dyer

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

Change Generation Mind Parents Few Way Wired Environment Generations New New Generation Becomes Brains Up Human Just Children Different Created Human Mind Radically Each Each Generation Different Way Grows

Imagine if baseball were taught the way science is taught in most inner-city schools. Schoolchildren would get lectures about the history of the World Series. High school students would occasionally reproduce famous plays of the past. Nobody would get in the game themselves until graduate school. Alison Gopnik

History Game Science World School Past Way High Would High School High School Students About Students Nobody Schoolchildren Most Until Schools Occasionally Were Lectures Get Graduate Graduate School Taught The History Of Famous Reproduce Themselves Series Baseball World Series Imagine Plays

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

Parenting You Science Smart Babies Baby Books Ways Out Tell Thousands Some Mention Smarter Toys Make Because Than Flash Einstein Your Largely Thing Cards

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

The radio was an improvement on the telegraph but it didn't have the same exponential, transformative effect. Alison Gopnik

Telegraph Effect Improvement Same Transformative Exponential Radio

Animals are certainly more sophisticated than we used to think. And we shouldn't lump together animals as a group. Crows and chimps and dogs are all highly intelligent in very different ways. Alison Gopnik

Together Animals Group Think Ways More Crows Highly Sophisticated Dogs Very Intelligent Than Different Used Certainly Different Ways Lump

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

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

Work Learning People Young Society Relationships Out Some Seem Adolescent Share Toy How Am Doing Questions Very Children Young Children While Should Exploration Exploring Figure Who Who Am I Deep Works Among Profound

The youngest children have a great capacity for empathy and altruism. There's a recent study that shows even 14-month-olds will climb across a bunch of cushions and go across a room to give you a pen if you drop one. Alison Gopnik

Putting together philosophy and children would have been difficult for most of history. But very fortunately for me, when I started graduate school there was a real scientific revolution taking place in developmental psychology. Alison Gopnik

Me History Together School Revolution Difficult Philosophy Would Taking Putting Developmental Most Scientific Real Been Very Graduate Graduate School Children Psychology Place Fortunately Started

Childhood is a fundamental part of all human lives, parents or not, since that's how we all start out. And yet babies and young children are so mysterious and puzzling and even paradoxical. Alison Gopnik

Parents Young Babies Out Paradoxical Mysterious Part Puzzling Since How Childhood Human Children Young Children Even Fundamental Lives Start

Being a developmental psychologist didn't make me any better at dealing with my own children, no. I muddled through, and, believe me, fretted and worried with the best of them. Alison Gopnik

Best Me Better Own Believe Worried My Own Through Developmental Make Dealing Any Being Children Psychologist Them Muddled

In most places and times in human history, babies have had not just one person but lots of people around who were really paying attention to them around, dedicated to them, cared to them, were related to them. I think the big shift in our culture is the isolation in which many children are growing up. Alison Gopnik

History Culture People Big Isolation Think Babies Related Our Had Attention Most Around Were Shift Lots Up Times Person Human Just Children Just One Which Places Them Human History Really Dedicated Paying Who Many Growing Growing Up Cared

The thing that is most important is having people who are involved and engaged with the kids and also are not stressed and can be involved with them. And that's actually not boring and banal. That actually takes a lot of work to make that happen, and it's not something that our society does very well at all. Alison Gopnik

Work People Important Society Our Kids Boring Something Having Takes Most Involved Also Well Make Does Lot Banal Very Happen Them Engaged Who Actually Thing Stressed

One of the things I say is, 'You want to know what it's like to be a baby? It's like being in love for the first time in Paris after four double espressos.' And boy, you are alive and conscious. Alison Gopnik

What we want in students is creativity and a willingness to fail. I always say to students, 'If you've never at some point stayed up all night talking to your new boyfriend about the meaning of life instead of preparing for the test, then you're not really an intellectual.' Alison Gopnik

Life You Creativity Meaning Of Life Say All Night Willingness Stayed Some About Point Never Students Fail Instead New Talking Always Boyfriend Test Intellectual Up Want Meaning Meaning Of Then Really Your Preparing Night

If you just casually look at a baby, it doesn't look like there's very much going on there, but they know more and learn more than we would ever have thought. Every single minute is incredibly full of thought and novelty. It's easy as adults to take for granted everything it took to arrive at the state where we are. Alison Gopnik

You Take For Granted Thought Single Every Baby Incredibly State Took Everything Would Easy Minute More Casually Take Adult Like Know Look Learn Arrive Very Than Going Just Where Much Full Granted Novelty Ever

Something like reading depends a lot on just having people around you who talk to you and read you books, more than sitting down and, say, doing a reading drill when you're 3 or 4 years old. Alison Gopnik

For better or worse, we live in possible worlds as much as actual ones. We are cursed by that characteristically human guilt and regret about what might have been in the past. But that may be the cost for our ability to hope and plan for what might be in the future. Alison Gopnik

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