The Sense of Wonder

If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

Now I know that for children, too, nature reserves some of her choice rewards for days when her mood may appear to be somber.

I think the value of the game of identification depends on how you play it. If it becomes an end in itself I count it of little use.

It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.

having fun together rather than on teaching.

to abandon the impulse to teach or explain.

Nature is the arena of shared enjoyment, an equalizer in the adventure of discovery.