We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
You can teach students how to work; you can teach them technique - how to use reason; you can even give them a sense of proportions - of order. You can teach them general principles.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the multifaceted nature of teaching, highlighting that education goes beyond mere technique to include reasoning and principles.
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe's quote underscores that effective education is not limited to imparting technical skills or specific knowledge. It encompasses a broader spectrum, including teaching students how to think critically, understand the principles behind techniques, and appreciate the importance of order and proportion. This holistic approach aims to cultivate well-rounded individuals who are equipped not just with skills but with the reasoning necessary to apply them effectively.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech to inspire future teachers.
More from Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe
All quotes βArchitecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity lies in the realm of the significance.
The demands of the time for objectivity and functionality must be fulfilled. If that clearly happens, then the buildings of our day will convey the greatness of which the age is capable, and only a fool will maintain that they lack it.
I think that an industrial process is not like a rubber stamp. Everything has to be put together and, as such, should have its own expression.
Reinforced concrete buildings are by nature skeletal buildings. No noodles nor armoured turrets. A construction of girders that carry the weight, and walls that carry no weight. That is to say, buildings consisting of skin and bones.
Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.
Similar quotes
When new cooks come to work for me, they obviously make mistakes at the beginning or there's some messiness to the presentation. What I always say to them is: 'If you were cooking this for your mother or your girlfriend, would you make those mistakes?'
I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.
The chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime.
The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than uncounted millions of gold.
To be the kind of writer you want to be, you must first be the kind of thinker you want to be.
We go into rural communities and all we do, like has been done in this room, is create the space. When these girls sit, you unlock intelligence, you unlock passion, you unlock commitment, you unlock focus, you unlock great leaders.