We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
B. F. SkinnerRead
We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The focus of teaching should be on fostering a passion for reading rather than just the content of great books.
B. F. Skinner emphasizes that the primary goal of education should be to cultivate a love for reading among students. Rather than merely instructing them to study great literature, educators should inspire a genuine interest in reading as a lifelong pursuit. This approach not only enhances comprehension and enjoyment of texts but also encourages critical thinking and personal growth through exploration of diverse ideas and narratives.
Themes
ReadingEducationLiteratureLoveTeaching
In practice
Example use cases
A teacher could use this quote to explain the importance of instilling a reading habit in students during a faculty meeting.
More from B. F. Skinner
All quotes βEach of us has interests which conflict the interests of everybody else... 'everybody else' we call 'society'. It's a powerful opponent and it always wins. Oh, here and there an individual prevails for a while and gets what he wants. Sometimes he storms the culture of a society and changes it to his own advantage. But society wins in the long run, for it has the advantage of numbers and of age.
B. F. SkinnerRead
No theory changes what it is a theory about; man remains what he has always been.
B. F. SkinnerRead
I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men.
B. F. SkinnerRead
The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone.
B. F. SkinnerRead
Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.
B. F. SkinnerRead
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