Caroline Pratt

“From the earliest days, we knew that it was not possible to do good work with the little children without the help of their parents.”

“It is only in retrospect that the high points of our lives rise up, flaunting banners.”

“Children do not grow up all of a piece; look for the child of seven, especially to take many backward glances at the way he has come, while bounds and leaps unevenly ahead in his growth.”

“The more closely he has observed the tugboat, the more deeply he has been stirred by it, and the more eagerly and vividly he will strive to recreate it, in building, in drawing, in words.”

“Children...need most of the same things adults need--consideration, respect for their work, the knowledge that they and the things they do are taken seriously.”

“The freest child is the child who is most interested in what he is doing, and at whose hand are the materials for his work or play.”

“Children learn eagerly and well when they have need of the knowledge.”

“In his play he is no longer an onlooker merely; he is a part of the busy world of adults. He is practicing to take his place in that world when he is grown. He is getting is education.”

“The most important phase of a child’s life was the beginning of it. He must be started right.”

“A lifetime is not too long to spend in learning about the world.”

“A school’s job [is] to begin education.”

“Education [is] not an end in itself but [is] the first step in a progress which should continue during a lifetime.”

“This was not the last time I was to spoil my own fun by asking questions.”

“Childhood’s work is learning, and it is in his play...that the child works at his job.”

“The child, unhampered, does not waste time.”