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Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!

Charles Dickens#109

DickensEducationChildrenControlFacts

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker demands that education focus exclusively on facts, rejecting imagination or emotion.
In plain terms
Teach only facts and nothing else to children.
What can you take from it?
Strict factual education limits broader development.

Where it applies

  • classroom settings
  • educational debates
  • parenting styles

Putting it to work

  • critiquing curriculum
  • analyzing teaching methods

Questions to consider

  • Should facts be the only focus?
  • What is missing from this approach?

Another view

The view ignores the value of creativity and emotional intelligence.

More from Charles Dickens

  1. Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion …

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  2. Oh my friends, the down-trodden operatives of Coketown! Oh my friends and fellow-countrymen, the slaves of an ironhanded and a grinding despotism! Oh my friend…

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  3. Take care, while you are young, that you can think in those days, 'I never whitened a hair of her dear head, I never marked a sorrowful line in her face!' For …

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