Haim Ginott Quotes

• I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a student's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a student humanized or de-humanized.

  Haim Ginott

  Inspirational, Life, Education

  332 Copy quote

• How can we help a child change from undependable to dependable, from a mediocre student to a capable student, from someone who won't amount to very much to someone who will count for something. The answer is at once both simple and complicated: We treat a child as if he already is what we would like him to become.

  Haim Ginott

  Children, Simple, Answers

  175 Copy quote

• Treat a child as though he already is the person he's capable of becoming.

  Haim Ginott

  Inspirational, Children, Insightful

  "Gently And Firmly". Book by C.P. Varkey, p. 87, 2010.

  129 Copy quote

• If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.

  Haim Ginott

  Inspirational, Hope, Wisdom

  137 Copy quote

• If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.

  Haim Ginott

  Children, Nice, Self Esteem

  156 Copy quote

• While parents possess the original key to their offspring's experience, teachers have a spare key. They, too, can open or close the minds and hearts of children.

  Haim Ginott

  Teacher, Children, Heart

  148 Copy quote

• Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.

  Haim Ginott

  Appreciation, Teacher, Teaching

  "Teacher and child". Book by Haim Ginott, 1972.

  130 Copy quote

• When a child hits a child, we call it aggression. When a child hits an adult, we call it hostility. When an adult hits an adult, we call it assault. When an adult hits a child, we call it discipline.

  Haim Ginott

  Children, Parenting, Discipline

  121 Copy quote

• Happiness... is not a destination: it is a manner of traveling. Happiness is not an end in itself. It is a by-product of working, playing, loving and living.

  Haim Ginott

  Happiness, Inner Peace, Ends

  111 Copy quote

• When children feel understood, their loneliness and hurt diminish. When children are understood, their love for their parent is deepened. A parent's sympathy serves as emotional first aid for bruised feelings. When we genuinely acknowledge a child's plight and voice her disappointment, she often gathers the strength to face reality.

  Haim Ginott

  Hurt, Children, Disappointment

  112 Copy quote

• I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.

  Haim Ginott

  Inspirational, Teacher, Children

  "Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom". Book by Rick Wormeli, p. 9, 2006.

  103 Copy quote

• Only if a child feels right can he think right.

  Haim Ginott

  Children, Thinking, Feels Right

  88 Copy quote

• Responsibility is fostered by allowing children a voice and wherever indicated a choice in matters that affect them.

  Haim Ginott

  Children, Responsibility, Voice

  Dr. Haim G. Ginott (2009). “Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child Communication”, p.89, Harmony

  69 Copy quote

• Misbehavior and punishment are not opposites that cancel each other - on the contrary they breed and reinforce each other.

  Haim Ginott

  Parenting, Opposites, Punishment

  80 Copy quote

• Adolescence can be a time of turmoil and turbulence, of stress and storm. Rebellion against authority and against convention is to be expected and tolerated for the sake of learning and growth.

  Haim Ginott

  Stress, Growth, Storm

  55 Copy quote

• Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it.

  Haim Ginott

  Happy Mothers Day, Children, Parenting

  54 Copy quote

• To be himself, one neeeds to be free from the pressure of evaluative praise

  Haim Ginott

  Discipline, Pressure, Praise

  61 Copy quote

• A modern teacher educates children to value their emotions.

  Haim Ginott

  Teacher, Children, Emotion

  54 Copy quote

• Parenthood is an endless series of small events, periodic conflicts, and sudden crises which call for a response. The response is not without consequence: it affects personality for better or for worse.

  Haim Ginott

  Personality, Parent, Events

  52 Copy quote

• The search for a personal identity is the life task of a teenager.

  Haim Ginott

  Teenager, Identity, Tasks

  5 Copy quote

• Teenagers crave independence. The more self-suf-ficient we make them feel, the less hostile they are toward us.

  Haim Ginott

  Teenager, Self, Independence

  41 Copy quote

• Whenever I hear about a child needing something, I ask myself, 'Is it what he needs or what he wants?' It isn't always easy to distinguish between the two. A child has many real needs which can and should be satisfied. His wants are a bottomless pit. He wants, for example, to sleep with his parents. He needs to be in his own bed. At Christmas he wants every toy advertised on television. He needs only one or two.

  Haim Ginott

  Children, Real, Sleep

  45 Copy quote

• When gentle persuasion [of children] falls on deaf ears, we resort to ridicule and rebuke. Then we return to threats and punishment. This is the modus operandi of a mutual frustration society.

  Haim Ginott

  Children, Fall, Frustration

  53 Copy quote

• I have great faith in 'ordinary parents.' Who has a child's welfare more at heart than his ordinary parent? It's been my experience that when parents are given the skills to be more helpful, not only are they able to use these skills, but they infuse them with a warmth and a style that is uniquely their own.

  Haim Ginott

  Children, Heart, Skills

  7 Copy quote

• Wise parents know that fighting a teenager, like fighting a riptide, is inviting doom.

  Haim Ginott

  Wise, Teenager, Fighting

  38 Copy quote

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