Ginott Haim Quotes

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

Haim G. Ginott

#2. To be himself, one neeeds to be free from the pressure of evaluative praise

Haim Ginott

#3. To sense when a teenager needs understanding and when misunderstanding is a difficult and delicate task. The sad truth is that no matter how wise we are, we cannot be right for any length of time in our teenagers' eyes.

Haim Ginott

#4. 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

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

Haim Ginott

#6. I have a faithful joy and a joy that is lost. One is like a rose, the other, a thorn. The one that was stolen I have not lost.

Gabriela Mistral

#7. Many teenagers are tormented by terrors they deem private and personal. They do not know that their anxieties and doubts are universal.

Haim Ginott

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

Haim G. Ginott

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

Haim Ginott

#10. 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

#11. Children become frustrated and resentful when they view their parents as not being interested in how they feel and in their point of view.

Haim G. Ginott

#12. We honor the rich because they have externally the freedom, power, and grace which we feel to be proper to man, proper to us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Haim Ginott

#14. Choking the gopher. What'd you think I'd do, my homework?

Simone Elkeles

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

Haim Ginott

#16. Each of us carries within himself a collection of instant insults.

Haim Ginott

#17. 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 G. Ginott

#18. Only if a child feels right can he think right.

Haim Ginott

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

Haim Ginott

#20. Parental criticism is unhelpful. It creates anger and resentment. Even worse, children who are regularly criticized learn to condemn themselves and others. They learn to doubt their own worth and to belittle the value of others. They learn to suspect people and to expect personal doom.

Haim G. Ginott

#21. I cannot imagine any boy of spirit who would not be delighted to play a drunkard even to vomiting in front of his Sunday school. Indeed, the vomiting might be the chief attraction of the role.

Robertson Davies

#22. Art should be as inclusive as possible. That's why I like bringing the low form of puppetry and elevating it into a sculpture form, but it's still a puppet also.

Wayne White

#23. A modern teacher educates children to value their emotions.

Haim Ginott

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

Haim Ginott

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

Haim Ginott

#26. When we love someone it is because we built that feeling, bit by bit. It's a choice. It's what we make only for ourselves ...

Bruce Brooks

#27. 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 G. Ginott