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Haim Ginott

Haim Ginott Quotes

Psychologist

Haim Ginott, born in Poland in 1922, was a renowned psychologist whose research focused on child education and interpersonal communication. He proposed many theories about parent-child relationships and teacher-student relationships, and his works have had a profound impact on psychology and education.

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All Children Parent Ifs Parenting Responsibility Teacher Teenager Inspirational Capable Crisis

Famous Haim Ginott Quotes

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

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

“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.”

Want Needs Should Children Two Real Asks Easy Parent Sleep Responsibility Example Television Bed Satisfied Toys Pits

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Heart Children Use Able Given Parent Style Skills Ordinary Welfare Helpful Parenthood Warmth Great Faith

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Ifs Children Helping Simple Answers Students Amount Capable Treats Complicated Mediocre Dependable

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Mind Heart Children Parent Teacher Keys Originals Spares Heart And Mind Offspring

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Children Parent Violence Discipline Adults Parenting Aggression Assault Hostility

Author:Haim Ginott

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

Parent Opposites Parenting Contrary Punishment

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

People Ifs Inspirational Helping Wisdom Hope Responsibility Ought Becoming Capable Treats Parenting

Author:Haim Ginott

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

Ifs Children Age Parent Generations Parenting Happy Mothers Day Younger Generation Funny Parenting Funny Parent Young Generation Funny Mothers Day Funny Motherhood Short Mothers Day Great Parenting Aging Parents

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

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

Inspirational Children Persons Becoming Capable Treats Insightful

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Ends Happiness Products Inner Peace Destination

Author:Haim Ginott

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

Discipline Pressure Praise

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

“A modern teacher educates children to value their emotions.”

Children Values Emotion Teacher Modern Educate

Author:Haim Ginott

“Only if a child feels right can he think right.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Children Feels Right

Author:Haim Ginott

“Each of us carries within himself a collection of instant insults.”

Instant Insult Collections Carrie Comeback

Author:Haim Ginott

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

Children Matter Choices Voice Responsibility Allowing

Book:Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child Communication

Source: Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child Communication

“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.”

Feels Firsts Children Feelings Reality Faces Parent Voice Hurt Loneliness Emotional Understood Disappointment Aids Acknowledge Diminish Bruised Plight

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Children Fall Return Discipline Ears Threat Punishment Gentle Frustration Mutual Persuasion Ridicule Deaf Resorts Rebuke Deaf Ears Modus Operandi

Author:Haim Ginott

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

Identity Tasks Teenager Personal Identity

Author:Haim Ginott

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

Knows Doubt Anxiety Universal Terror Teenager Insecurity

Author:Haim Ginott

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

Feels Self Independence Teenager Hostile Crave

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Parent Events Personality Conflict Consequence Crisis Series Response Endless Parenthood Small Events

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Needs Matter Eye Difficult Understanding Wise Truth Is Tasks Teenager Length Delicate Misunderstanding Understanding Others Sad Truth

Author:Haim Ginott

“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.”

Growth Youth Authority Stress Sake Storm Expected Rebellion Conventions Adolescence Turmoil Turbulence

Author:Haim Ginott

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

Knows Fighting Parent Wise Youth Teenager Doom Inviting Wise Parents Riptide

Author:Haim Ginott

About the Author

Born: 1922
Died: 1973
Known for: Psychologist
Quotes: 28

Related Topics

Children Parent Ifs Parenting Responsibility Teacher Teenager Inspirational Capable Crisis

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child CommunicationRelated source material

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