“I am committed to writing appropriate books for the middle grades. This means no bad language, no gratuitous or explicit violence, and no sexual content beyond what you might find in a PG-rated movie – expressions of who likes whom, holding hands, and perhaps the occasional kiss. The idea that we should treat sexual orientation itself as an adults-only topic, however, is absurd. Non-heterosexual children exist. To pretend they do not, to fail to recognize that they have needs for support and validation like any child, would be bad teaching, bad writing, and bad citizenship.” NeedsShouldWritingMeanChildrenBookIdeasHandsMightWould BeLanguageSupportViolenceFailingTeachingMiddleExpressionKissingAdultsTreatsCommittedLikesAbsurdGradesAppropriateCitizenshipTopicsOccasionalOrientationValidationExplicitHolding HandsBad WritingBad Language Author:Rick Riordan
“The benefits of becoming fluent in a foreign tongue are as underestimated as the difficulty is overestimated. Thousands of theoretical linguists will disagree, but I know from research and personal experimentation with more than a dozen languages that (1) adults can learn languages much faster than children when constant 9-5 work is removed and that (2) it is possible to become conversationally fluent in any language in six months or less. At four hours per day, six months can be whittled down to less than three months.” KnowsChildrenThreeLanguageHoursWorkFourMonthsBecomingSixBenefitsResearchAdultsDifficultyConstantTongueFasterDisagreeDozenSix MonthsTheoreticalExperimentationThree MonthsUnderestimatedFluentLinguists Author:Tim Ferriss
“Only idiots and infants need things. The language of needs is the native tongue of socialists, therapists, and paternalists of all sorts and is addressed to needy dependents. The language of wants is spoken by self-respecting adults and is addressed to other self-respecting adults.” WantNeedsSelfLanguageAdultsInvestingTongueIdiotNativeInfantTherapistsNeedy Author:Thomas Szasz
“Basque is one of the world's more alarming languages. Only a handful of adult foreigners, they say, have ever managed to learn it. The Devil tried once and mastered only three words - profanities, I assume.” WorldThreeLanguageDevilAdultsAssumingHandfulForeignersProfanityThree WordsBasques Author:Jan Morris
“I keep thinking, we teach children to use language to solve their disputes. We teach them not to hit and fight and bite. Then look what adults do!” ThinkingLooksChildrenUseFightingLanguageTeachAdultsSolveBitesDisputes Author:Naomi Shihab Nye
“I don't change the language for children books. I don't make the language simpler. I use words that they might have to look up in the dictionary. The books are shorter, but there's just not that much difference other than that to be honest. And the funny thing is, I have adult writer friends [to whom I would say], "Would you think of writing a children's book?" and they go, "No, God, I wouldn't know how." They're quite intimidated by the concept of it. And when I say to children's books writers, would they write an adult book, they say no because they think they're too good for it.” ThinkingKnowsWritingLooksChildrenBookUseMightLanguageDifferencesKnow HowHonestConceptsAdultsBeing HonestLook UpDictionaryFunny ThingsIntimidatedDon't ChangeChildren's BooksChildren BookChildrens Book Author:John Boyne
“People over the age of thirty were born before the digital revolution really started. We've learned to use digital technology-laptops, cameras, personal digital assistants, the Internet-as adults, and it has been something like learning a foreign language. Most of us are okay, and some are even expert. We do e-mails and PowerPoint, surf the Internet, and feel we're at the cutting edge. But compared to most people under thirty and certainly under twenty, we are fumbling amateurs. People of that age were born after the digital revolution began. They learned to speak digital as a mother tongue.” PeopleFeelsHas BeensUseAgeMotherSpeakLanguageBornTechnologyCuttingRevolutionInternetAdultsOkayTwentiesCamerasEdgesTongueThirtyExpertsDigitalMailAssistantsSurfLaptopsForeign LanguageCutting EdgeMother TongueDigital TechnologyPowerpointDigital Revolution Author:Ken Robinson
“What distinguishes a human being from a computer? The ability to add up numbers? The ability to understand language? The ability to be logical? It is, of course, none of the above. It is the ability to play. Computers cannot have fun. They cannot fantasize. They cannot dream, they cannot experience emotion or summon intuition. These rare, precious qualities come naturally to every child on this earth yet they tend to be seen, by well meaning adults, as faults, foibles and failings. In pushing tiny toddlers to 'perform', we rob them of the ability to imagine.” HumansWellsChildrenPlayDreamEarthCoursesLanguageFunHuman BeingsAbilityNumbersEmotionQualityImagineFailingComputerAdultsAddFaultsIntuitionTinyHaving FunPushingLogicalToddlerFoibles Author:Jonathan Cainer
“I had trouble listening to adults who didn't really mean anything that they said; it was as if their language poured into my ears only to drain right out a little spigot in the back of my head.” IfsMeanLittlesSaidLanguageTroubleListeningAdultsEarsThey SaidReally MeanDrains Book:The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet: A Novel Source: The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet: A Novel
“The Lord of the Rings' is fundamentally an infantile work. Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He's interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.” WayHumansLanguageHuman BeingsLordPlansAdultsRingsCodeMapsNot InterestedGrownupsInfantile Author:Philip Pullman
“When you are a kid you have your own language, and unlike French or Spanish or whatever you start learning in fourth grade, this one you are born with, and eventually lose...Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult...is only a slow sewing it shut.” ThinkingKidsLanguageBornLosesBrainBecomingAdultsWideGradesFourthCrackedSewingFourth GradeBecoming An Adult Author:Jodi Picoult