“One striking characteristic of modern education is the unanimous disapproval of exploiting the powerful feeling of shame. … Yet in ancient education, e. g. in the Socratic dialogs, this very arousal of shame is a chief device; the teacher greets the hot flush as a capital sign that the youth is educable, he has noble aims. Such a youth has dignity in his very shame.
The difference seems to be that we cannot offer available opportunities for honor, we do not have them; and therefore we must protect what shreds of dignity the youth has. Since he has no future, if we make him ashamed of his past and present, he is reduced to nothing. In other ages, the community had plenty of chances of honor, and to belong to the community itself was an honor.”
Source: Growing Up Absurd (1956), p. 149.
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Paul Goodman 47
American novelist, playwright, poet and psychotherapist 1911–1972Related quotes
Source: As quoted in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, William L. Shirer, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York, 1990, p. 249 (May 1, 1937)
Woman and Her Era (1864), pt. 1, ch. 1
“We cannot grow when we are in shame, and we can't use shame to change ourselves or others.”
Source: I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame
“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.”
Source: I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame
Source: 1920s, Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
On the importance of education https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/Im-fine-if-people-call-me-Riddhima/articleshow/3377481.cms/