(p1) "The having of wonderful ideas is what I consider the essence of intellectual development." 

(p4) "As an observer for some of the pilot teaching of this program, and later as a pilot teacher myself, I found that I had a certain skill in being able to watch and listen to children and that I did have some good insights about how they were really seeing the problem.  Ths lead to a certain ability to raise questions that made sense to the children or to think of new orientations for the whole activity that might correspond better to their way of seeing things.  I don't want to suggest that I was unique in this.  Many of the teachers with whom I was working had similar insights, as did many of the mathematicians and scientists among my colleagues, who, from their points of view, could tell when children were seeing things differently from the ways they did."

 empathy <==> teaching

(p5) Having confidence in one's ideas does not mean " I know my ideas are right," it means, "I am willing to try out my ideas." 

 vs. arrogance

(p6) One recurring question is, why does the intellectual development of vast numbers of children then slow dowj?  What happens to children's curiosity and resourcefulness later in their childhood?  Why do so few continue to have their own wonderful ideas?  I think part of the answer is that intellectual breakthroughs come to be less and less valued.  Either they are dismissed as being trivial [...] or they are discouraged as being unacceptable--like discovering how it feels to wear shoes on the wrong feet, or asking questions that are socially embarassing, or destroying something to see what it's like inside.  The effect is to discourage children from exploring their own ideas and to make them feel that they have no important ideas of their own, only silly or evil ones. 

 This is true!  As babies, we get ridiculous amount of reinforcement for small steps.  But that wears off.