By bringing current events into the classroom, everyday discussion, and social media, maybe we don’t need to wait for our grandchildren’s questions to remind us we should have paid more attention to current events. – Adora Svitak
The current concept of prom just seems so empty. Teenagers get dressed up to go to a dance at a fancy location. It encourages social inclusion or exclusion based on your ability or inability to snag a date. – Adora Svitak
If I had my way, I’d end all wars and poverty. We should all be more aware of what’s going on in the world around us and less ignorant. – Adora Svitak
With writing, I can express myself, really, and share my ideas and just let my thoughts flow out. – Adora Svitak
Young people are often asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and given advice about how to lead meaningful adult lives, but where’s the encouragement to lead meaningful lives right now? – Adora Svitak
I wouldn’t call myself a geek, but I do sometimes teach Mommy and Daddy stuff about computers. And I do watch TV, but only informative programmes like the news and documentaries. – Adora Svitak
I was thrilled to be able to read at three. I just thought everyone loved reading as much as I did. – Adora Svitak
As children, we have a tenuous idea of love; we often try to quantify it with how much we feel seen and heard. – Adora Svitak
The fact that a baby can be born today and condemned to a life of hardship, struggle, and discrimination simply because of sex is enraging. – Adora Svitak
For kids like me, being called childish can be a frequent occurrence. Every time we make irrational demands, exhibit irresponsible behavior, or display any other signs of being normal American citizens, we are called childish. – Adora Svitak
Since the age of four, I’ve been exploring what I can do with the written word: everything from championing literacy and youth voice to raising awareness about world hunger. – Adora Svitak
I need to be allowed to make my own decisions and mistakes, take leaps – and fall – without receiving too much help, because it’s what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life. – Adora Svitak
My parents homeschooled my sister and me for many years. Why? Because the local school insisted that I, being three, should go to preschool, and my sister, being five, should go to kindergarten. The problem? You learn your alphabet in preschool, and I was already reading chapter books. – Adora Svitak
Prom has all the elements of a popular story. It reeks of all-Americanness, tension, drama. It has romance. Pretty dresses. Dancing. Limos. High school. Coming of age. – Adora Svitak
Hoping to instill my love of learning in other children, I taught my first class at a local elementary school the year my first book, ‘Flying Fingers,’ debuted; since then, I have spoken at hundreds of schools, classrooms and conferences around the world. – Adora Svitak
The idea there were kids out there who didn’t love to read and write just as much as I did struck me. So I went around schools and tried to make other kids love to read and write. – Adora Svitak
Students read for tests and because their parents ask them to, but I think it’s very important to tell children that you can read for fun, too, and to understand human spirit. It builds empathy. – Adora Svitak
By creating so many illusory images of physical perfection, whether on store aisles or storefront ads, magazine covers or TV shows, we speak more to the profit margins of companies than the self-esteem of today’s girls. – Adora Svitak
In many countries, schools are preparing students to participate in a democratic environment; yet schools themselves tend to be extremely autocratic, with all high-level decisions being made by adults. – Adora Svitak
We’re used to the characteristics of social media – participation, connection, instant gratification – and when school doesn’t offer the same, it’s easy to tune out. – Adora Svitak
I think women should be more independent. In society, we’re portrayed as people who simply wear make-up and sit around. We need a Princess Charming – a woman who rescues her man and slays the dragon instead of the other way round. – Adora Svitak
The traits the word ‘childish’ addresses are seen so often in adults that we should abolish this age-discriminatory word when it comes to criticizing behavior associated with irresponsibility and irrational thinking. – Adora Svitak
We always reference kids but very rarely ask their opinion. Our inexperience might be what gives us the ability to teach our elders something, due to the fact that we are not jaded or cynical. – Adora Svitak
As we grow up in more technology-enriched environments filled with laptops and smart phones, technology is not just becoming a part of our daily lives – it’s becoming a part of each and every one of us. – Adora Svitak
I realise I’m still a child, though I do feel older. I recently did an on-line test called ‘What’s Your True Age?’ My result was 50-60 years old. – Adora Svitak
We need to reward the ‘thankless job’ of substitute teaching with better pay and chances for permanent positions. I look forward to the day when no student comes home saying, ‘I didn’t learn much today… we had a sub.’ – Adora Svitak
Success on the front of women’s rights will look like a world not only with obvious advances – where no girl is denied access to education, for instance – but also one with more subtle changes in how we regard gender and gender stereotypes. – Adora Svitak
The unsaid message of that endless rack of juniors’ pushup bras? No matter what size you are, it still isn’t good enough. – Adora Svitak
