Emma Goldman Understood Teaching and Learning

I got to this link from Woods and Malice doing their thing on Tom Woods' podcast.  They spoke about Emma Goldman.  I had heard her name, knew when she did her thing, and I knew she was an anarchist.

Turns out she was a fascinating person, righteously unafraid of the truth.

A small quote from her on the masses - getting people's minds changed as well as rousing them into action shows that Goldman understood how people were wired:

"My great faith in the wonder worker, the spoken word, is no more. I have realized its inadequacy to awaken thought, or even emotion. Gradually, and with no small struggle against this realization, I came to see that oral propaganda is at best but a means of shaking people from their lethargy: it leaves no lasting impression. The very fact that most people attend meetings only if aroused by newspaper sensations, or because they expect to be amused, is proof that they really have no inner urge to learn.

It is altogether different with the written mode of human expression. No one, unless intensely interested in progressive ideas, will bother with serious books. That leads me to another discovery made after many years of public activity. It is this: All claims of education notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind craves. Already this truth is recognized by most modern educators in relation to the immature mind. I think it is equally true regarding the adult. Anarchists or revolutionists can no more be made than musicians. All that can be done is to plant the seeds of thought. Whether something vital will develop depends largely on the fertility of the human soil, though the quality of the intellectual seed must not be overlooked."

The highlighted part is the key to it all.  Persuasion and changing minds is almost impossible.  Only when the student is ready will the teacher emerge.