6 Quotes & Sayings By Haim G Ginott

Haim G. Ginott was born in Poland. He emigrated to Palestine at the age of 12 and later to the United States where he received his M.A. and Ph.D Read more

degrees from Columbia University and taught at the University of Wisconsin and the City College of New York before becoming a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Yeshiva University. Dr. Ginott was the author of over forty books on psychotherapy, child psychology, psychosomatic illness, family therapy, psychomotor behavior, group dynamics, training in movement disorders, hypnosis, and dreaming.

He was one of the early pioneers of psychoanalysis in America, founding both The Search for Identity Group (1934) and The Search for Identity Workshop (1939).

1
When a child hits a child, we call it aggression. When a child hits an adult, we call it hostility. When an adult hits an adult, we call it assault. When an adult hits a child, we call it discipline. Haim G. Ginott
2
What do we say to a guest who forgets her umbrella? Do we run after her and say "What is the matter with you? Every time you come to visit you forget something. If it's not one thing it's another. Why can't you be like your sister? When she comes to visit, she knows how to behave. You're forty-four years old! Will you never learn? I'm not a slave to pick up after you! I bet you'd forget your head if it weren't attached to your shoulders." That's not what we say to a guest. We say "Here's your umbrella, Alice, " without adding "scatterbrain." Parents need to learn to respond to their children as they do to guests. Haim G. Ginott
3
Misbehavior and punishment are not opposites that cancel each other - on the contrary they breed and reinforce each other. Haim G. Ginott
4
I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. . Haim G. Ginott
5
Children become frustrated and resentful when they view their parents as not being interested “in how they feel and in their point of view. Haim G. Ginott