Education Quote by Ernest Dimnet

Dimnet’s line lands like a quiet rebuke to two familiar modern fantasies: that children are empty vessels to be filled, and that they’ll “naturally” flourish if adults simply get out of the way. As a priest and educator writing in an era when schooling often meant drill, obedience, and moral formation, he’s arguing for a paradox that religious thinkers have long prized: guidance without possession.

The first clause grants authority to institutions and elders. Children “have to be educated” is not optional, not trendy, not a lifestyle choice. It’s duty. The second clause flips that duty into restraint. “Left to educate themselves” isn’t a libertarian free-for-all; it’s an insistence that real learning can’t be outsourced. You can impose curriculum, discipline, and values, but you cannot impose understanding. The child’s interior life has to do the work.

The subtext is almost pastoral: an admission of limits. Adults can set the table, but they can’t digest the meal. And because Dimnet is a priest, “self-education” also carries a moral and spiritual edge: conscience must be formed, yes, but it must also awaken from within. Virtue coerced is just compliance with better branding.

What makes the sentence effective is its balanced construction. It’s a hinge, not a slogan. The repetition of “have to” frames freedom as something deliberately protected, not casually granted. Dimnet isn’t romanticizing childhood; he’s warning educators against confusing control with success, and reminding parents that the goal is not a well-managed child, but a self-directed person.