Elliot Turiel

Honoree:
Elliot Turiel

Submitted By:
Michael Green

In every life there are important people and events and places. Some are more important than others. In my life, none was more important than Elliot Turiel.

I grew up in a very small town in Washington and went to a very large college in California. Two freshman courses – biology and calculus – had more students enrolled than we had people in my home town. It was a very large college.

In 1967 in Berkeley, California, I went to talk with a young professor who was offering a “child development laboratory.” Elliot Turiel was a visiting professor from Yale, and he was very different from the other psychology professors I had grown used to. Turiel promised a small class (no more than 8 students) and plenty of “hands on” learning about children. Even after talking with him to see if I wanted to take his class, I didn’t know what I was in for. Still, I figured it would be an easy “A” in a required psych course for the major.

Believe me, there were a lot of distractions in 1967 at Berkeley, but Turiel’s course changed my life. On the first day of class, we walked 4 blocks to a preschool center where Turiel asked us to talk with the children, “Just get to know them.” For the next month, Turiel’s students didn’t talk about textbook readings, exams, or course requirements. Instead, we walked to the preschool center every week and spent 3 hours talking with children. One of my classmates asked, “What are we supposed to be learning?” and Turiel responded, “Just listen to the children. Really listen. And figure out what they are telling you.”

This experience changed my life. Turiel taught us that children have something to say, and they’re point of view is not the adult point of view. After talking with children for a whole month, Turiel assigned us original readings from Erikson, Freud, Piaget, and Skinner. He asked simply, “Which theorist does the best job describing how children think?” What a concept – study children first, and then read about theories to make sense. It was so much better than the textbook reading I’d done in all my other classes. Turiel was teaching us an attitude of mind about children, and he taught us that theory is the most direct way to make sense from data. Using theories of development, we learned how to look with the mind.

Elliot Turiel was the smartest person I’d ever met. In 1967 my dream was to become like Turiel – very, very smart. I never quite made it, but his inspiration has been a primary motivation for me throughout my career.

Elliot Turiel was the greatest teacher I’ve ever had. His impact on me has been life long!

Thank you Elliot!

Michael Green, COED