- To raise [[children]], Laszlo [[Polgar]] setup an environment for [[autonomy]] and agency. - Polgar needed to work with his children, rather than telling them what to do. - The father's role was an enabler, an opener of ways. - The father's goal was to provide the "highest possible level of [[freedom]]". - They are not marionettes, but in a traditional [[school]] they are. - Polgar does not assert that raising competent children leads to happiness, but that they will at least have the same opportunities for happiness as normal children. - He did not like that older, more static leaders were followed instead of younger, more dynamic leaders. - Polgar rejected the [[middle]]. "Mediocrity, the orientation to the middle, I refuse out of principle." - Polgar was intent on quality. - Polgar saw himself as someone who shapes his own destiny. - Polgar was against compromise. - He preferred defeating obstacles to worrying about them. - Laszlo and his wife had the premise that every healthy child could be raised to be an outstanding person. - They believed that every outstanding person had a trainer who was obssessed. - “It is better not to say that geniuses are not often born; say rather that we do not often raise them.” - Polgar figured that people are shaped by the body they are born to, the effect of the [[environment]], and a 'self-[[creation]]' that happens from personal experimentation. - Great capability comes from [[creativity]] expressed in concrete [[action]]. - "...every child born healthy is potentially a genius, and if one pays enough attention, they will in fact become one." - The ultimate goal is human happiness- which is enabled by genius. - "I criticize contemporary schools because they do not educate for life, they equalize everyone to a very low level, and in addition they do not tolerate the talented and those who diverge from the average." - "My daughters, who have never visited a [[school]], grew up much more in the context of real [[life]]."