It’s a great mistake, I think, to put children off with falsehoods and nonsense, when their growing powers of observation and discrimination excite in them a desire to know about things.

The remark argues for intellectual honesty with children. Sullivan suggests that curiosity is not a nuisance to be managed with comforting fictions, but evidence of developing judgment—“powers of observation and discrimination.” To answer children with “falsehoods and nonsense” is therefore not merely inaccurate; it disrespects their emerging capacity to reason and can dull trust in adults and in inquiry itself. The quote aligns with progressive educational ideals associated with Sullivan’s work with Helen Keller: learning grows from careful attention to the world, and the teacher’s role is to meet questions with truthful, intelligible explanations that invite further exploration rather than shutting it down.