The Education of Man

An eternal law pervades and rules all things. It is expressed in the external world of Nature, in the inner world of mind and spirit, and in life where these two are unified. It is clearly evident to the person who is convinced by temperament and belief that this must be so, as well as to him who has arrived logically at the view that our minds are revealed in our actions and that our actions are essentially the result of inner realities. Underlying this universal order of things is a living unity which is all-pervading, self-cognizant and ever­lasting. This unity too is known by faith or perceptive observation, as it has been known at all times by those who respond to it emotionally or who logically appre­hend it, and so it will always be.

This unity is God.

Everything has emanated from the divine, from God, and is solely conditioned by God, who is the only cause of all things.

God pervades and rules all things. Everything lives and has its being in and through God. It exists only because God moves within it, and this divine element is its essence.

Everything has a purpose, which is to realize its essence, the divine nature developing within it, and so to reveal God in the transitory world. Man has a special purpose. As a perceptive and rational being, he is intended to reach full awareness of his essential nature. He is meant to reveal the divine element within him by allowing it to become freely effective in his life.

Education, therefore, is the treatment of man as a creature who is developing in awareness and under­standing of himself. It should stimulate him to this realization and show him how to achieve it. Education becomes a science when the educator in and through himself realizes and practices the science of life - when he recognizes this eternal order of things and under­stands its cause and its coherence, when he knows life in its totality. Educational theory consists in the prin­ciples derived from such insight, which enable intelli­gent beings to become aware of their calling and achieve the purpose for which they are created. The art of education lies in the free application of this knowledge

and insight to the development and training of men, so that they are enabled to achieve their purpose as rational beings. Education, therefore, aims at the realization of a life which is true to its calling. When such knowledge and practice, such awareness and ful­fillment occur in life, then it may be said that wisdom is achieved.

To have such wisdom should be man's highest aim, and to attain it is the highest level of personal achievement. Wisdom is shown when one educates oneself and others in freedom and self-awareness. This process started at the beginning of human history and was established when individual men first began to show full self-awareness; now it is being stated as a universal human demand and as such is beginning to be recog­nised. It is the only way by which man achieves true happiness, since it leads him to the fulfillment of all that his nature demands.

So education must develop man's essential nature. It must make him consciously accept and freely realise the divine power which activates him. It should lead him to perceive and know the divine as it is manifested in his natural surroundings. It should also, by showing their interrelation, establish the fact that similar laws connect and underlie the world of man and the world of Nature, and bring men to awareness that these worlds proceed from and are conditioned by God and have their being in him. So by education man is to be guided to understand himself, to be at peace with Nature, and to be united with God.

In all these requirements education is grounded on the life of the mind. Yet all such life, as also the divine essence that pervades all things, comes to be known in and through outward manifestation. Therefore educa­tion, all life as a creation of freedom, has to do with these outward concerns of man and of things, and through them has its effect on the inner life. This is not, however, a matter of simple inference, for it is in the nature of things that in some relationships inferences cannot be directly drawn. In the relationship between God and Nature the inference must be drawn inversely from the diversity of the physical world to the oneness of God, who is its final ground, and from the oneness of God to unending diversity in the development of Nature. When assumptions about children's attitudes are drawn from their behavior, then widespread mis­takes can be made. Many misconceptions arise and, as a result, parents blame their children or have foolish expectations. If parents and teachers are to establish secure and happy relations with children, then they must try to act on this precept. The child who gives the appearance of being good is often not intrinsically good, that is, does not want what is good of his own choice or out of love and respect for it. The child who seems rude and self-willed is often involved in an intense struggle to realize the good by his own effort. The boy who appears unresponsive may really be steadily intent on a line of thought such as claims his whole attention.

Basically, therefore, education must be permissive and following, guarding and protecting only; it should neither direct nor determine nor interfere.

It must be so, since divine action cannot be other than good if left undisturbed. This implies that the child in his growth positively seeks that which is best for himself—though he may do so unconsciously—in a form appropriate to his abilities and means. In the same way the duckling hurries into the water, the chicken scratches in the earth and the young swallow catches its food on the wing. These conclusions on behavior and growth, however strongly opposed, will in time be affirmed and their application to education fully vindicated.

To young plants and animals we give space and time, knowing that then they will grow correctly according to inherent law; we give them rest and avoid any violent interference such as disturbs healthy growth. But the human being is regarded as a piece of wax or a lump of clay which can be molded into any shape we choose. Why is it that we close our minds to the lesson which Nature silently teaches? Wild plants which grow where they are crowded and confined scarcely suggest any shape of their own, but if we see them growing freely in the fields we can then observe their ordered life and form-a sun's shape, a radiant star, springs from the earth. So children who are early forced by their parents into a pattern and purpose un­suited to their nature might have grown in beauty and in the fullness of their powers.

If we take account of divine action and consider man in his original state, it is clear that all teaching which prescribes and determines must impede, destroy, annihilate. To take another example from Nature, the vine has to be pruned, but pruning as such does not bring more wine; however good the intention, the vine may be entirely ruined in the process or its fertility destroyed unless the gardener pays attention to the plant's natural growth. In our treatment of natural objects we often go right, whereas we can get on to an entirely wrong track in dealing with human beings. Yet forces are at work in both, which flow from one source and obey the same law, and this is an aspect of Nature which it is important for man to observe.

It is true that we now seldom see the unspoiled original state, especially in human beings. For that very reason it is all the more necessary to assume it until it has been clearly proved that it does not exist. Otherwise there is a danger that, where it is still to be found, it will only too easily be destroyed. However, if the child gives unmistakable evidence that his original state has been entirely vitiated, then methods of control and direction may have to enter in full force into his educa­tion. Yet it must be realized that it is difficult to estab­lish proof that an individual's mind has been harmed, and it is particularly difficult to be certain about the origin and course of the injury. The final test of this can be found only within the individual person himself, and this is yet another reason for education being far more permissive than directive; otherwise there is an end of human progress, which consists in man freely expressing the divine spirit in his life.

Where directive methods are necessary they should start with the person beginning to be aware of himself and of his living unity with God. They should follow on an experience of some living relationship, such as that between father and son or disciple and master, which will establish the true state of things in general and in particular terms. Until the cause and direction of disturbance to the pupil's original state have been shown in detail and clearly established, nothing can be done except to bring him into relationships and surroundings where he can be under observation and where his behavior can be revealed to him, as if it were reflected in a mirror, so that he begins to see its effects and consequences. In this situation his true state can be recognized by himself and others, and the manifestations of his disturbed condition do the least harm.

There are only two arguments that can be advanced in favor of an education which is directive. These are that it teaches the true self-evident idea or the estab­lished and accepted ideal. Yet in reference to the first argument it should be noticed that the self-evident truth, the vital idea, derives its authority from the eternal principle - and this is, therefore, yet another reason for permissive action, since the eternal divine principle itself demands spontaneity and self­ determination on the part of human beings who are created for freedom in the image of God. To take the second line of argument, it should be borne in mind that the accepted ideal or the perfect life is intended to serve as a model only in its aim and essence, never in its form. It is a profound misconception to take those human beings who exemplify the spiritual life as formal models, for the usual effect is to check and restrain rather than to uplift mankind. Throughout his life Jesus himself attacked such clinging to an external standard. The ideal should be regarded as an example only in its living aspiration; its form and manifestation should be free. The perfect life which we as Christians see in Jesus was a life which was lived in clear and vivid awareness of the original ground of its being, and which came from the eternal creator self-active and self-reliant. Through the pattern of his life Jesus requires each human being to become such a copy of the eternal ideal and, in his turn, such a pattern for himself and others that he advances freely according to eternal law by his own determination and his own choice. This is the function and purpose of all education, and should be the only one. Therefore, in respect of the form which it requires, the eternal ideal is itself permissive.

Yet this ideal ought to make categorical demands, and it does so. It is, as we see, inexorable and absolute, but only where it is required by the whole situation and by the nature of the individual and is recognizable as such by the person to whom it is addressed. Here the ideal appears as the agent of necessity, and therefore always speaks conditionally. The ideal acts in this way only when it can be assumed that the person to whom it is addressed either has an intellectual grasp of the reason for the command or accepts it as a matter of faith. Here the ideal does make demands, but only ever in connection with the living spirit and never with mere form.

In true education necessity should call forth freedom, law arouse self-determination, external force develop inner free will, hatred from outside evoke love within. Wherever hatred gives birth to hatred, law to deceit and crime, coercion to slavery, necessity to bondage, wher­ever oppression destroys and degrades, wherever severity induces obstinacy and falseness, then educa­tion has no meaning and no effect. If this is to be avoided, all manifestations of authority should be made with due care and thought. This will happen when all education, which necessarily has the appearance of authority, is throughout characterized by its strict subjection in all its demands to an eternal and in­escapable necessity so that there is no sign of capricious and unrestrained power.

The true educator and teacher has to be at every moment and in every demand two-sided. He must give and take, unite and divide, order and follow; he must be active and passive, decisive and permissive, firm and flexible - and so must the pupil. But between teacher and pupil there must rule unseen a third factor - this is the ideal good, the right, which necessarily emerges from the situation and is not an arbitrary expression of power. To this both educator and pupil are subject in exactly equal degree. The educator in particular should give constant and serious expression to his clear under­standing and willing acceptance of this dominant factor, for children are able to make fine and accurate distinctions between those requests which are personal and arbitrary and those which are expressions of general imperatives.

Every demand which the teacher makes must in its smallest detail show his submission to this third and changeless element to which both he and his pupil are subject. I would suggest that this should be taken as a general formula for instruction - act and see what follows from your action in a particular situation and to what knowledge it leads you. And for life - show your spiritual being, which is your true life, in and through your actions and see what your nature demands and what it is like. It is in this way that Jesus himself calls upon us to know the divinity of his mission and the truth of his teaching. In this way we attain know­ledge of the essential ground of all life and all truth.

This explains the following requirement and at the same time shows how it can be fulfilled. The educator should show the universal aspect of that which is par­ticular and individual and the particular application of that which is generally true. He should make the internal external, the external internal, and show the essential unity of both. He should consider the finite in the light of the infinite and establish an equilibrium in life between them. He should understand and observe the divine in the human, show the essential nature of man in God, and strive to reveal both in their living interrelation. This interrelation is seen all the more surely by man as an essential aspect of his nature the more he observes himself in his own being, in the child and in human history.

Indisputably, therefore, education confronts us with a single aim. It should cultivate man's original divine nature and so it should depict in and through human life that which is infinite and eternal. From the moment of his birth the human being is to be viewed in this light. Possessing an immortal soul, he should be cared for as a manifestation of the divine in human form, as a pledge of God's present love and grace, as a gift of God. Such was the view which the early Christians had of their children, as we can see from the names they gave them. Every child should be accepted as an in­dispensable and essential member of the human race, and parents should recognize that they are responsible as his guardians to God and to humanity as well as to the child himself. They are required also to consider that the child is in living relationship with the present, past and future of human development, and they should align his education with the challenges of that development. They should treat him as a being with divine, earthly and human attributes who belongs to God, Nature and humanity and who contains within himself present, past and future.

The form of man's life should not be regarded as an immutable fact but as a constant and progressive pro­cess of becoming, a continuous advance towards an infinite goal from one stage of growth to another. It is inexpressibly harmful to regard the development and education of man as a static, isolated process which merely repeats itself in different forms. Such a view makes the child merely imitative, an external lifeless copy cast in an earlier mold, and makes it impossible for future generations to see in him a living example of a particular stage of growth in humanity's total develop­ment.

Each successive generation and each successive individual should go through the entire pattern of earlier human development - as does in fact happen -­ otherwise past and present would be incomprehensible. He should do this not by copying and imitating, which is a dead approach, but by the living way of free and independent activity. Every human being should re­interpret this pattern freely, and express human poten­tiality in an entirely personal and unique manner, so that the nature of man and of God in its infinity and all its diversity becomes ever more exactly discerned.

This full knowledge of a person's nature from the earliest moment is essential and, if seriously pursued, is the source of everything else that needs to be known for his care and education. Parents should realize the worth and dignity of the child as a human being and see themselves as guardians of God's gift. They need to know man's function and destiny and the ways in which he achieves it. The child in his development is intended to reconcile the intellectual quality, which is potentially dominant in his father, with the emotional side of his nature, which is characteristic of his mother. He is also meant, as a child of God and Nature, to realize the harmony between the finite physical world and the infinite world of the divine. As a member of a family, he will reveal its nature and potentiality and show both its unity and its diversity. As a member of the human race, he is called on to develop the powers and abilities of humanity as a whole.

In the membership of a family children fully express the essential character of the group, which may be quite unknown and so far unsuspected by it - if each grows to the full development of all his powers and yet does so in the most deeply individual and personal way. As children of God and members of the human race, men perfectly represent the essential character of God and humanity - which is inherent in them, although not generally recognized or acknowledged if each one of them in childhood develops as individually and personally as possible. This happens when human development follows the universal pattern and each person realizes his nature in the unity of his own being, in the individual character of any particular acts which he initiates, and in the diversity of all he does and influences. Wherever one of these aspects of his nature is not realized or only imperfectly understood, then he fails to achieve full insight into it. It is only if this threefold form of its expression - unity, individual­ity, diversity - is recognized that the essential character of anything can be completely known.

From birth, therefore, the child should be recognized in his essential nature and allowed to use his energy freely in all its aspects. There should be no hurry to get him to use some of his powers while others are repressed; he should not be bound, confined or swaddled or later on kept in a state of dependence. He should early learn to find in himself the source and center of all his powers and should move freely and actively, grasp things with his own hands, stand and walk by himself, look and see for himself, and use all his limbs equally and vigorously. He should learn to apply and practice the most difficult of all the arts - to hold fast the focus, the connecting point, of his own life's course when confronted by any impediment.

The child first expresses himself in energetic reac­tions; he cries, kicks against anything which resists his feet, and grasps whatever his hand touches. Soon after this he develops a feeling for his surroundings; he smiles and shows in his movements his well-being and delight when he is surrounded by comfortable warmth, clear light and fresh air. This in its full development is the beginning of the growth of self-consciousness. So the human being first expresses himself in rest and un­rest, pleasure and pain, smiles and tears. As rest, pleasure and smiles indicate whatever a child senses to be appropriate to his untroubled growth, his education in its first beginnings should aim at securing these effects. As unrest, pain and tears indicate whatever adversely affects the child's development, the educator should be concerned to discover and remove their causes. When first the child cries and is restless, he is certainly not behaving badly. But he begins to show the faults of a stubborn and willful temper when he feels that he has been carelessly abandoned to whatever it is that causes discomfort and pain - and how he feels this and to what degree we cannot tell. When once this feeling has been implanted in his mind he becomes obstinate and self-willed, and then his development may be endangered, for this is a defect which soon engenders other failings and cannot be eradicated with­out harming some good tendency.

Even when the right way to treat the child's dis­comfort is adopted, it may be followed incorrectly. Man's development requires that he should be brought up to bear minor afflictions so as to endure more serious hardships. Therefore, once all his needs have been met and anything that can hurt him has been removed, the restless child should be left alone and quietly given time to find himself. If by pretending to be in pain and discomfort the baby has once, let alone repeatedly, secured sympathy, then parents and others have lost ground which they will find it very difficult to regain by compulsion later on. The little creatures have so fine a sense of the weaknesses of those around them that they prefer to use their innate power for the domination of others, which is easier than developing it in themselves by their own patience and effort.

At this stage of his development the human being is called a suckling, and he is so in the fullest sense of the word, for assimilation is almost his only activity. Even the immediate responses of crying and smiling are hardly as yet expressed. He takes in only the diversity of the outer world and absorbs it in himself. His whole being is merely an appropriating eye. Therefore this first phase is incalculably important for his present and future development. Nothing detrimental should be fixed in his mind at this stage. The people around him should treat him in such a way that he feels confident and secure. Unfortunately, throughout his life, man rarely shakes off the impressions absorbed in childhood just because his whole being is opened like a great eye and he is wholly surrendered to them. In later life a person's hardest struggles with himself and his most serious setbacks are often grounded in this phase of his growth, and for this reason the care of the infant child is so important. The child's first smile, as mothers know, marks a very definite period in his life, since it is his first physical discovery of himself. It may be much more than that, for it originates not merely in a physical sensation of a separate self but also in a higher feeling of relationship at first with the mother, then with the father and the family, and later on with other human beings.

The child's first feeling of community with his family is later connected with his perception that the several members of the family recognize that they are in a relationship of unity and humanity and with God. This sense of community is the first beginning of all true religious feeling, of all genuine striving for unimpeded union with the eternal. If religion is to live and endure, it must come to man in early childhood when the innate divine spirit is yet dimly aware of its origin, and this obscure awareness must be fostered and strengthened in the child so that later in life he may clearly apprehend it.

If parents want to give their children the great gift of this constant and sustaining relationship, they must be united with them whenever in prayer they acknow­ledge their union with God. It should never be said that children will not understand this unity, for that is to rob them of the highest good. They can certainly under­stand it if only they have not already become estranged from themselves and their parents, and they do so instinctively, not by abstract reasoning. If a person has not grown up from childhood with deep religious con­victions, he will only with the greatest difficulty achieve them later on, but if a sense of religion is implanted in the earliest years by the example of his parents' life - even if he may apparently not understand or even notice it - it will survive.

It is important not only for his religious training but also for his whole education that the child's progress is regarded as a continuous advance. Great harm is done if, within the cycle of the formative years, such sharp divisions and contrasts are made that their sequence and connection, their living core, are forgotten. It is wrong to regard the stages of development - infancy, childhood, youth, maturity, old age - as separate and distinct, since life shows us that they merge into one another. Yet the child is regarded as entirely different from the youth or the adult. They are so far removed from him that their ideas and speech scarcely suggest their common humanity, and the lives they lead give not the slightest hint of it. Even within childhood infancy is distinguished as an entirely separate phase, and in later life people speak of the young as if they were completely alien to them. The boy does not see the child in himself or foresee the growth of a child into boyhood. The adolescent similarly rejects any connec­tion between himself and the boy. Worst of all, the man no longer sees in himself the early stages of his development but speaks of the child or the adolescent as another kind of being of entirely different nature and disposition.

This setting of divisions and sharp limits arises when we fail to give early and sustained attention to our own life - a failing which causes untold harm to human development in general. It requires rare strength of mind in a person to overcome the limits imposed by those who have influence on him. Even if they are over­come, it can only happen through a violent upheaval which may destroy or at least repress other developments. Even so, if this has happened to any person at any stage, then all his actions throughout his life retain something of violence. It would be entirely different if parents were to envisage the child in relation. to all stages of human age and growth without exception, and especially if they were to bear in mind that the full development of each successive stage depends on the complete and special development of every single preceding phase. Yet they foolishly ignore this. They look on their child as a boy or an adolescent when he reaches a certain age. Yet he does not reach boyhood or adoles­cence by being so many years old but by satisfying the intellectual, emotional and physical needs of the pre­ceding phase. Similarly the adult reaches maturity if he has fulfilled the demands of childhood and adolescence. Parents who otherwise seem sensible expect the boy to act like a man. But it is one thing to respect the child's potentiality and quite another to expect him to think and behave as a mature person. When parents make these demands they have overlooked the fact that they themselves have become responsible people only be­cause they have lived through the experiences of each phase of growth. Yet they are now denying these experiences to their children.

The teacher's task later on becomes almost impossibly difficult as a result of this underestimation of the earliest stages of growth. If a boy has been brought up in this way he thinks he can simply ignore all the instruction which has been appropriate to the earlier period. If some extraneous aim such as preparation for a special position or a career is set for him at an early age, then he is put at a disadvantage. At every age a person's only aim should be to fulfill the needs of the particular stage of his existence, and then he will try to meet its special demands. Satisfactory development at anyone period can be achieved only if there has been fulfillment at the earlier levels of growth.

It is important to consider this point in relation to productive activity. At present people have an entirely false and degrading idea of work which is done for material results. God himself works continuously to create and to produce. We have only to look at the life and work of Jesus or, if we live true to ourselves, at our own lives and work. The spirit of God hovered over the shapeless void, and stones and plants, animals and men, were formed and given life. So man, who has been made by God in his own likeness, should create shape and form. This is the deep meaning of work, of productive and creative activity. Through our work we become like God if, in doing it, we know or even vaguely feel that we are giving visible form to the spirit that is within us. Insight into the nature of God comes to us in our work. Here the words of Jesus are forever true – the poor do indeed possess the kingdom of heaven if they would only know it and realize it in their daily work. So do children; if unchecked by adult presumption and folly, they will give themselves up to their innate desire for activity and creative work.

The idea that man labors only to get material things and to earn food, shelter clothing is illusory and degrading. He works primarily to give outward form to the divine spirit within him so that he may know his own nature and the nature of God. In comparison, material returns are an unimportant increment. Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven;” so you must work to show in your life that which is divine, and whatever else you need will be added unto you. Jesus also said that his purpose was to do the will of God, to work as and how God commanded. We consider the lilies of the field do not toil, yet they are sending forth leaves and flowers and in their beauty making known the nature of God. We consider that the birds of the air do not labor, yet they are showing in their singing, in the building of their nests and in all that they do the life of God has given them. So man should learn to reveal his work, however important or unimportant it seems, the nature of God has given him, and he should do this as time and place, status and calling require. If he does so he will be materially secure, for he has his intelligence and can find within himself or in his surroundings a way to satisfy his needs.

All operations of the spirit are manifested in time, in sequence. If a person has at any period of his life failed to express in work the powers which are derived from God, he will find that he cannot make good this omission at any other time. He will find that he has missed the chain of effect which his neglected action would have created, and he can do nothing but accept the situation and try to avoid such a mistake in the future.

It becomes clear that, from earliest childhood, man should be trained in productive activity, since the de­velopment of both mind and body demands it. Its first sign is the baby’s activity of sense and limb; then it flowers into the child’s play as he is busy creating shape and form; and this is the time to implant the seeds of activity and effort for the future. All children and adolescents whatever their rank or position, ought to spend one or two hours a day on specific, productive work. The lessons learnt from daily life and work are by far the most effective and intelligible and have most vital significance; yet children, and mankind in general, nowadays give far too much attention to uncreative pursuits and too little to real work. Since parents and children have the attitude that work is un­important and even harmful, it is the function of educational institutions to correct this. At present an untold amount of human energy remains undeveloped because the education given at home or school dis­courages physical effort and work. It would be beneficial if schools were to introduce proper hours of work in addition to the hours of instruction - indeed, they will have to do it. So far man has used his energies to little purpose and restricted them to the furtherance of material ends and, in consequence, has ceased to value or appreciate them.

Early training for purposeful activity is as important as early training in religion which, indeed, it strengthens if its significance is understood. Religion without pur­poseful activity risks becoming empty dreaming or futile enthusiasm, just as work without religion makes man a beast of burden, a machine. Work and religion are co-existent. God the eternal is eternally creative.

Yet the human mind should develop its power not only through the inward peace of piety or the outward expression of active work but also from its own resources. This is achieved by self-control and modera­tion; for those who are not entirely unaware of their own nature it is surely unnecessary to do more than to state this fact. In this union of religion, purposeful activity and self-control all human felicity is to be found.

Thus in the child the human being as a whole is evident, for in childhood the life of humanity appears as a unity. The whole future activity of the man is to be seen germinally in the child. In order that he himself and humanity in him may reach full development, man must from childhood be envisaged as a unity and must be seen in the totality of his earthly relationships. But as all unity requires for its manifestation particular and individual things, and as all universality in its manifestation is conditioned by the sequence of time, so the world and life unfold to the child and are developed in him only in separate and successive experiences. Therefore, the child’s powers and aptitudes and his physical and mental activities should be developed in the order of succession in which they emerge in his life.

Outline of a Plan for Founding and Developing a Kindergarten

We here appeal to all German women to unite in found­ing and promoting a general institution where all aspects of the child's life can be fostered in the pre­school period. We need their united support in this work of establishing the German Kindergarten. In a garden, growing plants are cultivated in harmony with Nature under God's care and with the skilled attention of a gardener. So here children, seeds and members of humanity and the highest of all organisms, are to be brought up in understanding of themselves, God and Nature. Here we shall show and start on the way which leads to such an education. In achieving its aim this institution will meet an urgent need; it will train men and women to take care of children and educate them in their earliest years. In all confidence we invite sup­port for this venture, for our work has already been favorably regarded by German women of all ranks.

The aim of this enterprise is to bring certainty and stability into the care of children in the earliest years, for otherwise their growth is adversely affected, and to base this care on eternal principles logically deduced and manifested in Nature, history and divine revela­tion.

Women will understand how important it is that the children whom they have borne with so much pain and suffering should from the beginning receive an educa­tion such as they intuitively desire for them, an educa­tion which will relate to the divine, human and natural aspects of the child's own being.

First, then, our enterprise will give a training in the care of children so as to meet the needs of children's nurses, nursery teachers, and men and women teachers in general and to train leaders, both men and women, for the various institutions which already exist in many places crèches, play schools, industrial schools and the so-called infant schools. They are to be trained to respect the child's nature and lovingly care for his full and complete development.

The children's nurses and nursery governesses must be efficient as mediators between the life of the mother and that of the child. So they must be competent in the management of a household and also well versed in the care and guidance of children. This requires that they, and indeed all teachers, should be initiated into the nature and manner of the child's growth, inspired with respect and love for it, and made thoroughly familiar with the demands of the child's life and the form of education which will satisfy these demands. Also they should be led to know Nature and observe life in their immediate environment so that they may be qualified to guide the child to do the same.

In order that these extensive aims should be realized the teachers appointed to the institution should be men of the greatest understanding and knowledge who com­pletely accept the whole idea on which it is based. The institution also requires the best educational equipment so that it may work within its appointed field and pre­pare for the schools that are to follow.

* * *

Finally, the great aim and end of the whole enterprise is the education of a person from the earliest years through his own doing, feeling and thinking and in conformity with his own nature and relationships so that his life is an integrated whole. This will be achieved if the child's activity is rightly fostered and his essential nature developed and experienced. In such a comprehensive enterprise there is no room for any­thing which disturbs or might destroy such purposes. On the contrary, it must be promoted by everything which its needs demand, and in the whole scheme everything must be purposive. Not only the child's material environment but also everything which hap­pens to him must express its reference to a higher unity of life.

From Irene M. Lilley, Friedrich Froebel: A Selection from his Writings, Cambridge: University Press (1967). Education of Man originally published in 1826.