Full text of "The Discovery Of The Child"
See other formats
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 63 The Children's Houses spread rapidly over the world, in spite of the difficulties due to the war and to prejudices. And today, during the second world war, the Children's Houses are multi- plying in India. The history of the movement shows us that the same educa- tion is possible, though with some degrees of adaptation, in all social grades of society, with happy children, as with children shattered by the shock of a disaster, and among all races of the world. The Child is the driving force which is manifested in our time, bringing new hope to men in nations wrapt in obscurity. The Children's House is endowed with double importance: its social importance is wrapt up in its form of a " school in a house "; its purely educational importance depends on the methods for child education with which I experimented. As a factor of civilization affecting the people directly, the Children's House deserves to be illustrated in a separate volume. It indeed solves many social and educational problems which seemed Utopian, and it forms part of the modern transformation of the home; that is, it touches directly the most important side of the social question, that which concerns the intimate life of men.