The Discovery Of The Child

H A P T E R XXVI

THE TRIUMPHAL CHARIOT

THE results of instruction reached in the Children's Houses repre-
sent the limit of the education which separates such schools from
the elementary classes which follow them. It is well to fix this
boundary line, though it is in part artificial. The Children's House
is not a preparation for the elementary classes but forms a begin-
ning of education which goes on uninterruptedly. With our
method we can no longer distinguish the * pre-scholastic' from
the * scholastic' period. Indeed we have not in this case a
programme governing the instruction of the child, but a case in
which the child himself, whilst living and developing himself with
the help of physical and intellectual work, indicates stages of
culture corresponding, generally speaking, to successive ages.

The need for observing, reflecting, learning and also the need
for concentration, for isolating himself, and for suspending his
activities in silence from time to time has been demonstrated so
clearly in the child that we can confidently declare to be wrong
the idea that the small child, when outside a place intended to
educate him, rests. It is rather our duty to direct childish activity,
spare the baby from those useless efforts which dissipate his energy,
thwart his instinctive search after knowledge, and so often give