Part 15 (2/2)

Therefore, e leave the child to hience, not, as is co by the word ”instincts” those designated as animal instincts

We are so accustos and other do, barking, juard as manifestations of evil instincts the _rebellions_ of the child treated as a beast, his obscure protests and desperations, or the protective devices he has to invent to save hi situation, that, by way of elevating him, we first compare him to plants and flowers, and then actually try to keep him as far as possible in the state of physical i hi hielic perfuns of corruption gradually manifest themselves as his ”human substance” mortifies and dies

But e leave the child ”free as a es entirely It is of this type wethe question of ”liberty”

That of intelligence should also, I believe, be the key to the problem of the social liberty of man We have heard much talk of late years, of a very superficial kind, concerning ”liberty of thought” The issue being obscured by prejudices akin to those prevalent concerning children, it has been supposed that hts But was he capable of ”thinking”? Was not the epoch of such ”freedom” also that of cerebral neurasthenia?

Was it not also that epoch when laws for extending social rights to illiterates were under discussion?

Now let us take an example: if we told a sick person to choose between disease and health, would this ood and bad paperhim ”free to choose” which he will take, and he chooses the bad notes, he is not free, he is cheated; if he chooses the good, he is not free, he is lucky He will be free when he has sufficient knowledge not only to distinguish the good from the bad, but to understand the social utility of each It is the giving of this ”internal formation” which makes a man free, irrespective of a ”social sanction” which is merely an external conquest of liberty If the liberty of man were such a si the blind to see and the deaf to hear, in order to restore ”poor hunize one day that the fundahts of man are those of his own ”formation,” free from obstacles, free from slavery, and free to draw from his environment the means required for his development In short, it is in education that we shall find the fundamental solution of the social problems connected with ”personality”

Deeply instructive is the revelation ence” is the key which reveals the secrets of their formation, and is the actual iene of the intelligence thus assunized as the er be exhausted for dubious ends, or oppressed and suffocated without discernence of children must become the object of treatment much wiser and more elaborate than that whichbestow on their bodies, to adjuncts of which, such as teeth, nails, and hair, we devote costly and laborious processes When we reflect that a ers and remedies connected with the hair of her child, can oppress and enslave his intelligence quite unknowingly, we are at once obliged to ad to civilizationone, if such contrasts in our attitude to the superfluities and the essentials of life are still possible at the present day

What is intelligence? Without rising to the heights of the definitions given by the philosophers, we may, for the moment, consider the sum of those reflex and associative or reproductive activities which enable theit into relation with the environ to Bain, the consciousness of difference is the beginning of every intellectual exercise; the first step of the mind is appreciation of ”distinction” The bases of its perceptive functions towards the external world are the ”sensations” To collect facts and distinguish between them is the initial process in intellectual construction

Let us try to infuse a little ence

The first characteristic which presents itself to us as an indication of intellectual development is related to _time_ The masses are so much alive to this primitive characteristic, that the popular expression ”quick” is synony to a stimulus, in the association of ideas, in the capacity of forment--this is the ence This ”quickness” is certainly related to the capacity for receiving ies, and externalizing the internal results All these activities may be developed by ymnastics” to collect numerous sensations, to put the these freely, all this ought, as the psychologists would say, to render the conductive channels and the associative channels more and more permeable, and the ”period of reaction” ever briefer As in intelligent muscular movement, the repetition of the act not only renders it more perfect in itself, but ent child at school is not only one who understands, but one who understands quickly On the other hand, one who learns the sa, say two years instead of one, is _slow_ Of a ”quick” child, the people say that ”nothing escapes him”; his attention is always on the alert, and he is ready to receive every kind of stihtest variation in weight, so the sensitive brain will respond to the slightest appeal It is Equally rapid in its associative processes: ”He understands in a flash” is a fa to indicate accurate conception

Now an exercise which ”puts in motion” the intellectual mechanisms can only be an ”auto-exercise” It is i himself in our stead, should make us acquire skill

The sensory exercises arouse and intensify the central activities in our children When, sense and stimulus duly isolated, the child has clear perceptions in his consciousness; when sensations of heat, cold, roughness, shtness, when a sound, an isolated noise, are perceived by him, when, in almost complete silence, he closes his eyes and waits for a voice to murmur a word, it is as if the external world had knocked at the door of his soul, awakening its activities And further, when the multitudinous sensations are all contained in the richness of the environment, the two react har the activities that have been awakened: this is exe his designs, ill choose theplayed, or in that of another who, conteracious environ his song to perfection

The first characteristic which manifests itself in our children, after their process of auto-education has been initiated, is that their reactions become ever ht before have passed unobserved or uid interest, is vividly perceived The relation between things is easily recognized, and thus errors in their use are quickly detected, judged, and corrected By ymnastics the child carries out just this prience, which _awakens and sets in motion_ the central nervous mechanisms

When we see these external manifestations of our quick and active children--sensitive to the slightest call, ready to run swiftly towards us without relaxing the attention they give to their own movements and to all the external objects they encounter--and compare them with the torpid children in the ordinary schools--clumsy in their movements, indifferent to stimuli, incapable of spontaneous association of ideas--we are led to think of the civilization of our own days as coone years, as compared with our oas e-coach was once the means of transport, whereas noe travel in motor-cars and even in aeroplanes; the voice was the h the telephone; men killed each other one by one, whereas now they kill each other _en masse_ All this makes us realize that our civilization is not based upon ”respect for life” and ”respect for the soul,” but rather is it based upon ”respect for time” It is solely in an external sense that civilization has pursued its course

It has become more rapid, it has set in motion _machinery_

But man has not had the same preparation to keep up with it: individuals have not _accelerated_ the environent The transformed human personality has not yet arisen ready to meet all eventualities and to utilize for his own benefit the external conquests of his environment Torpid man saves time and money in this civilization; but his soul remains defrauded and oppressed

If he does not rise to the task of refor himself in harmony with the neorld he has created, he runs the risk of being some day overthrown and crushed by it

The swift reactions occurring a our children are not ence They are related not only to the _exercise_, but also to the _order_ which has been established within: and it is this intiement which is in itself a more exact indication of intellectual formation

Order is, in short, the true key to rapidity of reaction In a chaotic nition of a sensation is no less difficult than the elaboration of a reasoned discourse In all things, social as well as others, it is organization and order which make it possible to proceed rapidly

”To be able to distinguish” is the characteristic sign of intelligence: to _distinguish_ is to arrange and also, in life, it is to prepare for ”creation”