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...The first formative years of the child are of exceptional importance in the formation and evolution. They embody a nucleus of energies and capacities that must be assisted to develop wholesomely, for if they deviate, the consequences are irreparable.
We know that in this period man's positive as well as his negative qualities come into being and that the sum total of these qualities will characterise the adult.
(...) We have the possibility to form the citizen of the world and the study of the young child is fundamental to the peace and progress of humanity.
The child does not absorb things haphazardly; he has a strict inner guide. He follows unalterable laws that determine not only events, but also the time when these events will normally take place. At two years of age, for example, all children speak, the African child, the Indian child, the European child; they speak African languages, Indian languages and European languages. And apparently there are no teachers, there is no curriculum to be followed, there are no exams. It is an invisible teacher that instils knowledge into the pupils without their being aware of it. It is a marvellous thing.
The school, conceived as an institution for the cultivation of humanity, assumes an aspect totally different from that of the modern schools where teachers dedicate all their efforts to making the children study. The school, in my view, should be considered as a help to development. The hunger of developing minds is akin to the hunger of a starved body.
Children want to know everything and ask an infinite variety of questions and their unfortunate teachers, as a rule, know so little.