How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.

happiness than all the contagious diseases that human flesh is heir to, and it is our profound hope that the time is not far distant when the children of parents who are emotionally incapable of educating thepi will be removed to appropriate children’s villages and school com¬ munities where they may be saved from the poisonous atmosphere of neurotic home life. Certainly there is no sound reason, except that of economic opportunism, for beginning a child’s group education at the age of six. Psychologically a child who remains an only child for more than two years, is headed in the direction of spiritual dereliction. The psychiatric antitoxins, the nursery school and the pre-kindergarten school, will some day be considered as important as vaccination or diphtheria immunization, although at the present day they are still scoffed at by professional educators, as Jenner was scoffed at by the die-hards of English medicine in 1796. 6. Fallacies of Formal Education Of all the obstacles to the artistic task of self-sculpture which we have catalogued in this chapter, few are so lamentable as the fallacies of formal education because these obstacles are completely unnecessary, whereas physical deformities, the difficulties arising out of the family constellation, social and economic discrimination, sex, and the emotional astigmatism of parents are often beyond social control. The major sins of our educational systems are derived from the following misconceptions :— 1. That the child must adjust to the educational system. 2. That some children are inherently more talented than others. 3. That intelligence tests are true tests of ability. 4. That school attainments must be graded, and that school marks are the measure of school success. 5. That the purpose of schooling is the possession of a diploma.