To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.

At birth, the child leaves a person - his mother's womb - and this makes him independent of her bodily functions. The baby is next endowed with an urge, or need, to face the out world and to absorb it. We might say that he is born with 'the psychology of world conquest.' By absorbing what he finds about him, he forms his own personality.

Except when he has regressive tendencies, the child's nature is to aim directly and energetically at functional independence.

When dealing with children there is greater need for observing than of probing

It is necessary, then, to give the child the possibility of developing according to the laws of his nature, so that he can become strong, and, having become strong, can do even more than we dared hope for him.

An educational method that shall have liberty as its basis must intervene to help the child to a conquest of liberty. That is to say, his training must be such as shall help him to diminish as much as possible the social bonds which limit his activity.

To teach details is to bring confusion; to establish the relationship between things is to bring knowledge.