X CONTENTS PART FOUR. THE CONSERVATION OF CHILD LIFE CHAPTER XXII. PESTALOZZI AND HOME EDUCATION. XXIII. A HEALTHY BODY. XXIV. A HEALTHY MIND. XXV. THE SAVING SENSE OF HUMOR XXVI. FORMALISM AND CHILD PERSONALITY XXVII. CHILDHOOD THE FOUNDATION OF YOUTH. BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX. THE MONTESSORI KINDERGARTEN INDEX. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I HUMANITARIANISM AND THE CHILD The child has been called the last serf of civilization. Two sister influences have come to his emancipation, humanitarianism and science. A humanitarian attitude toward children would seem to be the most natural thing in the world. Even among the lower animals we find the instinct of parental sympathy, the root of all tenderness. But history shows in many pages how both instinct and reason. have failed to develop an adequate regard for the child. It was written in the sacred books of the Hebrews that the disobedient son should be stoned by the tribe with stones till he die. This severity belongs to the Old Testament régime. Some of the loftiest conceptions of childhood were to appear in the New Testament. Strangely enough, however, some of the most terrible misconceptions concerning childhood developed with the Christian Church. From St. Augustine to Jonathan Edwards, the doctrine of child' depravity was proclaimed and practiced. It was enunciated and reënunciated by the early fathers, the Lutherans, the Council of the Reformation, the Calvinists, and the Puritans. For over a millennium this gloomy declaration, now so abhorrent to our humanity, was a mere truism. It must be 3 |