EARLY CHILDHOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19328, 15 May 1926, Page 7 (Supplement)

EARLY CHILDHOOD.

EDUCATION'S GOLDEN AGE. Of the making of books on education there is no end, and the, output is very varied—good, had, and not so had. There can he no " indifferent" class, for no one can dare to publish anything about education without inducing some teacher or parent to try his way, and the upshot is either the profit or the pain of the. youngsters who have no voice as to how fhpy shall he brought up. Bertrand Russell's latest venture with a publisher, On Education " (Georgo Allen and Unwin, London), is to he accounted one of tho good books.

Not that everybody will agree with him iu detail. Indeed, there are doubtless many, knowing his pronounced opinions on other subjects, prepared and even eager to break a lance with him on this. They should have a care, however. This is no philosophical disquisition, no aloof treatiso "in the air." It is, as he confesses, the outcome of perplexities in regard to his own children; and when a man starts there he is not likely to get far off the road of sensible thinking. It is the folk who, with no such perplexities, are propounders of easy theories as to how they would have other people's children cducatod who are apt to go astray. Bertrand Russell's book has one other basic merit: it treats with reasoned respect modern psychological discoveries, which are the outcome of wide observation rather than cut-and-dried assumptions.

Two theses have very sure enunciation by this author. One is the super-import-ance of " education of character," as distinct frora " intellectual education," by which he means education in knowledge or instruction in the strict sense. The other thesis is that the early years—the first five years, approximately —have far greater importance in the education of character than is usually attributed to them, .and that tho educational importance of parents must consequently be rated very high. His book, in keeping with this belief, is one, as a sub-title indicates, devoted especially to education in early childhood. discussing the aims of education, this author is critical of some current ideals. Wherever they fall short of the inculcation of four primary virtues —vitality, courage, sensitiveness and intelligenco—t.hev are to be castigated, and this castigation they are given in his characteristic manner, keen and whimsical. Dealing with education of character, the book emphasises the impressionability of the child in its first year, a period formerly regarded as negligible. Then, in turn, it covers such topics as fear, play, constructiveness, property, truthfulness, punishment, affection, and sex education. Never for a moment is the child's need of other children's company forgotten: the solitary child, trained by a tutor or governess, even by a nurse or mother, is •Id to be victimised

As it passes on to education in knowledge, this treatment. outsteps the limits of -early childhood; indeed, it sweeps the whole field up to university age. It takes up, too, such very practical questions as to whether children should go to day or to boarding schools. That question is discussed as it bears on the good of the young Russells, and so of other young hopefuls. , „ • j il Knowledge wielded by lov© is declared to be what the educator needs and what his pupils should acquire. - This book discusses with admirable clearness and freshness that need and its satisfaction.