17 The Child is the Father of Man

This line from Wordsworths poetry contains a fair share of truth. If we study carefully the biographies of great men, we often find that in their childhood they show signs of their future greatness as morning shows the today. Lockhart in his Life of Scott, one of the best biographies in English literature, tells us how Scott, the author

of the Waverly Novels in his boyhood used to go out into the open on a stormy night and clap at thunder and lightning in joy; his novels like Ivanhoe and Rob Roy are all full of adventure and romance. Such examples could be easily multiplied. Macaulay, for instance, in his early life loved to write in a rhetorical style; later when his genius was mature, he wrote his History of England and the Essays, noted for their periodic sentences, balanced paragraphs and highly allusive style. The deep moral fervour of Ruskin and Carlyle can be easily traced to their little acts of charity in their boyhood. The lives of men and women of action also illustrate the truth contained in Wordsworths epigram. Napoleon, Lord Clive and Nelson all had given in their boyhood clear and ample evidence of those qualities of mind and character which marked them out of the crowd in later life. In Abbots Life of Napoleon we read of how Napoleon while yet a boy, took a keen delight in mock fights which he fought with the enthusiasm of a budding general. The spirit of social service and self-sacrifice is the keynote of Florence Nightingales whole career, from girlhood to womanhood. But on a closer examination we find that Wordsworths line, though piquantly put, is at best a half-truth. In our country as elsewhere, there are numerous schools in which thousands of children have been given the first lessons in the three Rs. But few of them show in the early part of their career signs of their future avocation. In fact, the truth or half-truth which Wordsworth expresses in the line applies only to geniuses or men and women of outstanding talent; it does not hold good in the case of the ordinary run of people. Only those who are out of the ordinary and step out of the crowd reveal in their early life half-intuitions or intimations of their future greatness. There has of late been a great advance in childrens education. Educationists, oftener in Europe than in Pakistan, conceive, plan and conduct childrens education on strictly scientific lines. They do not treat them as machines and pack their yet undeveloped minds with a quantity of useful information and make them pass a number of examinations. On the other hand, they always seek to combine instruction with diversion; and, by vigilant care and occasional application of psychological tests, they seek to measure the mental and moral reach of every child they handle. These advanced educationists sometimes derive inspiration from Dr. Montessoris kindergarten method of instruction. Kindergarten is an interesting word; it means a childrens garden. It was first -invented by the Great German educator, Froebel: The kindergarten ideal of childrens education is based on the theory that education should aim at gratifying and cultivating the normal aptitudes of children; the method of education is a combination of play and exercise, observation, imitation and construction; and the means of instruction are, chiefly, object lessons, games and songs. Those who organise childrens education on these lines believe that they can to a great extent anticipate the lines along which the childs mind will develop in future. Whatever the claims of these educationists, we believe that the managlment of childrens education in schools or elsewhere has not yet reached that degree of perfection which may enable one to chalk out or at least to predict the broader outlines of his future career. However, we hope that every responsible parent should . watch the growth and development of the child with utmost care. Every little wlTim or fancy, inclination or oddity of a boy or a girl has a deep meaning for the unerring eye. It is the duty of every father and mother to take note of the bias and taste, the little hopes and fears, pleasures and pains, longings and disappointments of the growing child; for all these apparently insignificant facts of early life

- these tremendous trifles bear in them the seeds of his future.