Fathers and mothers, you keep in your hands the fate of the young generation. You are conscious of the great responsibility, of the vast, important task laid upon you by the education of your children. For, according to the character of the training and education given to the young, they may be made a sickly host of nervous wrecks and miserable wretches; or they may be formed into a narrow-minded, bigoted, mediocre crowd of self-contented “cultured” philistines, bat-blind to evil; or they may be made a _great race of genius_ with powers of rational control of their latent, potential, reserve energy. The choice remains with you. APPENDIX PRECOCITY IN CHILDREN[1] By precocity I mean the manifestation of the child’s mental functions at a period earlier than the one observed in the past and present generations of children. In the course of his growth and development the individual unfolds his inner powers through acquisition of the stored-up experiences of previous generations. The well known biogenetic law may, with some modifications, be applied to mental life. The development of the individual is an abbreviated reproduction of the evolution of the species. Briefly put: Ontogenesis is an epitome of Phylogenesis. This biogenetic law holds true in the domain of education. The stored-up experiences of the race are condensed, foreshortened, and recapitulated in the child’s life history. This process of progressive “precocity,” or of foreshortening of education, has been going on unconsciously in the course of human evolution. We have reached a stage when man can be made _conscious_ of this fundamental process, thus getting control over his own growth and development. Although the process of foreshortening of education has been taking place throughout the history of mankind, and especially of civilized humanity, still the process has remained imperceptible on account of its extremely slow rate of progress. Hence the fact of “precocity,” or of early development of children, has been hitherto regarded as rare, as phenomenal. Like all rare phenomena, precocity, or early child development, is considered as unique, as abnormal, and even as pathological. In fact, many still regard precocity as some form of malady akin to mental alienation.