Homes which send out men and women with the strongest morality, with the
freshest stimulus to work, are those where children and parents are
companions in labour, where they stand on the same level, where, like a
good elder sister or an elder brother, parents regard the younger
members of the household as their equals; where parents by being
children with the children, being youthful with young people, help those
who are growing up, without the exercise of force, to develop into human
beings, always treating them as human beings. In a home like this
nothing is especially arranged for children; they are regarded not as
belonging to one kind of being while parents represent another, but
parents gain the respect of their children by being true and natural;
they live and conduct themselves in such a way that the children gain an
insight into their work, their efforts, and as far as possible into
their joys and pains, their mistakes and failures. Such parents without
artificial condescension or previous consideration gain the sympathy of
children and unconsciously educate them in a free exchange of thought
and opinions. Here children do not receive everything as a gift;
according to the measure of their power they must share in the work of
the home; they learn to take account of their parents, of servants, and
one another. They have duties and rights that are just as firmly fixed
as those of their parents; and they are respected themselves just as
they are taught to respect others. They come into daily contact with
realities, they can do useful tasks, not simply pretend that they are
doing them; they can arrange their own amusements, their own small money
accounts, their own punishments even, by their parents never hindering
them from suffering the natural consequences of their own acts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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