"We, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum, taking care only that all knowledge offered to him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle that:
'Education is the Science of Relations' ; that is, a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of -
'Those first-born affinities
That fit our new existence to existing things.'
In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:
- He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
- The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite ( i.e., curiosity).
- The knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form."
