read; when their fingers demand knitting or beads, they know where to find them, and when their backs suggest lying upon the floor, the floor awaits them. The consequence of this is that they read with attention, knit with delight, and rest with an easy conscience.
The things they make are not at first quite perfect; the paper boxes are folded crookedly, and the pictures are curiously coloured. Children sitting obediently in a row before a watchful and enthusiastic teacher no doubt fold straighter creases, and learn in a shorter time that trees are green and water blue. But the discovery and the skill are bound to come, and they come with rapture to the child who has reached them, or who thinks he has reached them, “all by himself.”
Of course he is not actually left to flounder alone. The information and help that he needs are suggested to him, and are there for him to take, but they are not forced upon him, and that is why his discovery, when it comes, feels as if it were his own. Instead of being taught, he discovers what experience has taught his ancestors about folded paper and coloured chalks, and if each child progresses differently, and at uneven paces, it does not matter. The thing, when it is achieved, will be not only so much skill and knowledge to him, but a real development as well.
The freedom in which the children work is, of course, a well guarded and a carefully selected freedom, and all the subjects they work at cannot be treated with equal detachment. Dancing and games, for example, demand social co-operation amongst the children, though there, also, nothing is forced upon them, and the child whose legs refuse to dance may sit unmolested in his corner. Experience, however, has shown that the social compulsion among babies is almost as rigid as among their elders, and only for very good reasons will they set themselves apart from these pursuits.
In the same way stories and talks are occasionally given to the children when they seem to need more information than they can get for themselves, but no child need come to listen, or stay after he has come, if he does not find that his wants are satisfied.
Nearly all the other activities are carried on by each child independently, and there is no grading or competition in the School, except for dancing, stories, and games. The children, however, group themselves together, and spend patient minutes explaining things to each other, learning, of course, more than they teach in the process.
It is on the basis of this spontaneous grouping that the method will probably be modified as the children grow older, though just how it will take place, and what new developments will be necessary, the Community can only learn by direct experience.
The fundamental assumption is that children naturally wish to exercise and develop their minds, and that the more they are