We treat it simply as a privation because we are
measuring it by adulthood as a fixed standard. This fixes
attention upon what the child has not, and will not have till he
becomes a man. This comparative standpoint is legitimate enough
for some purposes, but if we make it final, the question arises
whether we are not guilty of an overweening presumption.
Children, if they could express themselves articulately and
sincerely, would tell a different tale; and there is excellent
adult authority for the conviction that for certain moral and
intellectual purposes adults must become as little children.
The seriousness of the assumption of the negative quality of the
possibilities of immaturity is apparent when we reflect that it
sets up as an ideal and standard a static end. The fulfillment
of growing is taken to mean an accomplished growth: that is to
say, an Ungrowth, something which is no longer growing. The
futility of the assumption is seen in the fact that every adult
resents the imputation of having no further possibilities of
growth; and so far as he finds that they are closed to him mourns
the fact as evidence of loss, instead of falling back on the
achieved as adequate manifestation of power. Why an unequal
measure for child and man?
Taken absolutely, instead of comparatively, immaturity designates
a positive force or ability, -- the pouter to grow. We do not
have to draw out or educe positive activities from a child, as
some educational doctrines would have it.
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