But the statement is not true as
matter of fact. The facts which are cited in support of the
alleged pure egoism of children really show the intensity and
directness with which they go to their mark. If the ends which
form the mark seem narrow and selfish to adults, it is only
because adults (by means of a similar engrossment in their day)
have mastered these ends, which have consequently ceased to
interest them. Most of the remainder of children's alleged
native egoism is simply an egoism which runs counter to an
adult's egoism. To a grown-up person who is too absorbed in his
own affairs to take an interest in children's affairs, children
doubtless seem unreasonably engrossed in their own affairs.
From a social standpoint, dependence denotes a power rather than
a weakness; it involves interdependence. There is always a
danger that increased personal independence will decrease the
social capacity of an individual. In making him more
self-reliant, it may make him more self-sufficient; it may lead
to aloofness and indifference. It often makes an individual so
insensitive in his relations to others as to develop an illusion
of being really able to stand and act alone -- an unnamed form of
insanity which is responsible for a large part of the remediable
suffering of the world.
2. The specific adaptability of an immature creature for growth
constitutes his plasticity. This is something quite different
from the plasticity of putty or wax.
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