They are signs of possible growth. They are
to be turned into means of development, of carrying power
forward, not indulged or cultivated for their own sake.
Excessive attention to surface phenomena (even in the way of
rebuke as well as of encouragement) may lead to their fixation
and thus to arrested development. What impulses are moving
toward, not what they have been, is the important thing for
parent and teacher. The true principle of respect for immaturity
cannot be better put than in the words of Emerson: "Respect the
child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his
solitude. But I hear the outcry which replies to this
suggestion: Would you verily throw up the reins of public and
private discipline; would you leave the young child to the mad
career of his own passions and whimsies, and call this anarchy a
respect for the child's nature? I answer, -- Respect the child,
respect him to the end, but also respect yourself.... The two
points in a boy's training are, to keep his naturel and train off
all but that; to keep his naturel, but stop off his uproar,
fooling, and horseplay; keep his nature and arm it with knowledge
in the very direction in which it points." And as Emerson goes on
to show this reverence for childhood and youth instead of opening
up an easy and easy-going path to the instructors, "involves at
once, immense claims on the time, the thought, on the life of the
teacher.
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