At the same stroke, the flame has gained
in meaning; all that is known about combustion, oxidation, about
light and temperature, may become an intrinsic part of its
intellectual content.
(2) The other side of an educative experience is an added power
of subsequent direction or control. To say that one knows what
he is about, or can intend certain consequences, is to say, of
course, that he can better anticipate what is going to happen;
that he can, therefore, get ready or prepare in advance so as to
secure beneficial consequences and avert undesirable ones. A
genuinely educative experience, then, one in which instruction is
conveyed and ability increased, is contradistinguished from a
routine activity on one hand, and a capricious activity on the
other. (a) In the latter one "does not care what happens"; one
just lets himself go and avoids connecting the consequences of
one's act (the evidences of its connections with other things)
with the act. It is customary to frown upon such aimless random
activity, treating it as willful mischief or carelessness or
lawlessness. But there is a tendency to seek the cause of such
aimless activities in the youth's own disposition, isolated from
everything else. But in fact such activity is explosive, and due
to maladjustment with surroundings. Individuals act capriciously
whenever they act under external dictation, or from being told,
without having a purpose of their own or perceiving the bearing
of the deed upon other acts.
Pages:
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139