ust not do that!" But we know that every wish lives on in the
depths of the mind, and the childish wish to exhibit the body appears
in later years as a desire to preach or sing or act or lecture.

This is the psychology of the testimonials for liver pills which appear
in every local paper. It is the psychology of much crime. Many a slum
youth glories in having been birched, simply because his gang looks on
him as a hero.

I hasten to state that exhibitionism alone does not make a Cabinet
Minister or a comedian. There are other motives from infancy, an
important one being the desire for power. I recall that as a boy I
delighted in following a drove of cattle and smiting the poor creatures
hard with a cudgel. Freud would say that in this way I was releasing
sex energy, but I think that the infantile sense of power was at the
root of my cruelty; here was I, a wee boy, controlling a big heavy
stot. It is love of power that makes little boys want to be
engine-drivers.

To the teacher this love of power is the most vital thing in a child's
make-up. Discipline thwarts the boy at every turn, and our adult
authority is fatally injuring the boy's character. Our task is to
provide the child with opportunity to wield his power. We suppress it
and the lad shows his power in destructive instead of constructive
activities. I find that I keep returning to this subject of
suppression, but it is the most important evil in education. It does
not matter how perfect a teacher makes his instruction in arithmetic;
if he has not come to see that suppression of a child is a tragedy, his
instruction is of no value. From an examination point of view, yes;
from a spiritual point of view, no.

* * * * *

Parents and teachers fail because they cannot see the world as the
child sees it. The child of three is a frank egoist. He cares for no
one but himself, and the world is his. Anger him and he would have you
drawn and quartered if he had the power. His instincts prompt him to
master his environment, and to begin with, when he is a few weeks old,
his environment and his own person are indistinguishable.

Homer Lane gives a delightful description of the child's first efforts
and how they are frustrated by ignorant adults.

"At a very early age the child becomes aware through various processes
that his own hand which he has seen moving across his line of vision is
a part of himself, and that he can mov