t corporal punishment was never even mentioned, much less
practiced; that all was harmony, and love, and freedom, and spontaneity.

I listened to this speaker with intense interest, and, as his picture
unfolded, I became more and more convinced that this city had at last
solved the problem. I took the earliest opportunity to visit its
schools. When I reached the city I went to the superintendent's office.
I asked to be directed to the best school. "Our schools are all 'best,'"
the secretary told me with an intonation that denoted commendable pride,
and which certainly made me feel extremely humble, for here even the
laws of logic and of formal grammar had been transcended. I made bold to
apologize, however, and amended my request to make it apparent that I
wished to see the largest school. I was directed to take a certain car
and, in due time, found myself at the school. I inferred that recess was
in progress when I reached the building, and that the recess was being
celebrated within doors. After some time spent in dodging about the
corridors, I at last located the principal.

I introduced myself and asked if I could visit his school after recess
was over. "We have no recesses here," he replied (I could just catch his
voice above the din of the corridors); "this is a relaxation period for
some of the classes." He led the way to the office, and I spent a few
moments in getting the "lay of the land." I asked him, first, whether he
agreed with the doctrines that the system represented, and he told me
that he believed in them implicitly. Did he follow them out consistently
in the operation of his school? Yes, he followed them out to the letter.

We then went to several classrooms, where I saw children realizing
themselves, I thought, very effectively. There were three groups at work
in each room. One recited to the teacher, another studied at the seats,
a third did construction work at the tables. I inquired about the
mechanics of this rather elaborate organization, but I was told that
mechanics had been eliminated from this school. Mechanical organization
of the classroom, it seems, crushes the child's spontaneity, represses
his self-activity, prevents the effective operation of the principle of
self-realization. How, then, did these three groups exchange places, for
I felt that the doctrine of self-realization would not permit them to
remain in the same employment during the entire session. "Oh," the
principal replied,