which are forgotten as soon as their minds are ready to retain anything
worth while.

Schools should be made to fit the needs of children, and not children to
fit schools. The school that does not provide work and play for the
child which he is glad to do, has learned little of the psychology and
needs of youth. Botany, Zoölogy, Geology and even Chemistry can be
taught to children before they learn to read, and taught so that it will
seem like play, and through this the pupil will acquire a natural taste
for books. It is only within the last few years that the modern school
has really begun to educate the child. It has been a hard fight that
scientific teachers have waged with conventional education for the right
of the child. What has been done is too recent and scattering to show
material results.

Nothing is so important to the child as education. The early life is the
time that character is formed, habits are made, rules of conduct
taught, and it is almost impossible to up-root old habits and
inhibitions and implant new ones in later years.

It is true that "the child is father to the man," and he is the father
of the criminal as well as the useful citizen. Outside of the hopelessly
defective, or those who have very imperfect nervous or physical systems,
there is no reason why a child who has had proper mental and physical
training and any fair opportunity in life should ever be a criminal.
Even most of the mentally defective and those suffering from imperfect
nervous systems could be useful to society in a sheltered environment.
Poor as the country schools have always been, the outdoor life of the
country child is still so great an influence that he generally escapes
disaster. He is not sent to a factory, but lives in a small community