EDUCATION AND SEX IN MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD The one thing we have to avoid, then, even while we carry on our own old process of education, is this development of the powers of so-called self-expression in a child.

Let us beware of artificially stimulating his self-consciousness and his so-called imagination.

All that we do is to pervert the child into a ghastly state of self-consciousness, making him affectedly try to show off as we wish him to show off.

The moment the least little trace of self-consciousness enters in a child, good-by to everything except falsity.
Much better just pound away at the ABC and simple arithmetic and so on.

The modern methods do make children sharp, give them a sort of slick finesse, but it is the beginning of the mischief.