Concentration and Interest
The antithesis between discipline and freedom, between training which aims to transform the child’s nature and training which gives the child’s nature opportunity to express itself without restraint, can be illustrated as follows. On the one side it is said that children have no power of concentration of attention. They are flighty and erratic. They must be made to think steadily in order to train their minds for hard mental work. On the other side it is asserted that when a child’s interest is aroused through an appeal to his natural tastes he will exert his mind to the limit of its powers, and this is all that can advantageously be required.