“Something has been lost”

Go into a kindergarten room. By and large, the five- year-olds are spontaneous, unique. Tell them to dance and they move naturally with a sort of unorganized grace. Read them a story, and their eyes give you back its suspense, fear, laughter. We like to say their faces light up (a particularly telling phrase), and when we look into this illumination, we are not ashamed to let our own faces glow in return. All of this, we assume, is a natural condition of the very young. 

(Now) walk down the hall to a fourth-grade classroom. Very quickly you will notice that something has been lost. Not so many eyes are alight. Not so many responses surprise you. Too many bodies and minds seem locked in painful self-awareness. This too, we carelessly attribute to the natural order. It's just part of growing up. 

But is it really? Is it really necessary for the human animal to lose its spontaneity and imagination as it gains knowledge and technique? Must we shed the brightness of childhood as we put on the armor plating of age? 


Leonard, G. (1968) Education and Ecstasy. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, p. 111.