HappyMama

“Let us now turn to the child of two and his need to walk.  It is natural for him to feel this need, for he has to prepare the future man, and must therefore build up in himself all the essential human abilities.  The child of two is well able to walk for a mile or two, and also to climb, if he is in the mood for it.  The difficult parts of the walk appeal to him most.  We must remember that the child’s idea of walking is quite different from ours.  Our belief that a long walk is beyond him, comes from making him walk at our pace.  This is as stupid as it would be for us to go out on foot with a horse, and expect to keep up with it.  The latter, seeing we were out of breath, would then say (as we do to the child): “This is no good.  Jump on my back and we will both get there together.”  But the child is not trying to “get there.”  All he wants is to walk.  And because his legs are shorter than ours, we must not try to make him keep up with us.  It is we who must go at his pace.  This necessity we are under of taking our time from the child is clear enough in this case, but we ought to note that this rule applies whenever we are educating little children, no matter in what field.  The child has his own laws of development, and if we want to help him to grow, it is a question of following these, not of imposing ourselves upon him.  The child does not walk only with his legs, he also walks with his eyes.  What urges him on are the interesting things that he sees.  Here is a sheep grazing.  He sits down near to watch.  Presently he gets up and goes a far distance - sees a flower - smells it - sees a tree - goes up to it, walks around it several times, then sits down to look at it.  In this way, he may wander for miles.  His walks are broken by periods of rest and at the same time full of interesting discoveries.  If some obstacle lies across his path, for example, some fallen rocks, or a tree-trunk, then his happiness is complete.  Water he loves.  Sitting down by the side of a brooklet, he murmurs happily, “Water, water!”  His grown-up companion, wanting to get somewhere as soon as possible, has quite different ideas on the subject of what walking is for…

To the educator, the child who goes for a walk is an explorer…  All children should be able to go for walks like this, guided by what appeals to them.”

The Absorbent Mind, Henry Holt Publishers, pg. 162