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CHAPTER . XVI .
· · .· TO
FROM UNCONSCJOUS CREATOR . -
CONSCIOUS WORKER -
· · d· . .ng a .peno
·. d 1·n·the child's development· .·
So fat' we have been 1scuss1. n with his life in the womb.
. fi d t have much in commo .
which we n° . f
This kind of . development con ipue s till the child
.
is three,
.
and. .

:::;s. that eriod-which is a highly creative one-many I~porta~t .

tak! place. . yet, ill spite o~ ~his, we _have to think •of it
. asapart ·.of l"fe1 which falls into oblivion. It is as though
. nature
. . .
had drawn a dividing line; on the one side are ~a~pemngs we can .
no longer remember: on the other side is the begmrung of memo?.
The forgotten part is the one we have called psycho-embryomc, .
that is to say, the part inviting comparison with the physico~
embryonic, or pre-natal, life which no one can remember. .
. In this psycho-embryonic period various powers deVelop sepa-
ljllteiy aild independently of one another; for example, language,
4r'm movements and leg movements. Certain sensory .powers
Mso take shape. And this is ·what ·reminds us of the. pre-natal
period, when ·the physical organs are developing each on its own
account, regardless of the others. . For, in this psycho-embryonic ·
period we see the mental powers of control coming into exist-
ence separately. And it is not surprising that we fail to tecall
what happens, for there is still no unity in the personality-'--this
being a unity which can only be brought about when the parts
are complete.

· · . Thus it happens that at the age· of three, .life seems to begin

agam; for now consciousness shines ·forth in all its fullness and ·
 .· FltQM·· UNCONSCIOUS -~~TOR .
.
165··
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.glory. .Between thfse tw~ periods, the .unconsciou.s ~rj~d a~4itb~ .

one which follows It of conscious ..development, there see-ms to;~ :' .
a ·well· marked boundary~ · In the ·first, there is no po~sibility of
conscious memory. Only with ·the advent · of consciousness do
we have unity .of the personality, and therefore the · power t~
remember. . . · · .· ·
. . ' . ..

Before three the functions .are bing created: after three they
develop. . The line of demarcation between these two · periods
· reminds ·one ·or the• Waters .of Lethe~the River of ·Forgetfulness
in -Greek ·mythology. We find it very hard to recollect anything
that happened to us before _the age of three, and sti~l more before
we were two. Psychoanalysis
. .
tries by every means to draw the .

mind back to its past, .but no one in a general way .can push. their
memories further back than the third year of life . . Could any
·situation be more dramatic, for just at the time when creation was
. . -
bringing us forth out of nothing, not even the person concerned
can tell us anything about it!
This unconscious creator, this forgotten being, . seems to be
wiped out from human memory, and the _child who comes to
greet us at the age of three is a person we find it impossible to
understand. The bonds which link us. to him have . been· cut by
nature. That is why there is so much danger of the adult destroy-
ing· what nature is trying to do. For we have to remember that ·
in this first section of his life, the . child is entirely dependent .on
us. He cannot fend for himself, and unless we adults are enlight-
ened-either by nature or by· Acience-as to the way in which his
mind develops, we are likely to become the greatest obstacles to
his progress.
But, by the end of this period, the child has acquired powers .
which permit him to defend himself. . If he feels oppresse4 by the
adult, he can protest in words, he can run away or play pranks.·
Not that the child's real aim is to ·defend himself. . What he ·wants
to do,,is to master his environmen~nndfrig ihercin~the means ror his
development• . And what is it (tO .beCXllct) thaihe bas to devel~~1
It is .all those powers which, up till now, . he has been creatin~
 . THE ABSORBENT .MIND
166 . b . · able now to tackle pis
. . . f th ee till six, e1ng . . .
· s·o from the age O r . . sly he begins a period of
, . - nd consc1ou , .
. environment deltberate1Y_a d, . ers he was prevtously creat-
. The hid en pow · ..
real constructiveness. - . . thanks to the opportun1t1es
t .show themse1ves, . .
ing are now able· 0. - . . h h finds in the world about · him.
- for conscious • experience . wh1c · e ...
•es· of random act1v1t1es
. . · t play or a sert . · '
Such experience is not JUS ·' • . . ow up. His hand
but it is work that he has to ~o in orde~ to gr efinitel human
guided by his intelligence begins to do Jobs of d . y . .
t~- If, at fi~t, the child was an alm?~t contemp!at1v_e being~
. gazing at his world with apparent pass1v1ty and using it !o co~
-b · f his · mi·nd 1·n this new world he exercises . h1s
struct the as1s o . .
will. At first he was guided by an impersonal force seenung to
be hidden within him; now he is guided by his conscious " I,"
by his own personal self, and we see that his hands are busy. It is
as if the child, having absorbed the world by an unconscious kind
of intelligence, now "lays his hand" to it.
The other kind of d~velopment which begins just now consists
in the perfecting of the acquisitions already made. Language is a
very clear example, for its spontaneous development goes on till
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five or so. Already it has existed since the child was two-and-a-
half, and it was then complete, for the child could not only form
_ words but use sentences grammatically correct. But there still
remains this special sensitiveness (the sensitive period for language,
as we have called it) that goes on urging the child to fix its sounds
ever~more accurately, and above all to enrich·it with an ever greater
repertoire of words. .
. . Hence
_ there are
. . . two tendencies:
. one
. is the extens1on . o f con-
sciousness
· fi . by act1v1t1es
. . performed
. on the environment,
. .
the other
is or the perfectmg and enrichment of those p .
These show us that the period from three to ~~ers already formed.
• • SIX IS one of " '
t1ve perfectt?n~ent" by means of activity. · construe•
. The mind s power . to absorb tirelessl . .
still there, but absorption is now h l d y from the world is
. epe and 'b
expenence. No longer is it a matter purel ennc ed by active
hand also takes- part. This hand be . . y of the .senses, but the
. comes a " prehensile · organ
 FROM UNCONSCIOUS .CREATOR l67
of the mind".. Whereas the child used to absorb. by iazing~·at
the world while people carried him about
. . ' now he shows,~ rt
irresistible-tend~ncy to touch everything, and to pause a while on
separate things. He is continuously busy, happy, always doing
something with his hands. His intelligence no longer develops
merely. by existing: it needs a world of things which provide him ·
with motives for his activity, for in this formative period there are
further psychological developments which still have to take place.
It has been called "the blessed age of play"-something
people have always been · aware of, but only recently has it been
subjected to scientific study.
In Europe and America, where the speed of civilised life
causes an ever greater cleavage between_.man and nature, people
try to meet this need by offering the children an immense quantity
of toys, when their real needs are for stimuli of quite a different
kind. At that age children need to touch and .handle all kinds of
things, yet hardly ·any · real· articles are placed at their disposal,
and most of those they c_a n see t_hey are for bidden to touch.
There is only one substance that the modern child is allowed to
handle quite freely, and that is sand. Lettirt.g children play with
sand has now become universal. What is sometimes allowed,
but not too -much, for the child gets wet and water mixed -with
sand makes a mess. Grown-ups take little pleasure in repairing
the consequences!
But in those countries where the toy making industry is · tess _
advanced, you will find c~ildren with ·quite different tastes. _-
They are also caln1er, more s~nsible and happy ... . Their one "idea ·_
is to take part in the activities going on about them. _They · are
more like ordinary folk, using and handling the same things as
_ the grown-ups. When the mothe.r washes out some linen, or
makes some bread . and little cakes, the child joins in. - . Though
his action is imitative, _it is -·a ·selective and intelligent imitation,
through which the child prepares himself to play his part in .the
world. There . is no doubt · whatever that the child needs to do
these things to serve ends of his own, ·~nterior ends connected with
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. . ..,«\euBNT .MJNlj -;
Tff8 .Ar,.,vi'U' . . ·· t.
· zo h. ls ·we give .everythirig-itt~tft4 - · '.
.1 ~ · ·-our sc oo . - ·his h t -·. , : ~o .
. fopment. ~- the actions ·he s~ m oll\e-tt,orf·tn~
sctf&\'e i..:Jd can iJIUtate.. · . But we have implements ·;sl)eci 1; · ·
pt the .cw . h he lives. .· . . . . a11y - .
t_ · ttY in whic · . .-. . . . to·suit his dunurut1ve ,proportio : ·,
the coun • 0 f the· n,Itt him and he · · ns
d ror Jti1l1, • dedicated to
15 , lS. free ·tp .
JPad e trength• ·The roolll ly himself to intelligent and ftirmativ
an s . . talk and app -- · . · ·.
move a bout 1n it, •. ·, .
.
kinds of work. . eeros very . obvious, but when I fit1t
thi
,Now-a..(fays'. all s_1 were much aston1s · hed·• When I and· ,, .
the idea peop e · · :
propounded red . for children of three .to st~ .a _wor1d With
my helpers prep~ · . so that they could Uve in it as thouft" .·
. . 0 r their •own size, _ . . 611 .
furrushin~ wn home this was thought to be·absolutely wonder.
it were their o ha. ' nd tables the tiny plates -and bowls for
·rut The little C 1rs a ' . . he bf' C, - .
· . h " I life" activities of laying t _ta 1e .,1or meals
washmg up, t e rea . in bes. . ,.
of cleaning ou. . · t the fire-place ' sweeping and dust . g- · ides the
frames 1or c.
1ea-ing
uuu
to dress one's self-were hailed as wondrous
innovations in the field of educational ideas. . . . . . .. -. . . .
The social life which these children then came to lead brought
out in them ijoexpected tende~cies and tastes . .· It was·th~ children·
themselves who showed that they preferred one anotJter's company ·...
to dolls, and .the small "real life" utensils to ·toysi •·
1 . Professor John ·Dewey, the well-known American ·educator
· narrates how he had the idea that in New Y ork~that great centre
of American Iife--he would be able to buy some small -utensils
made specially for the use of children. So he made._a personal
search in the New York shops for little brooms, stools, plates, and
~o on. He could find nothing of that kind whatever: the very
idea of making them was absent. ·All that existed were numberless
toys ~f every description. He exclaimed in astonishment: "But
the c~Ildren have been forgotten!" . . .. .· .·_... . . . .
Alas, the child is t . . .. .. hi5
He is the p orgotten. 1n many ·more ways than t . ·
orgotten Citize h · . · · ·s
plenty of everyth. fi · · n,_ w O hves 1n a world where .there 1 .
th_is empty wodt:e: everyon~. else, but nothing for hiJII•. In
mischief, breakin hi·. anders a1mlessly, getting constantly int_o
g S toy · . . . hiS
s, vainly seeking satisfaction for ·
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 FllOM UNCONSCIOUS CREATOR 169
spirit, while ·the adult fails completely tO reali · · ha · - . ·· ·
·d · . · se w t are his real
-nee s.
· Having in our schools broken this barrier d. t . _.d-
.1 hi h hid . - , an orn as1 e
. . vets w c · . e the truth,. ·having
the _ gi·ven the
. ..child rea1· th·mp
.
in a real world, we expected to see his joy and delight in using
them. But 3:ctually we saw far" more than that. The child's whole
·personality changed, and the first sign of this· was an assertion of
independence._ It was as though he were saying: "I want to do
everything myself. Now, please_don't help me."
. All :at once he became a man · seeking' for · self-sufficiency,
-.scorning every help. Who would have expected -this to be his
· response, and that the adult would have to limit his role to that
of an observer? . N'(> sooner was the -child placed in this world of
his own size than .he ·took .possession of it. · Social life ~d the
formation of chara¢ter followe4 automatically.
· So, what . resulted 'Yas:. not .just the child's happiness, but the
child began · his work ·of. making a man. Happiness is not the
· whole . aim of education.. A .man -must . be independent in his
powers and character, ·able to. work and assert his mastery over
all that depends on him. · Th~ was the light · in which- childhood
revealed itself to us, once consciousness had come to birth and begun
to take control.

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