Education for Life: Preparing Children to Meet the Challenges (Continued)


Please note direct word-for-word quotes from Education for Life are indicated by single quotation marks.

Chapter 14: The Tools of Maturity (Explanations of what each of these tools are as well as the weaknesses in character that can emerge when they are underdeveloped and / or unbalanced with one another)


The four tools of maturity are: '1) physical energy and bodily self-control; 2) emotional calmness and expansive feeling; 3) dynamic, persistent will power; and 4) a clear-sighted, practical intellect.'

'In teaching a child, care should be taken not only to teach him the right use of his body, feelings, will power, and intellect, but also to lead him through their development in the proper sequence. Only by understanding and respecting his nature as it is, can he be helped to achieve the equilibrium of true maturity.' This chapter offers an excellent explanation of what each of these tools are as well as the weaknesses in character that can emerge when they are underdeveloped and / or unbalanced with one another.

'The first six years of a child’s life are taken up primarily with the development of physical awareness. The following six, until about the age of twelve, mark the natural period for developing emotional sensitivity. From twelve to eighteen, teenage rebelliousness is a natural symptom of a developing will power. And the last six years of these two twelve-year cycles, from eighteen to twenty-four, are the time of life when the intellect begins naturally to flower.' To give full justice to this excellent chapter it is also best read in full.