Early childhood / by Margaret Mcmillan.

  • McMillan, Margaret, 1860-1931.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Early childhood / by Margaret Mcmillan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    We have now a wilderness of man’s invention, a wilderness which is in itself a human triumph; and mechanical labour must be done in this world of steel and iron. Yes; that is one necessity. But one day it may be necessary that a larger portion of the life of every man and woman may be rescued from such labour; and this second necessity—the fruit of a more natural and vital education—will be as rigorous as the other and as persistent. Society will have to take account of it, as of a thing from which it cannot escape. “ This wilderness of wheels and pulleys must exist; but it must not overshadow us, empty our homes, submerge our lives, hinder our development.” Such a fiat will inevitably go forth if the primary school once fairly begins to nourish the life in its children. For this life will find expression and make laws, destroying the old impediments by its own vigorous growth. The old does not belong to it, but must be sloughed off. Where the past generation stood sad and helpless it may arrive peaceful, because invincible. Unabashed by the mechanisms of man’s own invention, the people may draw together in the bonds of a new fellowship; the homes that were once solitary may be glad, and the man-made wilderness itself rejoice at last and blossom as the roscl W. Jolly & Sons, Printers, Aberdeen