Youth will learn to think, to judge, and to do, by thinking, judging,
and doing. They will acquire a sense of responsibility by bearing
responsibility. They will take on serious forms of thought by doing
the serious things which require serious thought.
It cannot be urged that young people have a life of their own which is
to be lived only for youth's sake and without reference to the adult
world about them. As a matter of fact children and youth are a part
of the total community of which the mature adults are the natural
and responsible leaders. At an early age they begin to perform
adult activities, to take on adult points of view, to bear adult
responsibilities. Naturally it is done in ways appropriate to
their natures. At first it is imitative play, constructive play,
etc.--nature's method of bringing children to observe the serious
world about them, and to gird themselves for entering into it.
The next stage, if normal opportunities are provided, is playful
participation in the activities of their elders. This changes
gradually into serious participation as they grow older, becoming at
the end of the process responsible adult action. It is not possible
to determine the educational materials and processes at any stage of
growth without looking at the same time to that entire world of which
youth forms a part, and in which the nature and abilities of their
elders point the goal of their training.
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