story books to them, arrange their rooms after them, pick up
what they have let fall, put in order the things they have left
in confusion, and in this and in other ways, by protective
pampering and attention, their desire for work, their
endurance, the gifts of invention and imagination, qualities
proper to the child, become weak and passive. The home now is
only a preparation for school. In it, young people growing up,
are accustomed to receive services, without performing any on
their part. They are trained to be always receptive instead of
giving something in return. Then people are surprised at a
youthful generation, selfish and unrestrained, pressing forward
shamelessly on all occasions before their elders, crudely
unresponsive in respect of those attentions, which in earlier
generations were a beautiful custom among the young.

To restore this custom, all the means usually adopted now to
protect the child from physical and psychical dangers and
inconveniences, will have to be removed. Throw the thermometer
out of the window and begin with a sensible course of
toughening; teach the child to know and to bear natural pain.
Corporal punishment must be done away with not because it is
painful but because it is profoundly immoral and hopelessly
unsuitable. Repress the egoistic demands of the child when he
interferes with the work or rest of others; never let him
either by caresses or by nagging usurp the rights of grown
people; take care that the servants do not work against what
the parents are trying to insist on in this and in other
matters.

We must begin in doing for the child in certain ways a thousand