What are the immediate aims of education? What are the first steps in laying a more appropriate foundation?
A. (The Master:) The first step is to accept the autonomy of the child. Each child requires education, otherwise he cannot fulfill his potential. However, that education must fit him as you would require a pair of shoes to do, and as the shoes become outgrown and must be changed, so too must the educational structures, outlook, curricula and concepts respond to the child’s changing needs. Basically there are two educational structures in many countries: one for a small lite, preparing them for the higher echelons of influence and power, and another for a broadly based, egalitarian rump which is equipped for the lesser posts in industry and other fields. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but takes no account of the variety of gifts and levels of evolution to be found among children everywhere. The truly gifted child must find the environment to fulfill his gifts. This is relatively rare today. The broad mass of children produce a less sustained level of achievement but must feel th
