For the influences of
birds, flowers, streams, trees, meadows, and mountains are enmeshed in his
life. Nature reveals her secrets to him and gives to him of her treasures
because he goes out to meet her. Because he smiles at nature she smiles
back at him, and the union of their smiles gives joy to those who see.
Moreover, he is a product of the reconstructed school, for this school
does already exist, though in conspicuous isolation. But the oasis is
accentuated by its isolation in the desert which spreads about it and is
the more inviting by contrast. When, as a child, he entered school, the
teacher, who was in advance of her time in her conception of the true
function of the school, made a close and sympathetic appraisement of his
aptitudes, his native dispositions, his daily environment, and the bent of
his inherent spiritual qualities. First of all, she won his confidence.
Thus he found freedom, ease, and pleasure in her presence. Thus, too,
there ensued unconscious self-revelation and nothing in his life evaded
her kindly scrutiny. He opened his mind to her frankly and fully, and
never after did she permit the closing of the door. Only so could she
become his teacher.
She regarded him as an opportunity for the testing of all her knowledge,
all her skill, and the full measure of her altruism. Nor was he the
proverbial mass of plastic clay to be molded into some preconceived form.
Her wisdom and modernity interdicted such a conception of childhood as
that.
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