ABSTRACT
Children's senses are passionately keen. They want the things they like far more desperately than grown-ups; they detest the things they do not like far more violently. There is a general theory to the effect that children are happy just because they are children. Misunderstanding does not promote happiness; yet childhood is a state of chronic misunderstanding. The child does not understand the things about him, the people, and their purposes. Children grow up as best they may, under conditions of misunderstanding, criticism, questioning, interference, dictation, compulsion, and arbitrary punishment. Some of them are fairly happy; a few are truly and fully happy; but the majority of them long to "grow up" and enjoy life as their elders do!.
