ABSTRACT
Children in early childhood have a curious hybrid morality based upon a mixture of what we could call prudential and authoritarian behaviour. There are many differences between children, but the differences are less obvious than they will be in the next stage of childhood. Most writers characterise early childhood in religious terms of a parental figure. To overcome the problem of disillusionment with parents, ‘the child moves from deifying his parents to parentalising the deity’. Misunderstandings abound even among older children in an infant school. The younger the child the greater his emotional needs. Many children find their first days at school exciting and challenging, but even the most confident child finds it a demanding, insecure period. While most children in their third year of the infant school begin to encompass the idea of a school community, the younger ones can only conceive of community in terms of small groups.
