ABSTRACT
The child's capacity to learn is geared to stages of emotional and cognitive development which have an innate, developmental programme. It is essential for anyone dealing with children to understand what this is and how it affects the child's view of the world and capacity for understanding and learning. The most fundamental issue in the inner story of family experience is one which nearly everyone knows about in theory but few genuinely understand, and that is the child's oedipal development. The fundamental experiences of emotional dependency and understanding the necessity of good authority are givens in life which children will find difficult to understand if they do not encounter them in family life. Since emotional dependency and attitudes to authority are integral parts of the learning process, it is crucial that teachers understand them in depth.
