ABSTRACT
The other tendency which may be adverse to this conception of our responsibility for the contents of the growing mind is that which so reverences the innate possibilities of human nature that it regards them as capable of settling their own future in entirely satisfactory fashion, if allowed the opportunity. This is a species of laissez-faire doctrine: clear away the restrictions and barriers erected by authority, and in a state of freedom all will be well. In general phrase it is the theory of self-expression. In detail it says, “Here is an instinct, a disposition, a natural giftlet it loose.” Clear away the obstructions of
archaic discipline, of adult control, of induced repressions (and I am not sure but that its advocates inconsistently include natural tendencies to modesty and reticence) and the stream will flow with natural force and in its appropriate channel.
