At this period the whole type of life changes; certainly not from one moment to another but we are not considering moments but "stages of development."  The child at this stage will no longer be satisfied with special furniture or a line drawn on the floor on which to acquire equilibrium, nor with those exercises of practical life through which he formerly made himself master of his instruments of expression.  These things are no longer of interest to the child of 7; their execution is no longer a formative exercise; they have become an application and habit of life but they no longer represent a necessity for the establishing of function.

We must therefore think of a wider environment than that of the school, and modern education takes this into consideration, by organizing sport, extensively long walks, and other activities. But there is also at this time a very evident change in the child's psychic nature.  It seems as if he detaches himself from that "love environment" we have described and directs his attention and interest towards his own inner life and toward that of others so that he shows a great interest in the thoughts of others and in the logic of things.  From an explorer of the material world he is becoming the explorer of the physical world.  One of the things he seems most anxious about is the moral point of view:  he wants to know which are the good things and which are the bad and he shows special interest in the actions of other people so as to acquire an orientation for himself in this field so new to him.

Here is an episode that happened to one of our teachers:  a child of this age showed interest in a remarkable degree, so that he was looked upon as a spy by the teacher and was feared by his companions.  He would say to the teacher, "such and such a boy has done this.  He has done wrong, has he not?" and the teacher would scold him and say he should not tell tales about other boys.  But the child insisted and said:  "But I want to know if what he did was good or bad."  Children at this age also judge the action of the other, take their own deductions, criticize and answer back.  The adult thinks this an impertinence and scolds the child for it.  This age is universally called the age of bad manners, an age when the child shows interest in things we think he should not and which up to now he does not appear to have noticed.  As at this same period the child has lost some of its beauty; this period is well defined and known chiefly for its unfavorable characteristics.  Yet if we wished to define the psychic plane of this type we would say it is the intellectual plane, because at this age the child wants to know the reasons of things.

There is also a sensitive period for language at this stage, its construction in logical form in what is called its syntax.  When a child of this age goes to a foreign country, he can learn the language in all its grammatical perfection whereas the adult who accompanies him is not able to do so.  This is why, in our method, we introduce the study of grammar in almost detailed way at this age.

In spite of these changes there are certain things that remain the same as they were before:  for instance, the tendency expressed by the child in the sentence "help me do things by myself."  Now, what are the things that the child should do for himself on this plane? In what shall we help him? In those things they correspond to the type of his development.  He must be able to carry out his own reasoning, his own judgment, his own thinking.  We state that by being able to do these things for himself he acquires independence of thought.  This freedom of thought is not what we adults conceive by such words.  For what did the child want his freedom in the preceding period? It was that he could develop his muscles, to enable him to carry out the actions dictated by his own will.  Even so, at this later period he should acquire understanding through his own reasoning, giving him at the same time the possibility of working independently until he arrives at a clear understanding.  The aim, however, is not that he should work alone, but that he should develop his own psychic energy.

The help we give the child must correspond to his needs.  If his interest lies in recognizing which is good and what is bad, one should help him find an orientation also in this field, which we might call a moral field, by an indication of what is good and what is bad.  If he should be forced to learn only those things the adult usually teaches, he would be carrying out work not in accord with the natural needs of that special moment. 

As in the previous stage it was necessary for the child to act in order to develop the physical mechanism, so we might now say he has to act physically in order to acquire the mental mechanisms.

What I tell you here is not a theory I have conceived a priori, it is something which I have learned from observation of the child and which I have deduced from experience with children themselves.  We see, for instance, that the children in our schools work with the material not merely to learn  - they carry on the same work after they have learned.   There is no useful aim or practical purpose in this; they exaggerate the work they do to such an extent that it could have no possible application to the usual problems of life. They also show different characteristics of work from that of the adult one of which is repetition of the same exercise.  The child repeats the same exercise so many times that the teacher in an ordinary school would find it quite incomprehensible.  This reminds us in the intellectual field of what happened when the small child carried out physical actions - for instance dusting a table over and over again long after the last speck of dust had vanished.

In the ordinary school the teacher addresses herself directly to the intelligence of the child and tries first to make him understand and then to learn something, but as soon as he has learned it the teacher presses on to new facts.  But this is not in the nature of the child; if left free, after he has understood and learned something, it is then he begins an activity which repeats and repeats itself.  And this is logical.  For instance, in practical life one learns the movements of swimming in order to repeat them:  one does not learn to swim and then never practices the art of swimming.  So it is with the child; he learns and makes use of what he has learned; it is only after he has learned that formative activity begins.  The adult not understanding this kind of mechanism, almost puts a stop to it and so hinders development.  Left to his natural rhythm, the child does not pass rapidly from one difficulty to another, and the adult is usually very impatient at this.  The same thing happened when the child was smaller - the adult could not comprehend why the child should very slowly repeat certain actions, when she herself could do them so much quicker.  Here in the intellectual plane the adult wonders why the child lingers upon an exercise instead of passing on to other things.

The reason for the lack of interest in study on the part of the child in ordinary schools is the restriction he is under from following his own rhythm.  Therefore it is that we insist on this freedom of activity which renders the child independent of the coercion of the adult.  Also his mentality being entirely different from that of the child he might explain things in which the child is not interested and leave unexplained just those things the child wants to know.  That is why the teacher must help the child to do things by himself, following him in his natural path of mental development, keeping in mind that the child has both an enormous mental patience in repeating the same exercise and a curiosity to know things in an extremely detailed way.

Therefore it is important that we furnish this didactic material which analyzes a complex operation in its different items and we leave it in the hands of the children.  The single difficulties being isolated afford the greatest possible clarity and being materialized allow the child to work by himself.

The apparatus permits the child to carry out studies and observations which should not be limited to grammar or arithmetic, except for very large operations done abstractly which is a form of repetition:  multiplication in which both terms often imply numbers of more than 125 digits.  This is especially true with older children of the same age group (6 - 12).  

Children of this age indulge in similar studies which include natural history, astronomy, cosmic functioning affecting geography and physical science, statics, equilibrium and mechanics and so on:  so that generally children are able to find an answer and gain a clear view to every one of those questions which the child asks at this period when he seems anxious to know the origin of all things.

If it is thought desirable to give religious teaching at this age one should present the child with that part which gives him the origin of things and the solution of the problems that arise in his conscience; because this birth of intellectual interest in questioning is of utmost importance for the intellectual life of the child.

It is one of the characteristics of the human mind to want to rest on a very sure basis and not to remain doubtful and vaguely in suspense.  In vagueness and doubt there is no mental calm but agitation.  One must have a plan, a sure basis upon which to continue development and work, and this allows the mind to work more easily.  It may sound like a contradiction but "One must know in order to know."  In order to concentrate you must first know something, then individual work begins leading to inner construction.

If this work, which has its laws as well as its rhythm cannot be carried out as is the case in the ordinary school where subjects are taught rapidly one after the other and the teacher is content if the child remembers what he has been taught - then mental development does not take place.  Something happens which is similar to what I described in the question of the difference between love of the environment and possession of objects; instead of being attracted by knowledge of one's desires to possess only.

In the mental field also certain deviations take place.  One of the most curious is that the child asks all sorts of questions but never listens to the answers, or he pretends that he understands everything and knows everything, and so looks for praise instead of knowledge; or he tries to overcome and be better than his companions instead of acquiring a knowledge of things.  This is almost a mental vanity - a seeking for effect.

Another of these deviations is what is called a mental barrier that is a repugnance towards certain knowledge and therefore an inability to learn because as we saw, at this period there is no question of learning things in order to store knowledge but in order to be able to start an activity for them.