On Free Children

Nabbed this from a friend's blog! Beautiful.

"There is, of course, this matter of being afraid
to give freedom to
young children. I believe they have that within
themselves which makes
it possible for them to meet the world and life,
and interpret it more
nearly aright than can we. They carry with them
that inheritance of
faith and imagination undimmed; and that
tremendous surging desire to
know, to see, to feel and to do, which is rarely
betrayed. In our
desire as adults to lay hold of a child's life,
to grip it, mold it to
our own values, we do unwittingly a great harm.
We confront children
with our own fears, our own lack of faith; to
safeguard them we
attempt to thrust between them and life those
many false illusions
which we have picked up in our own twisting,
turning way. Children
take a far more advantageous highroad. A free
child is a happy child;
and there is nothing more lovely . . ."

-- Ruth Sawyer, in her acceptance speech upon
winning the Newbery
Award for Roller Skates, 1936