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study if it is approached in the right way. The life of every day, of every moment, is the best
school of all, varied, complex, full of unexpected experiences, problems to be solved, clear
and striking examples and obvious consequences. It is so easy to arouse healthy curiosity
in children, if you answer with intelligence and clarity the numerous questions they ask.
An interesting reply to one readily brings others in its train and so the attentive child learns
without effort much more than he usually does in the classroom. By a choice made with care
and insight, you should also teach him to enjoy good reading-matter which is both instructive
and attractive. Do not be afraid of anything that awakens and pleases his imagination;
imagination develops the creative mental faculty and through it study becomes living and
the mind develops in joy. In order to increase the suppleness and comprehensiveness of
his mind, one should see not only that he studies many varied topics, but above all that a
single subject is approached in various ways, so that the child understands in a practical
manner that there are many ways of facing the same intellectual problem, of considering it
and solving it. This will remove all rigidity from his brain and at the same time it will make
his thinking richer and more supple and prepare it for a more complex and comprehensive
synthesis. In this way also the child will be imbued with the sense of the extreme relativity
of mental learning and, little by little, an aspiration for a truer source of knowledge will
awaken in him.

Indeed, as the child grows older and progresses in his studies, his mind too ripens
and becomes more and more capable of forming general ideas, and with them almost
always comes a need for certitude, for a knowledge that is stable enough to form the
basis of a mental construction which will permit all the diverse and scattered and
often contradictory ideas accumulated in his brain to be organised and put in order.
This ordering is indeed very necessary if one is to avoid chaos in one’s thoughts. All
contradictions can be transformed into complements, but for that one must discover the
higher idea that will have the power to bring them harmoniously together. It is always
good to consider every problem from all possible standpoints so as to avoid partiality
and exclusiveness; but if the thought is to be active and creative, it must, in every case,
be the natural and logical synthesis of all the points of view adopted. And if you want
to make the totality of your thoughts into a dynamic and constructive force, you must
also take great care as to the choice of the central idea of your mental synthesis; for
upon that will depend the value of this synthesis. The higher and larger the central idea
and the more universal it is, rising above time and space, the more numerous and the
more complex will be the ideas, notions and thoughts which it will be able to organise
and harmonise.

It goes without saying that this work of organisation cannot be done once and for all. The
mind, if it is to keep its vigour and youth, must progress constantly, revise its notions in
the light of new knowledge, enlarge its frame-work to include fresh notions and constantly
reclassify and reorganise its thoughts, so that each of them may find its true place in relation
to the others and the whole remain harmonious and orderly.

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