eacher must not
remain thus on the threshold of life, like those scientists who are
destined to observe plants and animals, and who are accordingly
satisfied with what morphology and physiology can offer. Nor is it her
mission to remain intent upon "derangements in the functions of the
body," like the medical specialist in infantile disease, who is
content with pathology. She must recognize that the methods of those
sciences are limited. When she chants her introit and sets foot upon
those steps which in the temple of life ascend to the spiritual
tabernacle, she should look upwards, and feel that among the adoring
host in the vast temple of science, she is a priestess.

Her sphere is to be vaster and more splendid; she is about to observe
"the inner life of man." The arid field which is limited to the
marvels of organic matter will not suffice for her; all the spiritual
fruits of the history of humanity and of religion will be necessary
for her nourishment. The lofty manifestations of art, of love, of
holiness, are the characteristic manifestations of that life which she
is not only about to observe but to serve, and which is her "own
life"; not a thing strange to her, and therefore cold and arid; but
the intimate life she has in common with all men, the true and only
real life of Man.

The scientific laboratory, the field of Nature where the teacher will
be initiated into "the observation of the phenomena of the inner life"
should be the school in which free children develop with the help of
material designed to bring about development. When she feels herself,
aflame with interest, "seeing" the spiritual phenomena of the child,
and experiences a serene joy and an insatiable eagerness in observing
them, then she will know that she is "initiated."

Then she will begin to become a "teacher."

V

ENVIRONMENT

Not only must the teacher be transformed, but the school environment
must be changed. The introduction of the "material of development"
into an ordinary school cannot constitute the entire external
renovation. The school should become the place where the child may
live in freedom, and this freedom must not be solely the intimate,
spiritual liberty of internal growth. The entire organism of the
child, from his physiological, vegetative part to his motor activity,
ought to find in school "the best conditions for development." This
includes all that physical hygiene has already put forward as aids to
the