Imparting a Taste for Science.

Bear in mind always that the life and soul of my system is, not to
teach the child many things, but to allow only correct and clear ideas
to enter his mind. I do not care if he knows nothing, so long as he is
not mistaken. To guard him from errors he might learn, I furnish his
mind with truths only. Reason and judgment enter slowly; prejudices
crowd in; and he must be preserved from these last. Yet if you
consider science in itself, you launch upon an unfathomable and
boundless sea, full of unavoidable dangers. When I see a man carried
away by his love for knowledge, hastening from one alluring science to
another, without knowing where to stop, I think I see a child gathering
shells upon the seashore. At first he loads himself with them; then,
tempted by others, he throws these away, and gathers more. At last,
weighed down by so many, and no longer knowing which to choose, he ends
by throwing all away, and returning empty-handed.

In our early years time passed slowly; we endeavored to lose it, for
fear of misusing it. The case is reversed; now we have not time enough
for doing all that we find useful. Bear in mind that the passions are
drawing nearer, and that as soon as they knock at the door, your pupil
will have eyes and ears for them alone. The tranquil period of
intelligence is so brief, and has so many other necessary uses, that
only folly imagines it long enough to make the child a learned man.
The thing is, not to teach him knowledge, but to give him a love for
it, and a good method of acquiring it when this love has grown
stronger. Certainly this is a fundamental principle in all good
education.

Now, also, is the time to accustom him gradually to concentrate
attention on a single object. This attention, however, should never
result from constraint, but from desire and pleasure. Be careful that
it shall not grow irksome, or approach the point of weariness. Leave
any subject just before he grows tired of it; for the learning it
matters less to him than the never being obliged to learn anything
against his will. If he himself questions you, answer so as to keep
alive his curiosity, not to satisfy it altogether. Above all, when you
find that he makes inquiries, not for the sake of learning something,
but to talk at random and annoy you with silly questions, pause at
once, assured that he cares nothing about the matter, but only to
occupy your time with himself.