Abstract theories are more the subject of university than of grade school education.
The effect of those theories, however, is widely apparent even in teaching at the grade school level. There are few areas in life so susceptible to dogmatism indeed, even to bigotry and the denun ciation of alien views as heresies than child education. And there are few dogmas so persistent as the belief in a child s natural wisdom. This belief is somewhat akin to Rousseau s noble savage, an imaginary creature if ever there was one, but one in whom many people fervently believed. Yes, of course children sometimes display aston ishing insights.