Doubt Is The Brother Of Shame.

There Is In Every Child At Every Stage A New Miracle Of Vigorous Unfolding.

You See A Child Play, And It Is So Close To Seeing An Artist Paint, For In Play A Child Says Things Without Uttering A Word. You Can See How He Solves His Problems. You Can Also See What's Wrong. Young Children, Especially, Have Enormous Creativity, And Whatever's In Them Rises To The Surface In Free Play.

The Growing Child Must Derive A Vitalizing Sense Of Reality From The Awareness That His Individual Way Of Mastering Experience (his Ego Synthesis) Is A Successful Variant Of A Group Identity And Is In Accord With Its Space-time And Life Plan.

Children Cannot Be Fooled By Empty Praise And Condescending Encouragement. They May Have To Accept Artificial Bolstering Of Their Self-esteem In Lieu Of Something Better, But What I Call Their Accruing Ego Identity Gains Real Strength Only From Wholehearted And Consistent Recognition Of Real Accomplishment, That Is, Achievement That Has Meaning In Their Culture.

Nobody Likes To Be Found Out, Not Even One Who Has Made Ruthless Confession A Part Of His Profession. Any Autobiographer, Therefore, At Least Between The Lines, Spars With His Reader And Potential Judge.