From infancy a carefully reared child is taught obedience. He is taught what is right and what is wrong, the happy reward of right doing, and the just effects of wrong thought or action. In proportion to the parents' wisdom and obedient adherence to Principle, this instruction is good. Later, the child is sent to school. The loving care bestowed upon him by well-meaning parents is often misunderstood by the child, who may even think that parents and teachers have invented education for his discomfort and torment. He may even imagine it would be much more pleasant to play all day than to undergo discipline and to learn application. For this reason he may rebel, feel sorry for himself and waste time; but he only is the loser. The lessons must be mastered eventually; and by application and mastery he benefits.
The simple rules of addition and subtraction may seem arduous to the beginner; but with the familiarity of practice they become simple and natural. When these fundamentals have been mastered, the young student goes on to the next step. By one step at a time correctly taken is proficiency gained. Progress, thus made, helps him to appreciate the advantages of greater knowledge; and, in time, he learns that his lessons are difficult only because of his ignorance of the subject, and that the purpose of schooling is to educate him to the point where lessons are simple, because of his command of the subject. He then begins to appreciate that the thing he considered a trial was, after all, for his best good, and gives proof of his parents' loving care; for, indeed, the parents who allow their children to grow to manhood or womanhood uncorrected, undisciplined and untaught consider the child's welfare but lightly.
* Science and Health, page 66.
