The time between the ages of ten and twelve years may be called middle childhood. It is in this period that a child begins to be distinguished as a girl-child or a boy-child; and each must be given its particular direction, for a girl a girl's direction and for a boy a boy's direction. At home an education can be given which is not to be expected at school. Even if the same subjects were taught at school it would not be the same as what a child learns at home. Therefore even when the child is going to school there still remains a responsibility for the guardians to give it home education apart from its studies in the school.

Five Aspects of Knowledge

For the intellectual development of the child it is of great importance that it becomes familiar with nature. It must not be done as a lesson; it must be done as a friendly talk to explain to the child about plants, trees, insects, birds, animals. And when it is given by the spoken word the effect is quite different from the reading of natural science or any other studies of nature that the child may make. It wakens its interest and it develops its knowledge, it deepens in it a feeling for nature; and it will later culminate in the wakening of the faculty of communicating with nature, which is the principal thing for every soul in his spiritual development.

A soul who is not close to nature is far away from what is called spirituality. In order to be spiritual one must communicate, and especially one must communicate with nature; one must feel nature. There is so much to be learned from plant life, from birds, animals, insects, that once a child begins to take an interest in that subject, everything becomes a symbolical expression of the inner truth. If the child is deeply interested in the knowledge of nature, that shows that it has taken the first step on the path of philosophical truth.
The next thing is to acquaint the child with the customs of the country where it was born and has to live. It is the absence of this knowledge that makes people continue their old customs without knowing what they are and why they are; people go on sometimes for thousands of years following the same custom and yet not knowing the meaning of it. People in the East are very keen on their ancient customs, and very often they have followed those customs for more than a thousand years without knowing why and what is in them; they do it only because it is a custom. But it happens also in the West, where in some places there is a festival almost every day. It would be good for a child to know why such a custom exists, what is the good of it, what is the meaning of it, what we derive from it and what it suggests.

It is interesting to celebrate a fete and to be gay and joyous; but one can make merry every day and yet achieve nothing. Besides life is an opportunity and every day and every hour of life is of the greatest importance; and if one allows so much of one's time to be given to customs of the country there is no end to it.

Every generation must take a step forward in evolution, and it can do it better by understanding life better. The guardians can help the child very much by making it understand life. And the best way of educating the child is not to give one's opinion about these customs, not to say directly that this is a good or a bad custom; only to explain the psychology of it and the meaning of the custom, and let the child see for itself if it is a custom worth following or better forgotten.
The third thing one can help the child to understand is something about the people of its country; what they were and what they are, their characteristics, their inclinations and their aspirations; and let the child imagine what it would like its world to be. This also gives it an opportunity of reconstruction as the world evolves.
And the fourth thing is to acquaint the child with its own family. Very often it happens that a child knows about China and Japan, and about Egypt and Persia, having read about them, and it does not know the name of its grandfather. If it knows something about its family, its genealogy, it will be able to control life better. Maybe there are things that the child will follow, that it will adopt for its betterment; and it may be that there are things that it will correct in itself; maybe it wishes to repair some harm that was done before. In both cases the child will be able to manage its life better as it goes on.

If a soul is not interested in knowing about its own family, when it is grown-up it will not be interested in knowing about the source from whence it comes. Because this is the first point from which it can go further, until it reaches to that source, to that family, from whence it truly comes; and so in reality this is leading the child to God. For instance, a child is interested in knowing about its father, its mother, its grandfather, its grandmother, and perhaps about its great-grandfather; but where does it lead to? It only leads from the world of illusion to the source of reality. It gives the child an excuse to enquire further into life, and where it has come from; and in the end it will come to the conception of the source, which is the Source of all. And in this way it will find one day that the whole of humanity is a family, and that in the end we all meet in the same place where we have come from. When the child is grown-up it will change its whole attitude towards human beings; the narrowness will vanish, and a broad outlook will come to him of itself.
As the fifth aspect of knowledge one should give the child a little introduction to metaphysics, not much, just enough for it to know that there is a soul, that there is a mind, that there is a body; that there is a relation between the soul and the mind, and the mind and the body. For instance, if a child asks, "What is the soul?" the shortest answer will be, "Your innermost being, your invisible self, your self which is covered by your body. But that self is your real self, the body is only a covering." Very often one little idea about a metaphysical truth goes into the heart of a child like a spark of fire which slowly blazes into a flame, a flame which will guide it through its whole life.

This is the period in the life of a child when the guardian must find out the trend of its mind, and which way it will take in life. This does not mean which profession it will take or what work it will do, only one should know if the child has a literary, a mechanical, an idealistic, or a religious trend of mind. And once the guardian has understood this it is better to give the child a suitable impression. For instance, when the guardian has found out that the child has a literary trend of mind, and there is a great man lecturing in the city, it is good to take the child there. If it does not understand one word it does not matter. Let it be there, let it look at what is going on, and that impression will remain with the child for its whole life; and maybe that impression will help the child to become like the one it has seen.

At the age of ten, eleven, and twelve the child is most imitative, and if you know the bent of its mind, and if you give it an impression which it may imitate and which would be good for it to imitate, this means that you are setting it on the road which will lead to its destination. The best thing one can do in the life of a child is to give it good impressions, to show it wonderful personalities and wonderful works. Nothing in the world can help a child more than a good impression.

One might ask if one should develop only what is the child's special trend of mind. Should one not also show him another direction? Yes, but gently. And then one must see if the child has a tendency, an inclination, towards it. For instance, if a child shows more tendency to become a mechanic and if you urge it to become a violinist, in the end this will prove to be disastrous. The child will be neither a mechanic nor a violinist. It is better to watch the bent of the child's mind.

Regarding the cultivation of different qualities in the child, this can best be done with each child by teaching it to sing and play, and by giving it ear-training and rhythmic movements. If a child is inclined to sing it is best for it to sing; but if the child is not inclined to sing, but wants to play an instrument, it is best to give it an instrument to play. Which instrument is the best? This one cannot say. But an easy instrument should be given first; and afterwards, if the child wants another instrument which he likes better, then one should give it that instrument.

In the case of a girl it is better that she learns rhythmic movements; in the case of a boy it is better that he learns gymnastics. For a girl rhythmic movements serve the same purpose, and yet they do not hurt her girlish characteristics. For the boy gymnastics suffice, and these keep each in their own direction. The energy in a boy that makes him so restless and uncomfortable will be used in gymnastics, and that will bring about balance of mind.

Should every child be taught music? Yes; in the first place there is no child who is not inclined towards music; it is the grown-up who becomes disinclined towards music.

There is an Arabian story that when God commanded the soul to enter the body of clay He had made, the first body of man, the soul refused to enter it. The soul said, "I am free to move about in any sphere I like, and I have the limitless strength and power I derive from Thee; I do not want to enter into this body of clay. To me it looks like a prison." Then God asked the angels to play on their harps; and the soul on hearing this music began to dance and went into ecstasy. It entered the body unknowingly and was caught in this prison.

Therefore no soul comes on earth without a feeling for music. It is only when souls have become dense after having come to the earth that they lose that feeling. But when someone has lost interest in music one should know that that person is not living; there is something that was living in that person that is now dead.

It is not necessary for every child to be brought up to be a musician, but elementary teaching of music is necessary for every child. It will help it in every walk of life. Whatever it may do a musical training will help it. And therefore musical training must not be considered as a branch or as one part of education but as the foundation for the child's whole life.