The healthy adolescent boy or girl likes to do the real things in life,to do the things that matter. He would rather be a plumber's mate and do a real job that requires doing than learn about hydrostatics(流体静力学)sitting at a desk, without understanding what practical use they are going to be. A girl would rather look after the baby than learn about child care. Logically we should learn about things before doing them and that is probably why the experts enforce this in our educational system.But it is not the natural way---nor, in my view, the best way. The adolescent wants to do things first for only then does the appreciate the problems involved and want to learn more about them.

    They do these things better in primitive life,for there at puberty(青春期) the boy joins his father in making canoes,patching huts,going out fishing or hunting.He is serving his apprenticeship in the actual accomplishments of life.It is not surprising that anthropologists(人类学家) find that the adolescents of primitive communities do not suffer from the same neurotic(神经质的) “difficulties” as those of civilized life.This is not,as some assume,because they are permitted more sexual freedom,but because they are given more natural outlets for their native interests and powers and are allowed to grow up freely into a full life of responsibility in the community.

    In the 19th century this was recognized in the apprenticeship system,which allowed the boy to go out with the master carpenter,or ploughman,to engage in the actual work of carpentry or roof-mending,and so to learn his trade.In some agricultural colleges at the present time young men have to do a year's work on a farm before their theoretical training at college.The great advantage of this system is that it lets the apprentice see the practical problems before he sets to work learning how to solve them,and he can therefore take a more intelligent interest in his theoretical work.

    Since more knowledge of more things is now required in order to cope with the adult world, the period of growing-up to independence takes much longer than it did in more primitive community,and the responsibility for such education,which formerly was in the hands of the parents,is now necessarily undertaken by experts at school. But that should not make us lose sight of the basic principle, namely the need and the desire of the adolescent to engage responsibly in the real pursuits of life and then to learn how—to learn through responsibility, not to learn before responsibility.