What we mean by upbringing and education depends on what we mean by
human being, by reality and by life. Do we place our emphasis on
survival, on being 'good citizens' and independent adults or are we
interested in the communal life, in ethical personality and creative
maturity. The gap between these two can widen at times. Human beings
feel responsible for all children in their community, not only for their
own. We realize that what we do for children we do for ourselves too,
since our own ongoing maturity depends on it. The upbringing of children
therefore implies first and foremost the setting of examples of
maturity, while education is what we mean by any and every effort to
withdraw any child from the effects of bad upbringing and from
mis-education. Special attention is paid to the 'abnormal' child, the
'autistic child', with the emphasis on abnormality as a blessing for the
parent who is lost in an unreal, categoric 'norm'.
