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Psychoanalytic understanding of the educational process forms the background of this study of 'the child's spontaneous endeavor to come nearer to adult status and standards'.
A distinction is drawn between the philosophy of progressive education ('all pressure should be removed from the young child') and the orientation of the psychoanalytic educator, who 'is lenient in order to win as his ally the full force of the child's own wish to grow up'. Too much of the child's energy is ordinarily expended in fighting the adult but overindulgence is not the only alternative to a severe suppressive educational attitude. Understanding of what the child is trying to do enables the adult to reduce progressively the external pressures on that child, and enables the educator to release the child's energies for more constructive growth and behavior.
For example, one sees the practical value of such understanding in the case of the tattler. Some children tattle out of resentment, when another child is 'getting away with' activities which have been forbidden the tattler. Another tattler may be strongly tempted to engage in some forbidden activity and his tattling means: 'I don't want to be bad like Johnny; help me to be good like you' (teacher or parent). A third motive may be found in the projection of one's own guilt on to the other fellow, with vicarious relief when the offender is punished or stopped. Still another motivation may be the child's desire to find out if the behavior in question is really bad and the tattling then represents a special way of asking a question. The child who fears temptation tattles because he fears the strength of his id; the child who tattles to gain relief from his guilt feeling is moved by his superego. If the tattling is motivated by identification with the teacher, the ego is the propelling force.