wrong paths both in theory and practice.  For it is incredible how much harm is done by false notions which have been implanted early in life, only to develop later on into prejudices; the later education which we get from the world and real life must be employed in eradicating these early ideas.  And this is why, as is related by Diogenes Laertius, Antisthenes gave the following answer:  [Greek:  erotaetheis ti ton mathaematon anankaiotaton, ephae, “to kaka apomathein.”] (Interrogatus quaenam esset disciplina maxime necessaria, Mala, inquit, dediscere.)

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Children should be kept from all kinds of instruction that may make errors possible until their sixteenth year, that is to say, from philosophy, religion, and general views of every description; because it is the errors that are acquired in early days that remain, as a rule, ineradicable, and because the faculty of judgment is the last to arrive at maturity.  They should only be interested in such things that make errors impossible, such as mathematics, in things which are not very dangerous, such as languages, natural science, history, and so forth; in general, the branches of knowledge which are to be taken up at any age must be within reach of the intellect at that age and perfectly comprehensible to it.  Childhood and youth are the time for collecting data and getting to know specially and thoroughly individual and particular things.  On the other hand, all judgment of a general nature must at that time be suspended, and final explanations left alone.  One should leave the faculty of judgment alone, as it only comes with maturity and experience, and also take care that one does not anticipate it by inculcating prejudice, when it will be crippled for ever.

On the contrary, the memory is to be specially exercised, as it has its greatest strength and tenacity in youth; however, what has to be retained must be chosen with the most careful and scrupulous consideration.  For as it is what we have learnt well in our youth that lasts, we should take the greatest possible advantage of this precious gift.  If we picture to ourselves how deeply engraven on our memory the people are whom we knew during the first twelve years of our life, and how indelibly imprinted are also the events of that time, and most of the things that we then experienced, heard, or learnt, the idea of basing education on this susceptibility and tenacity of the youthful mind will seem natural; in that the mind receives its impressions according to a strict method and a regular system.  But because the years of youth that are assigned to man are only few, and the capacity for remembering, in general, is always limited (and still more so the capacity for remembering of the individual), everything depends on the memory being filled with what is most essential and important in any department of knowledge, to the exclusion of everything else.  This selection should be made by the most capable minds and masters