"The authors believe wholeheartedly in the child-centered school, but only if that term is properly understood. The child is necessarily the center of the school's activity, for everything that the school undertakes, every activity in which it engages, has for its immediate object the doing of something (to or) for the child; nor can the school afford to forget, in any of its planning, what the child needs to achieve and what the child is capable of achieving. The school should be child-centered in the sense that it accepts child growth as something to be sought in everything that it does.  But this growth need not be undirected; rather it should be planned by those whose broad experience has given them a vision of the heights to which children can rise when guided wisely and lovingly.  This direction is something which children need, something that they desire, and something that they willingly accept if nothing has ever occurred to destroy their confidence."  - Voyages in English 1951 (preface)