Here's a little 18th century French folk song before we leave France this month. First the French, then the translation. (I'll post the melody in the comments).

Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Papa veut que je raisonne,
Comme une grande personne;
Moi, je dis que les bonbons
Valent mieux que la raison.

Ah! Let me tell you, mother,
What's the cause of my torment?
Papa wants me to reason
Like a grown-up.
Me, I say that candy has
Greater value than reason.

Art credit: Mother and Child by Leon Perrault (Wikimedia Commons)

I'm never going to get finished!! I just keep finding such great stuff. Volume 6 has a section on Education and I love this Pestalozzi quote:

"Lead your child out into nature, teach him on the hilltops and in the valleys. There he will listen better, and the sense of freedom will give him more strength to overcome difficulties. But in these hours of freedom, let him be taught by Nature rather than you. Let him fully realize that she is the real teacher, and that you, with your art, do nothing more than walk quietly at her side. Should a bird sing or an insect hum on a leaf, at once stop your talk; bird and insect are teaching him; you may be silent.

"I would say to the teacher, be thoroughly convinced of the immense value of liberty; do not let vanity make you anxious to see your efforts producing premature fruit; let your child be as free as possible, and seek diligently for every means of insuring his liberty, peace of mind and good humor.

"Teach him absolutely nothing by words that you can teach him by the things themselves; let him see for himself, hear, find out, fail, pick himself up, make mistakes; no word, in short, when action is possible. What he can do for himself, let him do it; let him always be occupied, always active; and let the time you leave him to himself represent by far the greatest part of his childhood. You will then see that nature teaches him better than men...

"When men are anxious to go too fast, and are not satisfied with nature's method of development, they imperil their inward strength, and destroy the peach and harmony of their souls...

"The schools hastily substitute an artificial method of words for the truer method of nature, which knows no hurry, and is content to wait...

"So long as there is joy in the child's face, ardor and enthusiasm in all his games, so long as happiness accompanies most of his impressions, there is nothing to fear."

Art credit: Gansefutterung by Alexander Koester (Wikimedia Commons)