Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

education which inculcates, among other principles, a certain maleficent ideathat has become profoundly rooted in the consciousness of everybody—theidea that it is absolutely improper to speak to children about the question ofsex."Moreover, I stress the fact that this idea, considered so trifling by theirnaive Reason, and whose significance none of them grasps—regarding itsimply as a question of 'decency' or 'indecency'—is the chief cause of theirphenomenal psychic 'mechanicality.'"In the totality of fixed concepts which they call 'education,' there is even acertain section elucidating and designating exactly what is 'decent' and what is'indecent' to say to children."Toward the end of my last sojourn on the surface of your planet, I had tostudy this painful terrestrial question in great detail."So that you may know approximately what results the contemporaryeducation of children leads to, I will tell you about a certain incident whichwas the starting point of my special interest in this terrestrialmisunderstanding."This incident took place in the large community of Russia, but the story Iam going to tell you is very characteristic and gives a good general picture ofthe education of children in contemporary civilization."It is characteristic because in this large community of Russia, the'responsible' beings, especially those of the ruling class, do their utmost tobring up their children in exactly the same way as the 'responsible' beings ofthe other contemporary communities on the continents of Europe andAmerica."Before telling you about this incident that evoked in me an impulse toacquaint myself specially with the question of the terrestrial education ofchildren, I will tell you of something that occurred just prior to it, whichadmirably illus-