The school is only preparation for the home

Just now there is a tendency to forget that the school is only a preparation for the home, and not the home a mere jumping off place for the school.  (Fn1.)  The human house is a paradox for it is larger inside than out.  (Fn2.)

So, Chesterton observes, most modern people want to leave the larger, harder domestic mission for the smaller, easier commercial one.  They would rather be in the work-a-day world serving the minor needs of thousands than in the domestic world serving all the major needs of a few.  Better to teach trigonometry to a hundred than wrestle with the whole human character of one. (Fn3.)

[Anyone] who makes himself responsible for one small baby, as a whole, will soon find that he is wrestling with gigantic angels and demons.  (Fn4.)

Footnotes

1. G.K. Chesterton, “The Best Toy in the World”, Merry-Go-Round, June 1924, quoted in Common Sense 101, p. 103.

2. Chesterton, Fancies Versus Fads, quoted in Common Sense 101, p. 106.

3. Ibid.

4.  Ibid., p. 107.