The great use of older children is to provide attainable ambitions. A child will make tremendous efforts to be thought worthy of joining in an older child’s game. The older child behaves in an off-hand natural way, without the consideration and make-believe which is bound to form part of a grown-up person’s games with children.
Source: On Education, especially in early childhood, 1926, Pt. 2： Education of character, r, chap. 10: Importance of Other Children
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