“Let me give you an example, my friend.  If you want to lead a young person onto the right educational path, you will make sure not to disturb his naively trusting, direct and personal relationship to nature.  Forest and stone, the storm, the vulture, the single flower, butterfly and meadow and mountainside must speak to him in their own tongue—he must be able to see himself in them as though in countless mirrors and reflections, in a colorful whirlpool of ever changing appearances, and he will unconsciously feel the metaphysical oneness of all things in the great symbol of Nature, while also drawing peace from its eternal perseverance and necessity.  But how many young people can be permitted to grow up like this, so close to nature, in an almost personal relationship with it?  Most must learn a different truth, and learn it early: how to place nature under their yoke.  The naïve metaphysics comes to an end; botany, zoology, geology, and inorganic chemistry force an entirely different view of nature onto young men.  What is lost as a result of this compulsory new view is not some poetical phantasmagoria but the one true, instinctive understanding of nature; what takes its place is clever calculation and the drive to outwit and defeat nature. Only the truly educated person is granted the priceless treasure of being allowed to remain faithful to the one contemplative instincts of his childhood, and so he attains a peace, unity, communion, and harmony that those raised for the struggle for survival cannot even dream of.”

-         Nietzsche "On the Future of Our Educational Institutions" presently in print in English as "Anti-Education" (p.56)

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