Pressured by exams and premature academic demands, surrounded by screens and technology, children today face huge challenges. Childhood itself, it could be said, is facing a crisis. Are children in danger of losing their natural imaginative faculties, which are the source of all creative activity in later life? As a society, are we in danger of losing childhood altogether?

First published in 1940, Harwood's little book has become a classic introduction to the perennial themes of child development and growth, as well as the basic principles of Steiner/Waldorf education. Harwood...