![image](belsky4e_fig06_un01b.jpg)
Exuberantly taking off on your tricycle versus listening to the teacher and making sure you have finished your homework before raising your hand in class captures the essential difference between Erikson’s initiative and industry tasks. It also shows why early childhood is a magical Garden of Eden interlude, before we enter the real world (aka concrete operations) and face the need to “work.”
Maria Sweeney/Getty Images