Editing Leon MacLaren (section)

==Early life==
MacLaren was born in [[Glasgow]] on 24 September 1910, but from the age of four grew up in the [[London]] suburb of [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]].<ref name=":1" /> He was the son of [[Andrew MacLaren]], a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] Member of Parliament who was a staunch advocate of Henry George.<ref name="MacLaren Foundation web site">[http://www.maclarenfoundation.net/life1.htm MacLaren Foundation web site] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131223055828/http://maclarenfoundation.net/life1.htm |date=23 December 2013 }}</ref>

Schooled at [[Rutlish School]] in Wimbledon, MacLaren later became attracted to the law and trained as a [[barrister]].<ref name="Dorine2009">{{cite book |author=Dorine Tolley |title=The Power Within: Leon MacLaren, A Memoir of His Life and Work |publisher=BookSurge Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4392-1030-7}}</ref>

Maclaren said he was grateful to have inherited from his father three things: no religion, no education, and a strong desire to distrust experts.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Leon Maclaren - Memories and Tributes|last=Debenham|first=Nicholas|publisher=School of Economic Science|year=2014|location=London|pages=77}}</ref>

At the age of sixteen, MacLaren contemplated how his life could best be put to the service of mankind, a one-word answer came to his mind, the word was "School".<ref name=":0" /> Describing the experience when he was siting by a lake in Wimbledon Park when he says:<blockquote>It became very clear to me that there was such a thing as truth, and there was such a thing as justice, and that they could be found and, being found, could be taught. It seemed to me that that was the most valuable thing that one could pursue. So I resolved to pursue this when I was twenty-one.<ref name="Search of Truth" /></blockquote>Years later, in 1936, aided by his father [[Andrew MacLaren]], he began an economic study group based on the Socratic method of inquiry that became The [[School of Economic Science]].<ref name=":0" />

MacLaren believed that the practical problems of the world could best be solved by transforming the nature of human beings.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of occultism & parapsychology|date=2001|publisher=Gale Group|others=Melton, J. Gordon.|isbn=9780810385702|edition= 5th|location=Detroit|oclc=45211020}}</ref><br />