In
a quickly changing world, the demands of the future are not easily met. This is
particularly true for education, whose task is to prepare the young of today
for the challenges of tomorrow. Leading thinkers recognize that creativity,
innovation, empathy, social dexterity and adaptability will be the defining
capacities in times to come. Central to these abilities is the imagination: the
capacity to think pictorially. The imagination allows us to think outside the
box, see the bigger picture, and establish real relationships and act in
responsible ways.
This
picture thinking has its roots in early childhood. The young child lives in
pictures. Intellectual conceptions are foreign to the child. A simple statement
such as, 'Put those blocks away now that you are not using them any more,'
dowses the child, who is still bathing in the warm picture life of childhood
imagination, in the cold water of adult conceptions.
To
point out to the child that 'the blocks left out of the basket feel alone
without their friends' will be much more readily understood. To the child,
blocks are not lifeless object. They are animated playthings ready to transform
into cars, cats, cows or sheep. An attentive parent who remembers that these
blocks were, just a minute ago, sheep on a meadow in the child's imagination
will, of course, talk of sheep wanting to return to their flock. Children
understand relationship because of their attachment to mother, father and
family. It makes immediate sense to them to return lost sheep to where they
belong.
If
we express ourselves in this way we not only speak a language the child
understands, we enter her world and relate to her on her own terms. Addressed
in this way the child is assured of our care and understanding. She will follow
our guidance not only because she fully understands that sheep need to be in
the fold, but because of the deep connectedness of which this statement is
proof. She will act out of love rather than out of duty. The same principle
applies to all communication-based professions, particularly teaching and
therapy.
Current
brain research throws additional light on this approach, particularly the
ability of the mind to change the structure of the brain (neuro-plasticity).
This happens most strongly in the 'critical period' of early childhood. Here,
adult concepts affect the brain in a very different manner from pictures which
are the natural habitat of the young child:
Intellectual concepts are clear cut, linear, one-dimensional operations
of the mind. Their very clarity necessitates the isolation that marks most
adult concepts. In contrast, pictorial thinking is multidimensional, mobile,
associative. Metaphors are like conceptual socialites communicating profusely
with their kind. Their meaning is multi- rather than one-dimensional. They are
part of the living, complex, continuously changing network we call imagination.
Modern
brain research shows that the habits of the mind become the structure of the
brain. It seems obvious that the richly layered, multidimensional contents of
childhood imaginations will produce a more interrelated brain: a physical
instrument more mobile, interconnected and better equipped for the tasks ahead.
The complex metaphors of childhood build a complex brain for which intellectual
operation are but one of many options. Reared on the intellectual diet of today
the brain cannot but become an overspecialized and hence limited structure. The
difference is similar to building a complex computer as opposed to a simple one.
The complex machine will do all that the simple one does, but the reverse is
not possible.
The
ability to communicate in pictures and metaphors is one of the most important
skills for parents, teachers and therapists. Without it many of our best
efforts will remain unrequited: we will continue to give instructions in a
language foreign to the child. Even worse: we will be speaking in a language
that makes those who hear it resent those who use it. Children want
relationship and addressing them in a language that makes them feel that this
relationship is not in place is at the core of many conflicts. They resist and
continuously rebel in order to get the attention our intellectual
communications deny them.
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