Fairy tales, though perfectly ordinary subject-matter, may become the
means of the greatest end in education, the development in the child
of the power of consciousness. The special appeal to the various
powers and capacities of the child mind, such as emotion, imagination,
memory, and reason, here have been viewed separately. But in life
action the mind is a unit. Thinking is therefore best developed
through subject-matter which focuses the various powers of the child.
The one element which makes the child manipulate his emotion,
imagination, memory, and reason, is the presence of a problem. The
problem is the best chance for the child to secure the adjustment of
means to ends. This adjustment of means to ends in a problem
situation, is real thinking and is the use of the highest power of
which man is capable, that of functional consciousness. The real need
of doing things is the best element essential to the problem. Through
a problem which expresses such a genuine need, to learn to know
himself, to realize his capacities and his limitations, and to secure
for himself the evolution of his own character until it adapts, not
itself to its environment, but its environment to its own uses and
masters circumstances for its own purposes--this is the high hill to
which education must look, "from which cometh its strength." The
little child, in listening to a fairy tale, in seeing in it a problem
of real need, and in working it out, may win some of this strength. We
have previously seen that fairy tales, because of their universal
elements, are subject-matter rich in possible problems.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account