It is important to the
well-being of our children for us to understand the difference between fantasy,
imagination and creativity. Our confusion of these abilities can be detrimental
to their progress: Fantasy: a retreat from the real world through mental
conception of unreal images Imagination: a way of mentally visualizing what one
has learned of reality Creativity: imagined (real) facts are presented in an
original way The exercise of a child’s imagination, expressed in role playing
(such as playing house or store or imitating fixing a car) is part of the
child’s desire to understand these activities. Once this desire is satisfied
(i.e. she really understands how), the role playing will stop. Therefore if you
observe your child role playing a situation, you can help by teaching him as
much as possible on that subject. Everything your child imagines, he perceives
first through the senses; so the better able he is to use his senses, the more
he can learn and the greater his imagination. Any activity which helps him
increase his discernment by sound, sight, taste, smell or touch enlarges his
store of understanding and gives him a greater scope for imagination. This,
then, provides the basis for his reorganizing these facts and reproducing them
creatively. No one can be truly creative without a basis of facts to organize
in a creative way. Piano playing may provide us with an example. A child may
sit at a piano and pretend to play good music (role playing). He is given
lessons. At first he imitates, then, when he knows enough, he can reorganize
what he has learned in an original way and create new music. Fantasy, on the
other hand is withdrawal from reality and should not be encouraged. Children
between about two and five have an intense curiosity and need to understand the
world. They spend a great deal of time trying to sort out fact and fiction, and
we should be careful not to confuse them. A child who doesn’t like what she
learns of reality will retreat into fantasy. This should be a signal to her
guardians that reality needs to become more attractive to her, so she won’t
feel the need to escape. As Maria Montessori said, The teacher who tries to
focus the child’s attention on something real – by making reality accessible
and attractive…speaks with the voice of a trumpet to the vague mind, wandering
far from the pathway of its own good. A child who spends a lot of time with
cartoon fantasies or screen creations may have trouble distinguishing which of
his activities are real and which are not, and he may begin to lose his
attraction for reality. A child with a diet of corresponding TV shows and video
games may also have trouble keeping his imagination in the real world. Such
children, when they first come to school, often do a lot of wandering and have
trouble focusing on the classroom materials. During this time they learn less,
so their imaginations are ill-equipped for creativity because it has a more
limited base on which to build. Eventually most are turned on by the classroom materials.
And as much as we hate to admit it, and much as we would like to preserve their
illusions, for those who celebrate such occasions, teaching our children that
Santa Claus, Elf, the Easter Bunny or witches, dragons and fairies are real,
hinders their ability to discern reality and confuses their respect for us.
They may all be presented as “stories” and lessons may be learned from them,
but we should respect our little ones enough to tell them the truth. After the
age of about six, when the child’s concept of reality is clearer, fantastic
tales can be enjoyed without fear of confusion, as long as they are
well-balanced with stories that help them to understand the real world. (Don’t
worry! We’re not going to tell your children there is no Santa Claus. But we
would encourage you to play down the fantasy, and to enjoy Santa as a
make-believe figure who could teach us about the spirit of Christmas.)
