Monday, April 16, 2012

Why fairy tales make you smart


"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

The above quote, which I've referenced before, comes from none other than Albert Einstein. And though the title of this post was meant to be slightly humorous and not to literally apply to all situations, I think there's something in what he said. He elaborates below:

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking."

When children are young, they are what we call concrete thinkers. This means that they understand things based on concrete objects they can see, and not abstract concepts. As a special ed teacher, many of my students are stuck in the concrete thinking stage. They probably interpret phrases literally and will be confused at puns or words with double meaning. For example, using a phrase like "looks like the cat's out of the bag" is something adults may use and the meaning is obvious to us, but a concrete thinker may start looking around to see where this cat is and wondering why it was in a bag in the first place.

When young children learn math, they can learn basic arithmetic by using physical objects to represent an equation. Two apples plus one apple equals three apples; children can add and subtract by counting with their fingers, and that's why our math system is in base 10. But when it comes to algebra, and the concept of a variable is introduced, that's abstract-a letter which doesn't really represent a letter, but an unknown numeric value. In order to understand algebra, one has to be able to entertain an undefined idea that can't be represented by an object or picture.

Really this is what fairy tales do, although the same argument could be made for fantasy or fiction in general. Except in rare cases, children are able to understand when they hear a story, especially one that begins in "once upon a time" and isn't intentionally presented as a true story, that it didn't actually happen. Therefore they're entertaining ideas in their heads that they know aren't physically real, or thinking abstractly, but in a basic, graspable form. Even more in fantasy and fairy tales, as children learn more about the world, they're able to take in many events in a fictional story and separate in their minds what is not true but could be true, such as Cinderella doing housework, with what is not true and couldn't possibly be true, such as a pumpkin turning into a coach. Very young or concrete thinkers may be confused by this, but an older child who is not yet an abstract thinker won't have to be specifically taught that pumpkins can't turn into coaches to know that that element of the story was magical. And yet it's fun for children-and most adults, I believe-to entertain the notion of living in a world where such a thing would be possible.
I think this is what Einstein meant. It appears to have worked for me-I devoured fantasy as a child and was always good at algebra. Although I can think of people who read lots of stories and fantasy and still didn't understand algebra, so again, it's not meant to be the newest method in math education or anything. But if Albert Einstein said it, it must be legit, right?

14 comments:

  1. Love this post. Thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, wondering what the reference for that quote is? I'd love to read more about it :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm not sure when or where Einstein said that quote-I believe I got it from Surlalune's fairy tale quotes page, http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/introduction/quotes.html, which does not reference a specific year or work. That would be interesting to read more in context, though!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very well thought and written !! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. For those really interested in where the supposed quote comes from, some interesting research was posted on http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Albert_Einstein and may not really be a quote from him as it is also listed in the disputed area: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#Disputed

    ReplyDelete
  6. How interesting! And kind of disappointing if it wasn't really Einstein who said it...

    ReplyDelete
  7. I disagree ! as mother and educator as well children have enormous imagination and can think outside of the box hence rigorously suppressed by society to think in simply strictly logical manner which is not bad however the concept of creativity is barren

    ReplyDelete
  8. So do fairy tales actually make us smarter or what?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am absolutely agree with you. Children listening the fairy tales improve their imagination, it helps to gain new knowledge. Other interesting information you can find in 1WS.

    ReplyDelete
  10. If you read to your kids fairytailes,
    instead of something other than what
    they orginated on -
    Aesop's wise parables wood be a choice,
    you're conforming'm to a world of
    shallow thinking and whorizontalness
    where the equator comes around
    again and hits'm in the ass.
    And you very well
    know what homosexual's do.

    No, dear, that aint appropriate.
    Are you too afraid
    to stand-up for Jesus?
    Let's hope2God you aint.
    Im never scared.
    I know He can N will
    at the General Judgement
    make allah those who're
    on the LEFT into dogmeat.

    trustNjesus, lil one.
    ALWAYS.
    God bless your indelible souls.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, dear, Im an NDE.
      What do I have to be
      frightened of?
      Absolutely N T H N.
      Wish moe curly people felt like I.
      Alas! Jesus sez...
      FEW SHALL ENTER SEVENTH-HEAVEN.

      God bless your indelible souls.

      Delete
    2. Yes, dear, Im an NDE.
      What do I have to be
      frightened of?
      Absolutely N T H N.
      Wish moe curly people felt like I.
      Alas! Jesus sez...
      FEW SHALL ENTER SEVENTH-HEAVEN.

      God bless your indelible souls.

      Delete
  11. If you read to your kids fairytailes,
    instead of something other than what
    they orginated on -
    Aesop's wise parables wood be a choice,
    you're conforming'm to a world of
    shallow thinking and whorizontalness
    where the equator comes around
    again and hits'm in the ass.
    And you very well
    know what homosexual's do.

    No, dear, that aint appropriate.
    Are you too afraid
    to stand-up for Jesus?
    Let's hope2God you aint.
    Im never scared.
    I know He can N will
    at the General Judgement
    make allah those who're
    on the LEFT into dogmeat.

    trustNjesus, lil one.
    ALWAYS.
    God bless your indelible souls.

    ReplyDelete
  12. really love as they are so slender and yet
    they are so awkward in a sense...they must dream of being something
    larger, like hoops, but must settle for the inbetween judi online

    ReplyDelete