Fantasy and the Imagination posted on June 22, 2011 by Karissa Lightsmith The imagination is based in our real

images of the world and its characteristics. At first concepts, like color, are dependent on a physical object being in front of us. However, the work of the young child is to organize the impressions he / she takes in, so she / he can recall a concept, like blue, solely in the mind. Once these images are organized in our minds, we are able to rearrange them into any creation we can dream up. In essence, the young child is creating the base for his / her imagination through his /her interactions and discoveries in the real world. The Difference between Fantasy and Imagination-Imagination and fantasy both refer to images held purely in the mind. Imagination is the name for the endless possibilities that humans dream up by mixing the abstractions they have put into their minds. These abstractions are creating when we are young children through our experiences with real objects in the world. Fantasy is images that are not connected to the concrete world. Often these images can be confusing to the young child, because the childs brain does not yet discriminate and takes in all images as true facts. Montessori schools are concerned with providing the child with opportunities to explore the concrete world around him / her and then helping the child classify his / her perceptions of that world. They leave fantasy stories to be the decision of each family, instead of including them in the general classroom. Children Choosing-Montessori learned from young children that they preferred stories and experiences that were based in the sensorial world around them. She said that she would try reading fairy tales to the younger children, but they would get up and walk away. She saw over and over again that it is the real world that mesmerizes the young child and it is his / her work to discover it and internally organize those discoveries.

Different Developmental Needs-Maria Montessori saw that while young children preferred concrete stories and experiences, this was not true for older children. Older children loved fairy tales and myths, because these stories deal with fairness, justice, and society. It is the developmental work of the older child to mentally wrestle with those abstract concepts. In Montessori schools, fairy tales are used with the elementary and adolescent children, where they are found to match the stage of occurring development.

Common Misconceptions-In a Montessori classroom that is following in the tradition of Maria Montessori, the family traditions of each child always be respected. Never will a Montessori guide tell a child that he / she is wrong or discourage him / her from imaginative play. In Montessori, real items are used to support imaginative play. For example, if children want to have a tea party, they may choose a real tea pot with real tea from the shelf. The guide may use the childs interests, fantasy or otherwise, to connect the child to the activities in the environment, ex. I know you really like talking about dragons, Laura. I have some cards here with animals that all have dragon in their names. Would you like me to show them

Fairy Tales - yes or no??

This post is going to directly come from an amazing workshop that I have been on over the last three mornings. Actually led by a Waldorfian rather than a Montessorian, and fascinating. It strictly relates to the re-telling of fairy tales to children. In my hazy recollection, there is some controversy as to whether or not Montessori was for or against the reading of fairy tales to children. Those in the "against" court argue that they go against the grain of belief that life should be for real, not wrapped up in talking animals and good and evil. Those in the "for" court argue that they convey a very real life message in their stories and that legend and folklore are all based on and wrapped up in fairy tales, our history is intrinsically linked. Add to that, the fact that the true original fairy tales are not the ones we know today, are NOT those of Disney and adaptations on a theme of a theme AND that places like Barnes and Noble no longer stock Grimms tales in many shops as they are deemed "not politically correct" you may be easily of the opinion that perhaps they should be left alone, after all, what is the point?Up to today, I was more of the vein that there was no real need for them, they seem cruel and stereotypical and send out the message that life is full of goodies and baddies and that girls are all princesses and boys either bad men or princes. This wasn't the message I wanted to give to the children, so have avoided them to a greater extent. Today my mind has been entirely changed. Not only do I realise that I was incorrect in my own jaded adult and very literal interpretations of them, but I am doing my children a disservice by omitting them from their lives. Children do not take these stories as literal but much more archetypically which is exactly the way they are meant to be taken. Read in their original form and appropriately aged (NOT censored!) they emit a very potent message, that life is a journey, that we encounter good and evil in a variety of forms and that when the right paths are chosen on our journies, good will overthrow evil and justice will prevail. Yes, the "baddies" meet their ends, gruesome or not, but in the case of most of these, the end comes around by self infliction. Take for example the wolf in the original version of Little Red Cap - She fills his belly with stones, but she doesn't kill him, the stones are too heavy so when he gets up, he falls down dead. The stones........getting whhhhaaaay deep now, actually represent the materialism in life that tempts us (or Little Red Cap in this instance) when we are on our journies through life. In LRC's case, the wolf opened her mind to be tempted by the flowers (greed) and he, himself, was overcome with greed to not just eat the grandmother but to also eat LRC. At the end, the wolf is destroyed by his very own materialistic greed - the stones, the densest natural material on the earth. Of course, for a seven year old, this is not what they are thinking and nor should it be explained to them thus. The guidelines we were left with was that a.We should read them ourselves, and find our own fairy tale. b.We should chose age appropriate ones; ie: the more challenges and conflicts, then the older the audience c. We should not censor the end for something less gruesome. If you need to censor the end for your child, the fairy tale is not yet appropriate. Also look at it this way - if the wolf lives and runs off - where is he now? Is he hiding in the real world??

d. Read them during the day NOT before bed. Children process these stories better when they have just come from the spiritual state of sleep rather than before they go to it. e. Learn them and read them unscripted, detail IS important to the stories however, so make sure you have read them and understand the significance of the detail. It is hard to find a good book of Fairy Tales, I have just ordered the one at the top of this page which is published by The Pantheon Fairytale and Folklore Library and can be found at Bob and Nancy's Books I am thoroughly looking forward to reading, digesting, dissecting and then re-telling these tales to my b Nice blog! Just thought I'd share what I have learned in my Montessori training and in my experience working with 3-6 year olds regarding fantasy. Montessori makes it clear that, while in the first plane, (ages 0-5 or 6,) fantasy should not be introduced to the child. The only reason is because the child cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy at this age. It is confusing for the child, at a time when she is trying to order, classify, and "make sense" of the real world in her mind. This applies to "talking animal" books (from fairy tales to Winnie the Pooh) as well as to Disney movies and Spiderman. That said, once the child has the ability to abstract and we observe in her the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy (around age 5 or 6,) Montessori is gung-ho about fairy tales and myths! In an elementary classroom, the children learn about many creation myths, read fairy tales, and are encouraged to use their own imaginations to write stories, put on theater productions, and come up with scientific questions, etc. Myths and fairy tales ARE an important part of our culture, as humans use them to illustrate moral dilemmas and to encourage critical thinking in children. Keep up the good work!

The Beehive said... Thanks for that Meg, great to hear the perspective from a trained Montessorian. I think it rings pretty true with what she was saying to us on the course, that many of the fairy tales are actually pretty advanced for children under 7 and if you do choose them for the under 7 age group it is important to be really extremely selective ensuring that the tales do not bring up too many conflicts or different characters. What you have said makes sense and up to now I have steered away from these kinds of books. I think we will commence with some fairy tales with our eldest (7) and save them for a while longer for the younger two. Caroline in Rome said...

Wanted to say exactly what Meg Mcelwee already said. The idea is not to ban fantasy altogether but to save it for when the child is old enough to understand the difference between reality and fantasy. I have enough things on my mind without having to worry about my 3-year old waking up in the night because

the big bad wolf is going to get her, thank you very much. In any event, most children's fantasy stories were written for children older than age five. We have a book of French fairy tales, published in the early part of the 20th century - written at maybe 6 or 7 year old level and we plan on the Frenchman reading them to the Bambina when she is around that age, not sooner. The House at Pooh Corner was written for 8 year old children. It was Disney who decided to make Winnie the Pooh ubiquitous, such that it has to go on the wallpaper of your baby's room. Wanted also to add that true Waldorf teachers are also against fantasy when it has been commercialized or when the images prevent the child from using her imagination. A child who has seen the Disney version of Cinderella is much more likely, when asked to draw a picture of Cinderella, to draw the Disney version rather than her own version. A child who only knows Mickey Mouse will draw Mickey rather than his own version of a mouse. You get the idea.
Montessori feels fairy tales tend to confuse the children, moreover such tales hinder them in the process of adjusting to the real world, she therefore eliminates fairy tales from the curriculum prescribed to the young children