Rob Stroud, in his latest post "Education and the Human Mind," on Mere Inkling Press, discusses C.S. Lewis' views on the two distinct challenges of education. These are, in Robert McKenzie's words,
"'Cutting down jungles,' … means helping students with passionate convictions to evaluate critically their world views, to examine what lies beneath the personal beliefs they profess.
"'Irrigating deserts,' conversely, involves nurturing in apathetic or cynical students the hope that there is meaning and purpose in human existence."
I've noticed that my daughter Kitty (age 7) often manages to be apathetic and passionate at the same time– albeit about different things. Although I don't believe in cutting down physical jungles, I am passionate about exploring, untangling and charting mental and emotional tangles. And, while irrigation of physical deserts has some serious drawbacks, there are other more innovative and successful ways to bring water and life back to the desert. My job is to plant seeds that I hope will someday grow and bloom, and to help Kitty nurture those that resonate with her.
I gave Kitty a set of six "pop tubes" the other morning. These are plastic, expandable, bendable, bright little tubes that you can fasten together. Also, apparently, you can make them whistle, shape them into hearts or jump ropes, build tunnels for imaginary hamsters, create a game of ring toss, use them as spy glasses, wear them as necklaces, and build many other things with them. It was nonstop fun for Kitty. She played happily for hours.
In fact, I've never before seen this amount of joyous creativity in Kitty (usually she just comes up with some kind of boundary crossing type of creativity: "But it would be awesome to pee through it, hit someone with it, shove down your pants…" and then she can't let go of the idea). Her playing happily and creatively with a novel toy was a wonderful step forward and gave me hope that Kitty will create her own unique "mind garden" over time.
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