Imaginary Land

Updated on: Monday, November 16, 2009

IT is often claimed that fantasy tales interfere with a child’s scientific temperament. Based on such claims,parents often try to bring up their children on a strict diet of realistic stories. But few people are aware of the fact that fantasy tales actually help children acquire a scientific outlook.

Come to think of it, scientists themselves grow up with fantasy tales. Einstein is often quoted to have said that when he examined himself and his methods of thought, he came to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy meant more to him than his talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

What is important to understand is that there is no single and predetermined path that leads to a scientific temperament. Instead, there are several paths, which mingle, overlap, merge and separate to lead one to a scientific zone.

Fantasy tales, in fact, are known to help the brain anatomy by stimulating our neurons. Children exposed to fantasy tales have been shown to develop more neural connections and healthier neurons in the hippocampus region of the brain.

When one approaches science as a way of thinking, one realises how important it is to expose children to fantasy where their minds are free to roam around. In fact, when certain facts of life are incomprehensible, it is an imaginary land that helps one continue with the journey. It helps one move back and forth and equips one to be prepared for any situational frame in life. This is why the mind is able to attain a degree of flexibility that comes handy when one is involved in innovation or invention later in life.

An inventor can only invent when one s/he can see the connection between apparently unconnected things. Inventing a plough, an aeroplane, a new dish, a new way of looking at old things, creating verses, paintings — everything is rooted in a mind that is ready to accept new things and integrate it with the old.

From the reality of the fantasy world to the fantasy of the real world — finally one enters the world of reality. This is the stage when one comprehends elements of fantasy as ‘uneal.’ Initially, there is a tug of war between fantasy and reality before reality grabs one by sheer force. For, reality is stranger — millions of monarchs (butterflies) travel from Canada to Mexico every year, cows have 35,000 taste buds as compared to a human being’s 3,000, the humming bird beats its wings at an average of about 55 strokes a second.

So a world gradually opens up where reality is ridden with elements of fantasy. And as children grow older, they feel inspired and charged to explore the unknown. Finally, wonder and imagination are the backbones of scientific temper. As Carl Sagan said, "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Timesofindia

Imaginary Land

More Education news