Children have immense wisdom. Unfortunately, we as parents, teachers etc. do not always take time to listen and explore what they have to say with care. In the hectic society we live in this often goes unrecognised and we as adults miss out on the opportunities to understand and explore closer what our children have to say.
One of my favourite children’s books is the classic “The Little Prince” by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. The little prince shows adults pictures of a boa constrictor who swallowed an elephant.
He comments on how adults misperceived his picture where he drew the shape of the boa constrictor from an angle which required adults to apply their imagination; at the very least to explore and understand the picture of the little prince by asking relevant questions about his interpretation of his picture.
The little prince writes that “The grown-ups advised me to put away my drawings of boa constrictors, outside or inside, and apply myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. This is why I abandoned, at the age of six, a magnificent career as an artist… grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to provide explanations over and over again.”
