The sure way to activate your children’s imagination is by, telling them stories! Translated…
A lot of parents would tell the stories to their young. As we read along, “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who’s the prettiest of them all?”, don’t know if that magic mirror, other than reflecting on the external appearance of the adults, or is it, a reflection of what’s on the inside of the storytellers.
The stories we tell to our young, are actually the kind of world we want to lead our children into; but as the stories are finished, it’s actually the children who are, constructing a world of their own, imagination; to the point, that it would, give them, the wrong ideas of life. So, do NOT take lightly, the power of the stories, more importantly, the parents must, adjust their own expectations as they read along with their young; because what these stories will affect, are the lives not our own, but our futures’ lives.
I’d often gotten defeated by young Lo’s self-righteousness that’s way out there, and I was, also, often, left in awe at how could he have come up with that? If I had, gotten, caught up in the adults’ mindset of “I read you listen”, this one way transmission of tales, instead of realizing that it’s an interaction that’s more important which I was sharing with my young, then, I would, never fully, appreciate, the qualities of the future generations.
As school started, the widely discussed illustrated book advocated by the Department of Education, “The Two Kings”, is a great example. In this multivariate world, the illustrated volume transmitted the values of same-sex equality, that it wasn’t, something shocking that’s, too new to the world at all…………
And so, I wanted to call upon the translator of the book, Wei-Yun Lin, she is also the mother of two young boys, and, her recently completed book, “The Arabian Nights for Adults and Children”. I want her to come and share, that in the mirror in the story, how can the parents and children both understand themselves more, as well as, each other too, to confirm, that it’s the children that are growing up, along with this future our children are set to face, maybe, it can, help us identify our place as companions of our own young, guiding them toward the right directions, to support them in their, dreams!
Recently, as I read to my youngest, there were the cut out pages of the book, and, as we turned the page, the pictures would become, completely, unrelated to the previous page’s story. Like for instance, there was a piece of pizza on the left, with the line, “Are you seeing a slice of pizza” underneath; with the right side of the page, a hole with a cat in it, the line, “Do you see the cat?”, and as the pages are turned, you’d find, “oh, I am looking at a leopard”.
I’d originally thought that my youngest would use the standardized replies, and answered me, “Leopard!”, but his replies were, “the cat’s pizza (supposedly, he’s stating that it was a piece of pizza shaped like a cat!),” as I thought on it, why not? Maybe, that’s, even, more, logical. The same situations happened on the other volumes. As I read to him, “Mimi on the Toilets”, wanting to encourage him to get potty trained, and he saw the toilet in the book, and stated, “Electric toilet!”, and as I thought after I’d read “Mimi Picked Up Her Toys”, he’d be more likely to pick up the toys he’d played with, but, he’d pointed to the toy in the book, “I want to play with this!”, and reached into the book, because he thought he could, actually, pull the toy out from the book.
The parents often wanted to “teach” children using the illustrated books, felt that explanations are needed as they read along to their young, otherwise, the children couldn’t understand. Actually, learning from the kids, finding that brand new angle of seeing things from the kids’ perspectives, hearing out how our own children interpret the storylines, it’s, equally, important. Listening made me understand my kids better, and, a lot of the things that my children tell me are very interesting, so full of imagination, such great stories. As I play that game of what happened next in the story with my older son, I was often surprised by his imagination, this was, something that his mother, a writer, never even, thought up of.
But, although, I’d, admired my eldest son’s imagination, however, this is not a quality that’s, encouraged by the schools. Sometimes, the sentences my son made, was considered too “incorrect”, too “incomplete” by his teachers, and the teachers demanded him to rewrite the sentences, and he’d, felt, defeated, and in the end, my son felt defeated, and stopped wanting to come up with the original sentences anymore, instead, he’d found the already written sentences online, and switched out some of the words. One day I told him that this wasn’t, acceptable, you need to think about it yourself, like, “at first………then, slowly…….”, how would you make a sentence from that? He’d immediately told me, “he first died, then, came back to life again.” And started laughing at his own sentence.
I’d told him it was, amazing! Do you know there’s a novel called, “Body Temperatures”? it’s about the zombies falling in love, and, returned back to living again, it was made into a film, “Warm Bodies”. Just write it like that, and tell your teacher about that movie and that novel. Then he’d told me no way, that he will get rejected, and, if his assignment was returned, then he’d have to, do it again. So, he’d thought for a long, long time, and in the end, he’d come up with a sentence relating to video games.
The schools wanted the students to articulate their thoughts, so they’d, done away with those sentences that emphasized the imagination. Hoping that the students can focus more on sentence structure, and set up the rules. Wanting the students to learn to use the idioms, the phrases, thus came, the sentence structure assignments. Wanted the students to write more, and, came up with assignments like journals, book reports, etc., etc., etc. All of these were assigned with the good intentions, but, if it’s too structured, then, it would cause the complete opposite effects, that the kids would be too afraid of failing or not fitting to what’s standard as the replies, and not wanting to learn anymore, to not express themselves freely.
Toward the systematic, the bit rigid methods of education, what can the parents do? I think, all we can do, is to just, be there for our children. Even, do nothing, and just, wait patiently with your young, and hold back on saying, “This is too easy”, “How can you not manage something so simple as this!” “Just put down whatever!” We need to wait, that way, the children will, come out, with their own, voices.
So, I’d used the example of “The boy in a skirt” as an example, that being different will make you feel pressured, but we can, use our own strengths, the help from others, to dissolve this stress. I’d mentioned the storyline of “Laboratory of Lucy 1: Crazy Science Powder”, told him, “look, Lucy wanted to protect the trees in school, but she can’t just say that she wanted it that way, she’d had to, work very hard, to change, she also need to work hard, to convince others to see her point of view………so, being able to communicate, to express your self is, very important, that way, you can change the world. The Guandu Nature Park was built, and the various parks all around Taiwan had been built in the cities, it’s all because of a group of people who are dissatisfied with the way life was, and voiced it out loud, and changed the environment for the better.”
Telling stories, making up stories, conversations, we talk of reality, of future. The children would tell me what they wanted to do in their futures, for instance, “if there will be robots doing all the jobs, what would the world be like? If as you entered from the front gates of the school, you automatically get teleported to your classrooms what would happen then?”, I’d told them, “I think it would be nice!”, then, discussed with my children, if these imaginations are, applicable or not. Would it cause new problems? For instance, if we use robots to do all the work, a lot of people would become unemployed, then, the considerations of a basic level of earning would need to get considered. Teleportation would be too difficult, maybe, the transportation belts or the machines that fly would be, more practical………
For me, this is no longer, daydreaming with my children. A lot of people forget, that stories, are an alternative sort of reality, or rather, a possibility of the reality. The reality is a story itself, that the imagination came up with, with imagination, then, it can happen. There’s the borderless to the children’s imaginations, and reality is, limited, I want to use the stories, the conversations, to break the borders of our, limited, reality a bit.
And so, this showed, how with the world changing so very fast, the reading materials for the children are also, changing, growing, and, reading is just one of many ways you can, teach your children the values they will always remember, that they will, carry with them for the rest of their lives, like these two mothers are doing, telling stories to their young children, allowing the children to ask questions, to come up with the never-imagined, never-thought of storylines of their own.