Einstein, Fairy Tales, and Curiosity

SOURCE:  "Einstein's Advice on How to Your Child's Intelligence is Totally Unexpected"  by Jessica Stillman. https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/einstein-advice-how-maximize-child-intelligence-not-what-you-would-expect.html

KEYWORDS: Education, Discipleship, Instruction, Growth, Teaching,

"It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry," Einstein once wrote.

Einstein clearly didn't think discipline, obedience, and long hours of cramming were the key to developing a mind to its fullest potential. So what did he recommend? The surprising answer is fairy tales.     

Einstein to parents: Read more fairy tales to your kids.

Einstein's advice to parents looking to develop their kids' intellectual potential comes to us via a 1958 article in Montana Libraries in which the author, one Rita McDonald, recounts a story she heard about the great physicist. The Library of Congress dug up the old publication for its blog. It reads:

In Denver I heard a story about a woman who was friendly with the late Dr. Einstein, surely acknowledged as an outstanding "pure" scientist. She wanted her child to become a scientist, too, and asked Dr. Einstein for his suggestions for the kind of reading the child might do in his school years to prepare him for this career. To her surprise Dr. Einstein recommended "fairy tales and more fairy tales." The mother protested this frivolity and asked for a serious answer, but Dr. Einstein persisted, adding that creative imagination is the essential element in the intellectual equipment of the true scientist, and that fairy tales are the childhood stimulus of this quality!

But one thing is for sure: The advice lines up with many of Einstein's other comments on encouraging free thinking, intelligence, and happiness in kids. It's also backed by plenty of modern science.  

Einstein wasn't a fan of memorization and discipline.

In many of his personal communications about education, Einstein stressed the importance of self-directed exploration, joy, and humanity rather than brute force memorization and deference to authority.

"In comparing it with six years schooling at an authoritarian German Gymnasium, I was made acutely aware how far superior an education that stresses independent action and personal responsibility is to one that relies on drill, external authority and ambition," Einstein wrote one child in a letter highlighted by The Marginalian.

In another letter to his own young son who was studying piano, Einstein advised him, "mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don't notice that the time passes."

Clearly, the genius thought the way to maximize your intellectual potential ran through self-directed learning and honoring your own interests and independent thought.   

This is your child's brain on fairy tales.

Fairy tales, modern experts say, are the perfect way to help children think through the world, its challenges, and their hopes and fears in the creative and independent way recommended by Einstein. 

Traditional stories of passive princesses and rescuing knights do have downsides. They can promote sexist stereotypes and often fail to represent the full spectrum of kids and their experiences. But there are plenty of more inclusive options, and, according to a PsychCentral rundown of recent research on their benefits, fairy tales help kids develop their creativity, think through conflicts, and cope with difficult situations.

Fairy tales have other benefits too. Humans are storytelling creatures, and neuroscience has shown that when we read a story our brains actually mimic the situations of the characters we're following -- a stressful moment in the story will cause the release of stress hormones in the brain, for instance. Which may be why other studies show quality literature and even TV shows help boost empathy and EQ. It's not a stretch to think fairy tales function similarly for kids.

Research has even linked more early reading with better later performance in math and tech. The more books a family has in the home, the better their kids do on average in academic subjects, even controlling for the parents' wealth and education.

Finally, children generally enjoy tales of magic and wonder, and a boatload of science shows that happiness makes us learn faster and remember more.

Put that together, and what do you get? A compelling case that fairy tales help young people develop empathy, critical thinking, and creativity. Which means Einstein was probably right when he said if you want to maximize your kid's intellectual potential, you should probably read them more fairy tales.