At a family gathering in N.Y. last week, I was talking with some cousins I hadn’t seen in some time and the subject of reading came up. Predictably, the educated males preferred a non fiction genre, while the females preferred fiction. A discussion ensued about the pros and cons of each genre. The males found value in the clear, concise information being delivered and the females found most (not all) non fiction to be dry but valuable however not something they preferred. Their preference was for a story line that examines the information presented in light of the human experience.
Early Childhood Education is like fiction. We take the basic facts and put them together to build something greater then its parts (Gestalt). When we take pieces of tissue paper and glue them onto a piece of wax paper, we can predict that they will stick, because a property of glue is to make things stick. What we can’t predict is the way we will feel when we place that piece of wax paper up to the sunlight and a rainbow of colors fills our vision. That’s fiction.
If I haven’t lost you yet, try this. Fiction is applied non fiction and Early Childhood Education is applied learning. Ergo, Early Childhood Education is like fiction.
In the Early Childhood classroom, we are all about the nuance. Children must be able to read each others body language, facial expression, and physical space (non fiction skills) and apply that information to similar situations in order to engage in effective play. The assimilation, interpretation, and the application of this information to creative play is the stuff fiction is made of. In a good fiction story, the characters share common experiences with the reader and present them with a different twist; perhaps even an “aha moment”. In Early Childhood settings we too are searching for the “aha moment” when the children realize something they have never understood before.
Though this is not a scientific study, I am comfortable in assuming that our reading preferences (male & female) may also be a good indicator of our career choices. Our reading preferences might be the reason females dominate the early grades of education (Pre-K-6), where the education is applied, and the males tend to dominate the latter (H.S. and beyond), where education tends to be more theory.
Have you read any good books lately?
Peace & Light,
Grace
Comments on: "Early Childhood Education is like a good fiction novel." (1)
Well Said! You taught me a Very Important lesson long ago: Read to my children & when they learn to read, let them!
Captain C.B. Sully Sullenberger, Captain Hook or Captain Underpants….. Silly, sad, inspiring – life is all those things – our fictional daydreams and our non fictional desires, people skills and thought processes can be enhanced with a good book.
Thank you for teaching by example!