Quote

Children…try to use fantasy to make sense out of reality, make a mental model of reality that works. Because they have so little experience, this is hard to do. They are like someone trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with only 10 percent of the pieces-they have to invent imaginary pieces to fill in all the gaps. We adults don’t like to do this. If we can’t be sure we have all or nearly all the pieces, then we won’t work on the puzzle. But little children can’t wait till they have all the pieces, that is, all the information and experience they need to make a coherent and sensible model of reality. They have to make some kind of sense of it right now. Their fantasy grows out of reality, connects to reality, reaches out to further reality.

Quote ID: 00486

Author

John Holt

Source

How Children Learn

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