Problems For Observation And Introspection
1. Explain the cause and the remedy in the case of such errors as the
following:
Children who defined mountain as land 1,000 or more feet in height
said that the factory smokestack was higher than the mountain
because it went straight up and the mountain did not.
Children often think of the horizon as fastened to the earth.
Islands are thought of as floating
on the water.
2. How would you stimulate the imagination of a child who does not seem
to picture or make real the descriptions in reading, geography, etc.? Is
it possible that such inability may come from an insufficient basis in
observation, and hence in images?
3. Classify the school subjects, including domestic science and manual
training, as to their ability to train (1) reproductive and (2) creative
imagination.
4. Do you ever skip the descriptive parts of a book and read the
narrative? As you read the description of a bit of natural scenery, does
it rise before you? As you study the description of a battle, can you
see the movements of the troops?
5. Have you ever planned a house as you think you would like it? Can you
see it from all sides? Can you see all the rooms in their various
finishings and furnishings?
6. What plans and ideals have you formed, and what ones are you at
present following? Can you describe the process by which your plans or
ideals change? Do you ever try to put yourself in the other person's
place?
7. Take some fanciful unreality which your imagination has constructed
and see whether you can select from it familiar elements from actual
experiences.
8. What use do you make of imagination in the common round of duties in
your daily life? What are you doing to improve your imagination?