Retaining the Qualities of Childhood
By Donald Partelow
William Crain, professor emeritus of psychology at The City College of New York, presented an online lecture for the Pawling Library on the evening of February 15th. His program was entitled Retaining the Qualities of Childhood: The Creativity of Albert Einstein & Implications for Our Lives. This program was based on Professor Crain’s newly published book, Forever Young: How Six Great Individuals Have Drawn upon the Powers of Childhood and How We Can Follow Their Lead.
Throughout his talk Professor Crain provided a great deal of information about the life of Albert Einstein, and suggested that Einstein’s capacity for childhood wonder is available to us all.
Einstein was a genius. But what made him so brilliant? Einstein said that he had no special gift and was only passionately curious, and this curiosity came from the fact that he had retained one specific childlike quality: his sense of wonder.
He had been a slow developing child who was also somewhat solitary. In most of the schools Einstein attended, he felt the instruction was a mechanized approach to learning, and did not do well in this environment. He dropped out of one school, and was expelled from another. Albert Einstein was told by a teacher, “You’re never going to go anywhere in life. You’re hopeless.”
He would flourish in a different setting, a small school located in rural Switzerland that believed learning should be enjoyable.
“He survived a lot of setbacks,” said our presenter. He then asked the audience, “Could someone like that make it through the world today?” “There are a lot of people like Einstein who are written off, and it’s really just that their minds need more and they’re frustrated from not getting what they need from their schools. Let them be who they are,” responded one participant.
In closing, Professor Crain said that if people understood that these creative geniuses were childlike and tried to recapture and hold on to a child’s perceptions, they would appreciate children better and give children more time to be children. Teachers must recognize that there is something very valuable here, more valuable than a high test score: the sense of wonder and playfulness.
Our presenter thanked the audience for their insights and contributions.
“Thank you,” said one of our guests “This was really wonderful. I can’t wait to read your book.”
Professor William Crain will return as our guest host on April 4th for COME TOGETHER PAWLING: Why Bees Are Disappearing, and lead a Q & A.
Photograph by Sasin Tipchai
