まねごとと現実との区別
遊びの教育的な価値について言えば,新しい能力を身につけるような種類の遊びは,誰もが賛美するだろう。しかし,'まねごと'をするような遊びには,多くの近代人(現代人)は懐疑の目を向けている。おとなの生活においては,白昼夢は,多かれ少なかれ病的であり,現実の世界における努力の代用品だと考えられている。白昼夢にあびせられた不信のうちのいくらかが,子供のまねごとの方にこぼれ落ちてきているが,私の考えでは,これはまったく間違っている。モンテッソーリ式教育法を用いる教師は,子供が自分が使っている用具(遊具)を列車や蒸気船などに見立てるのを好まない。これは,「混乱した想像力」と呼ばれている。確かに,そのとおりである。なぜなら,子供たちの目には遊びとしか映らなくても,彼らのしていることは,実際には遊びではないからである。用具は子供を楽しませるが,その目的は教育にある。楽しみは教育の一手段でしかない。一方,本物の遊びにおいては,楽しみが主要な目的である。「混乱した想像力」に対して向けられた異議が本当の遊びにまで持ちこまれるのは行きすぎであると思われる。同じことは,子供たちに妖精や巨人や魔女や魔法の絨毯などの話をして聞かせることに対する異議についてもあてはまる。私は,真理の禁欲主義者に同感することはできない。同様に,他の種類の禁欲主義者にも同感できない。子供はまねごとと現実との区別がつかないとよく言われるが,そのように信ずべき理由はほとんど見いだせない。私たちはハムレットがかつて実在したとは信じていない。しかし,ハムレットの芝居を見て楽しんでいるときにそのこと(ハムレットは実在しなかったこと)を絶えず思い出させる人がいたら,きっと腹を立てるだろう。子供たちも,へたに現実を思い出させる人には腹を立てる。しかし,子どもは,自分の作りごとに少しもだまされているわけではないのである。 |
Pt.2 Education of Character - Chap. 5: Play and fancyIt would, however, be an undue simplification to suppose that the will to power is the sole source of children's play. They enjoy the pretence of terror perhaps because the knowledge that it is a pretence increases their sense of safety. Sometimes I pretend to be a crocodile coming to eat my boy up. He squeals so realistically that I stop, thinking he is really frightened ; but the moment I stop he says, " Daddy be a crocodile again." A good deal of the pleasure of pretence is sheer joy in drama--the same thing that makes adults like novels and the theatre. I think curiosity has a part in all this : by playing bears, the child feels as if he were getting to know about bears. I think every strong impulse in the child's life is reflected in play ; power is only dominant in his play in proportion as it is dominant in his desires.As regards the educational value of play, everybody would agree in praising the sort that consists in acquiring new aptitudes, but many moderns look with suspicion upon the sort that consists in pretence. Day-dreams, in adult life, are recognized as more or less pathological, and as a substitute for efforts in the sphere of reality. Some of the discredit which has fallen upon day-dreams has spilled over on to children's pretences, quite mistakenly, as I think. Montessori teachers do not like children to turn their apparatus into trains- or steamers or what not : this is called "disordered imagination ". They are quite right, because what the children are doing is not really play, even if to themselves it may seem to be nothing more. The apparatus amuses the child, but its purpose is instruction ; the amusement is merely a means to instruction. In real play, amusement is the governing purpose. When the objection to "disordered imagination " is carried over into genuine play, it seems to me to go too far. The same thing applies to the objection to telling children about fairies and giants and witches and magic carpets and so on. I cannot sympathize with the ascetics of truth, any more than with ascetics of other kinds. It is commonly said that children do not distinguish between pretence and reality, but I see very little reason to believe this. We do not believe that Hamlet ever existed, but we should be annoyed by a man who kept reminding us of this while we were enjoying the play. So children are annoyed by a tactless reminder of reality, but are not in the least taken in by their own make-believe. |
(掲載日:2015.03.24/更新日: )