Once, my increasingly verbal 2-year old said this to me when we were driving in the car and she was securely fastened in the seat directly behind me: “Mamma, we are a pencil!”-I didn’t teach my daughter to employ metaphor or to take the qualities of a pencil to describe our alignment. Hang out with kids who are learning to talk and you’ll know what I mean. More good news: The capacity to understand and employ metaphor does not need to be formally taught we develop the ability to use and understand metaphor as we learn to speak an oral language. Can you spot them? (I won’t spoil this by including the answer here–scroll down to the end for those-no cheating!)** Quick activity to prove this point: There are at least 5 examples of metaphor in what you have read so far. (Just read Lakoff & Johnson’s book The Metaphors We Live By to see how infused our language is with metaphor.) Indeed, we so commonly use metaphor that we are hardly aware of it. Good newsĪll human beings use this cognitive tool-that means you, your children, all your students. Now for some good news, bad news, and better news. They help us to learn by engaging our emotions, enriching meaning, and revealing nuanced ideas. Metaphors matter for teaching because they spark our ability to envision the possible-they represent divergent or lateral kinds of thinking. The metaphor is a super-charged tool of the imagination it has novelty built right into it. Be warned: it contains good news, bad news, better news, and a challenge. Welcome back! This post–the 4th in the Tools of Imagination Series–is a bit different.
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