Test for Visual Reproduction
The Preparation—Take particular care in the arrangement of the breakfast table in certain known order, so that you will later be able to know exactly what was on it and where it stood. Put on the table some article of distinct color. If there is any question of your being able to check accurately the arrangement leave the table as it is for an hour or so after the meal.
The Test—Some time after the family have left the table, not less than an hour and preferably longer, ask each child separately, and not in the hearing of the others, how the breakfast table looked that morning. Let the child tell in detail what he can of the appearance of the table, or if old enough let each write a description. The ease with which this is done, the amount of definiteness displayed, and the vividness with which the child reproduces the table will be an accurate indication of the quality of images used in his imagination.
A Universally Useful Faculty
Some have held the notion that imagination is a faculty useful only to actors, artists or poets. This is untrue. Some parents have discouraged and even killed the imaginative faculty in their children, because they did not wish them to follow either of the above professions.
Your child will be the greatest credit and satisfaction to you if he becomes that for which his natural endowment and inclination is strongest. It is a great mistake for parents to drive a child to grow up according to some previously conceived plan or professional choice of their own. Parental wisdom and duty are to find out what the child is especially endowed for and to guide him in taking advantage of these natural gifts, and at the same time inducing a general development in other lines.
Because of past misunderstanding or lack of understanding of its importance in every line of effort, including science, engineering, and every business development, many parents have discouraged their children in the use of their imagination. Every leader in commercial and industrial life is a man who has learned to use this faculty. Without it he could not make great progress. Other men as brilliant as he have lagged behind because they have never cultivated their imagination or allowed themselves to be led by it. You should do everything possible to encourage and to guide your children in the conscious use of this faculty.
Children's Falsehoods
Many parents are distressed because of the tendency on the part of young children to tell untruths, "stories" about what they have seen or heard. This tendency is more marked in some children and occurs in the younger years before the senses and faculties are thoroughly under control. There is nothing dangerous about this, it is more often than not the result of a vivid imagination in which the visualizations appear real. The fusion of ideas and illusions sometimes cause the story to be "so awful."
In most cases the child will outgrow this tendency and if carefully and wisely watched over nothing detrimental will come of it. It is an indication of a strong imaginative faculty which, if guided and trained, will later be of immense value to him. Children who have a tendency to this "story telling" should not be punished for it. They should be given to understand that these are imaginary stories and should not be told as the truth. They will, of course, appear real to the child, but he will gradually learn to distinguish between the real and the imaginary.