Albert Einstein, one of the most intelligent men who ever
lived, is famous for his scientific and mathematical writings. But if anything
awed him with its infinite power, it was stupidity: “The difference between
genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits,” he said.
You’d think someone who specialized in formulae wouldn’t
think highly of human imagination. Quite to the contrary, he often spoke of the
limitations of logic and the immense power of imagination.
You’d also think that his formula for fostering intelligence
in children would have something to do with memorizing mathematics facts, or
exercises in logic. No way.
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy
tales,” Einstein said. “If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more
fairy tales.”
Fairy tales. Magic. For a reader, picturing things that
couldn’t possibly exist, interacting with one another.
For a writer, taking the impossible and giving it dialogue. Making
the impractical work. Giving a plot trajectory for things that could never fly
and words to mouthless ideas.
Oh, Albert.
I never knew I loved you. Relatively speaking, of course.
Do you agree with Einstein’s theory of raising intelligent
children? Did you do that? Or perhaps were you weaned on fairy tales yourself,
as I was?
