EDITOR’S NOTE: One of the emerging propositions in the Center for Spiritual Development’s approach is that children and adolescents are active agents in their own spiritual development; it’s not just something that they inherit. We asked Helmut Reich, a scientific advisor for the center, to share his perspective, based on his research with young people in Switzerland.
By K. Helmut Reich, Ph.D., May 2007
We all have watched young children at play. Is their creativity not striking? The question is whether education in school or fostering spirituality is building on children’s creativity or slowing it down. This issue motivates much of my research during the past 20 years or so (e.g., Fetz, Reich, & Valentin, 2001; Reich, 2002, 2003a, b). In fact, it seems easier to demotivate children in matters religious and spiritual than motivating them (e.g., Reich, 1998).
I do not claim that each and every child is very creative or deeply spiritual from birth, but many are. And with encouragement, even less gifted children can develop their own spirituality.
What warrants such a statement? There is plenty of evidence not only that small children can be philosophers (e.g., Haynes, 2002; Lipman & Sharp, 1978; Mathews, 1980, 1984, 1994), psychologists (e.g., Bennett, 1993) and inventers (e.g., de Bono, 1972), but also that they can be gifted with spiritual intelligence (e.g., Farmer, 1992; Coles, 1990; Hay & Nye, 2006; Nye, 1999; Sinetar, 2000).
Why this emphasis? Research clearly shows that one is least likely to forget (or reject) what one has found out/invented oneself (and internalized). However, those things that are imposed through outside “pressure”—-or even just inherited—-are not very likely to stand up to the test of time. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s (1808/1958-59) Dr. Faustus already said (in a nightly discussion with his assistent Wagner in part I of that tragedy): “Was du ererbt von deinen Vätern hast, erwirb es, um es zu besitzen.“ (“What you have inherited from your forebears, acquire it in order to own it.”)
This could be further explicated and exemplified. However, my aim here is more modest, namely, to offer further evidence (plus some consequences) that even small children are not blank slates to be written on by knowing adults. Rather, they are full of original ideas, including in the realm of religion and spirituality. (Admittedly, this evidence may not meet a narrow definition of spirituality, but I trust that the label “religious” is granted.)
The Worldview Study
The evidence comes mainly from a ten-year longitudinal study of the development of children’s views on the origin, becoming, and substance of the universe (Fetz et al., 2001). We conducted a series of interview with Protestant and Catholic children and adolescents from the Fribourg (Switzerland) area between 1983 and 1994. Though the sample is in no way representative, it is suggestive of what may be achievable.
The method used was a semi-structured interview with 28 lead questions. This type of interview presents a vexing challenge: On the one hand, one wants to know the genuine, unbiased views of the interviewee. On the other hand, one has to gather evidence supporting or falsifying the stated hypotheses. To address this challenge, we expanded the prompting questions, focusing each time on the worldview regarding the universe appropriate for the particular interviewee: (a) a beginning and divine creation; (b) a spontaneous natural beginning; © no beginning and divine creation; and (d) no beginning and simply nature at work. Furthermore, when the interviewee was on to an original, idiosyncratic narrative, we did not interrupt, even if that meant having to skip one or two of our questions due to time constraints.
Most case study findings are reported in depth elsewhere (e.g., Fetz et al. 2001; Reich, 2003a, pp. 22-26). For our purposes here, I focus specifically on findings that support the thesis of children’s creative, “autonomous” worldview construction.
Children’s creativity shows up especially in that they present all sorts of views clearly not learned from adults. For instance, many (young) children are “flatlanders,” and they ardently defend that view with ever-new arguments. (This finding is broadly comparable with Vosniadou & Brewer, 1992). As this issue is important by analogy for fostering spiritual development, I go into some detail. The tricky issue is how to safeguard the child’s “autonomy,” yet eventually to transmit an adult view of the problem at hand.
Looking at their surrounding landscape (especially when living in vast plains), and being aware that things drop down if not prevented in one way or another, preschoolers and first-graders tend to draw planet Earth as flat and either supported from below or (rarely) hung up from on high (e.g., on God’s hand). The explanation “As you can see, this satellite photo shows that the Earth is round” is met with the objection “But we do not live there; that is something different.” When it sinks in that the flat Earth should nevertheless be visible on the satellite picture, a new explanation is advanced. “Okay, the Earth is round like a fish bowl but we live inside on the flat bottom.” The next stage is to accept that we live on a spherical planet, but only on the flat top . . . until finally, around age 10, an almost adult view evolves—-except the vertical axis is maintained: Heaven is above us and Hell below.
Other examples of original views are:
“God has a friend with him, an old man, who helps him to make plastics. [Why?] Because that would be too much work for God. [What would happen if God went far away?] Then we would grow old. [Why?] Because we would have nothing to eat, and then one grows old” (Nina, age 5).[What would happen if God went far away?] “Then they [the people] would start to shoot … and steal and kill and do what they should not do” (Natacha, age 8).
[Same question] “There would be a great drought, and people would die . . . and in the end there would only be a heap of stones from the world burst apart” (Markus, age 7). Answering the same question, other children told us that horses would hit us with their hoofs, or that traffic lights would stop working and cars smash into each other.
What is one to do as an adult when children express such views? Clearly not to get angry at such “childishness,” but instead to raise gently questions as to whether this is really the last word that could be said. Then one might ask whether such and such could not also be the case and so on, and to follow up the issue in the months and years to come. And perhaps one could also express a contrasting personal belief without implying a criticism of the child.
It may be even more difficult to become aware of what children express about their spiritual insights in short sentences hidden between everyday remarks, for instance when they enjoy pets, flowers, and nature at large. (e.g., Hay with Nye, 2006; Nye, 1999). So, in our context, adults’ listening skills are at least as important as speaking skills.
Consequences
If we recognize that children and adolescents are actively creating and shaping their own spiritual worldviews, we face important questions about how we foster religious or spiritual development (e.g., Farmer, 1992; Reich, 1998; Sinetar, 2000). At a minimum, we must utilize methods and approaches that match the child’s/adolescent’s logical, ontological, social, and epistemic development stage (e.g., Reich, 2002, 2003a, b). Beyond that, we must also re-examine our approaches to discern whether they presume children are blank slates or active shapers of their own spiritual and religious worldviews. How would such a reframing help to motivate—-not demotivate-—them to engage in their own spiritual quests?
If these few lines would draw new attention to the considerations presented, it has been worth my while.
References
Bennett, M. (Ed.) (1993). The child as psychologoist. An introduction to the development of social cognition. New York, etc.: Harvester Wheatsheave.
Coles, R. (1990). The spiritual life of children. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
de Bono, E. (1972). Children solve problems. London: Lane Penguin Press.
Farmer, L. J. (1992). Religious experience in childhood: A study of adult perspectives of early spiritual awareness. Religious Education, 87 (2, Spring), 259-268.
Fetz, R. L., Reich. K. H. & Valentin, P. (2001). Weltbildentwicklung und Schöpfungsver-ständnis. Eine strukturgenetische Untersuchung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen [A structure-genetic investigation of children’s and adolescents’ world view development and understanding of God’s creation]. Stuttgart, Germany: Kohlhammer.
Goethe, J. W. (1808/ 1958-59). Faust (transl. with an introduction by P. Wayne). Baltimore, MD: Penguin. (First German edition.1808 – several other English editions).
Hay D. with Nye, R. (2006). The spirit of the child, rev. ed. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Haynes, J. (2002). Children as philosophers: Learning through enquiry and dialogue in the primary classroom. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Lipman, M., & Sharp, A. M. (1978). Growing up with philosophy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. [Also see other works by Lipman].
Matthews, G. (1980). Philosophy and the young child. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Matthews, G. (1984). Dialogues with children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Matthews, G. (1994). The philosophy of childhood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nye, Rebecca M. (1999). Relational consciousness and the spiritual lives of children: Convergence with children’s theory of mind? In: K. H. Reich, F. K. Oser, & W. G. Scarlett (Hrsg.), Being human: The case of religion, vol. 2. Psychological studies on spiritual and religious development (pp.. 57-82). Lengerich, Germany: Pabst.
Reich. K. H. (1998). Motivation by contents in religious education. In: P. Nenninger, R. S. Jäger, & M. Wosnitza (Eds), Advances in motivation. Landau, Germany: Verlag Empirische Pädagogik.
Reich, K. H. (2002). Developing the horizons of the mind. Relational and contextual reasoning and the resolution of cognitive conflict. Cambridge, England, etc.: Cambridge University Press.
Reich, K. H. (2003a). Cognitive preconditions for religious development. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 14, 1-32.
Reich, K. H. (2003b). Some German (pre-)adolescents’ views on the importance of friends and God: A pilot study. Journal of Christian Education, 46 (3, December), 47-61.
Sinetar, M. (2000). Spiritual intelligence. What we can learn from the early awakening child. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Vosniadou, S., & Brewer, W. F. (1992). Mental models of the Earth: A study of conceptual change in childhood. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 535-585.
