Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
G. K. Chesterton
The above quote from the great English critic and essayist G. K. Chesterton states for me the exact relationship between the child’s knowledge and intelligence and real education. Children have a much vaster apprehension of the possibilities of the universe than do most adults. They “already know that dragons exist”. We have forgotten. What children do not know is that “dragons can be killed.” Good education tells children not only that dragons can be killed, but how to do it. Killing the dragon does not mean to squash the imaginative faculties. Einstein wrote: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
Killing the dragon means knowing how to transform dragons of the imagination into powers of mental, social and spiritual development. Dragons are not just mythical, fire-breathing, flying worms. Rather, they are the first forms of powerful and noble eagles. Dragons have always existed, and will continue to exist, in some form. They are archetypes, eternal forms undergoing continual temporal transformation. It is the same with our own mental and spiritual faculties.
The most important discovery anyone can make is the sacred dimension of life, both within and without. It is a discovery made not by instruction, logic or experiment, but by awakening. Upon awakening one may discover the sacred in its dragon form, but that is fine, so long as one knows how to develop it. That is education’s purpose.
