Almost every
child can provide an account of a nightmare he/she has experienced,
and probably with many vivid details, if not enthusiasm! But Mercer
Mayer's familiar book does more than just offer a visual and written
representation of one such account. For children of all ages, this
book can question both the very nature of life, and our human relationship
to the things encountered throughout one's own life.
There's a Nightmare in My Closet raises deep philosophical issues of reality,
knowledge, ownership, identity, and control in a simple and accessible format
for young children. Tackling the oft-intimidating field of metaphysics, Mayer's
story asks us what kinds of things in the world are real. We as readers are invited
to wonder whether or not objects in one's mind, such as a nightmare, are real.
Nightmares are an especially intriguing illustration, because they are "seen" during
the dream- or sleep-state, when a person's eyes are closed. Utilizing an experience
common to young children, the first question set directs each child to survey
the relationship between real things and our visual perception of those things. "Is
an idea real? An emotion?" Asking these questions can lead to the collective
effort of trying to understand what it inherently means for something to be real.
Along the process, this topic also explores the essence, or basic nature, of
thoughts and ideas. "What defines a thought? Is anything produced in a person's
head a thought? Is a thought a physical thing?" Curious folk have been proposing
similar questions for years, and a brief look into the history of philosophy
reveals that none yet has offered a convincing definitive answer. In fact, it
is exactly this divergence of opinion in both popular and professional arenas
which makes the debate so interesting. Some people believe that ideas can be
real things, immaterial in nature, but they get materially expressed through
all kinds of human construction: written, spoken, or artistic mediums. Others
have suggested that nothing is real unless it can be perceived by the senses.
So although a particular book may communicate ideas to its reader, the ideas
themselves would not exist without some copy of the book. A strict adherence
to this belief would indicate that all real things have a measurable physical,
or material, dimension; therefore a thought or a nightmare would not be real.
The first perspective has difficulty describing or even identifying the actual
idea, since it has no physical properties. However, the materialistic perspective
cannot seem to account for the ways in which mere thoughts or emotions stimulate
physical responses within the body and in the larger world. Children are not
expected to solve these age-old disagreements; rather, it is intended that young
minds can participate in a continuing dialogue which reveals the complexity of
various issues. The philosophic tradition of debate welcomes the imagination
of a child, and through stories like There's a Nightmare in My Closet, children
can start refining the presentation and defense of one's unique ideas.
In addition to metaphysics, this short story examines how human beings obtain
knowledge. Officially called the study of epistemology, this section of philosophy
is provoked by concerns that we may not be able to gain objective, true, knowledge
about things, and that, in fact, such a truth might not even exist. More critical
to this field of questioning is how we can ever be convinced of what we think
we know. For example, when a child awakes panicked in the middle of the night,
parents typically comfort their child's distress by insisting that nightmares
aren't real; that "it was just a dream." Now consider a question offered to audiences
by recent popular movies, "What makes us certain that a dream isn't real? What
information would we need to be convinced that a dream was real? How can we be
sure that our normal life isn't a dream?" Perhaps nothing is real, and all the
knowledge we think we possess about the earth is really just a deceptive illusion.
French philosopher René Descartes believed that no matter how skeptical a person's
outlook, one can never doubt the existence of one's self. If I try to doubt myself,
it is me that must perform the intellectual act of doubting, and I prove that
I exist. This argument is summarized by Descartes' famous quote, "I think, therefore
I am." Further contemplation along this line challenges children to ask themselves
what kinds of information they can truly know, if any at all, and how.
This style of engaged conversation regarding Mayer's picture book also introduces
simple ideas of ownership and control. Imagine the last time students in your
classroom made art projects. Most likely, at least a few students refused to
allow others to draw on their pictures or even touch their pieces of art. Their
resistance implies a desire to control the objects they are creating, and a sense
that each person has a natural or given right of individual ownership which extends
to all their creations. Yet many moral and political theorists point to the infinite
environmental or circumstantial factors contributing to a person's choices; for
example, time in history, geographical location, age of the person, peer pressure,
available resources, etc. By establishing that various influences may have been
inadvertently incorporated into one's final creation, the last question set suggests
that perhaps we have less control over our creations than we think we do. It
also demands our consideration over who owns the object. "To what degree do we
own the things we create? In proportion to the measure of control we maintain
over the object?" One of the greatest social benefits we gain from philosophy
is its ability to contest commonly accepted beliefs. As a discipline, philosophy
promotes active and constant evaluation of our personal beliefs and practices.
This last question set shows not the literary or academic, but the real-world
applications of such a learning and evaluation tool.
The primary goal of these questions is to generate a lively and productive discussion
among any group of children, by use of a linguistically simple story. The secondary
goal is to cultivate a love for doing the work of philosophy (which includes
asking questions; stating observations, disagreements, and examples; and giving
honest feedback - all of which are components of a child's standard and frequent
interactions with one another). This is an important activity because it teaches
simple problem solving skills, while giving children the immediate opportunity
to try out implementing those skills. Children must first identify the problem,
then locate what is relevant and necessary to solve the problem, decide if the
solutions are possible to obtain, attempt to reach a solution, and finally, evaluate
the success of the solution and the process itself. Furthermore, all of this
philosophical activity is placed within an environment of sharing and collaboration,
to emphasize the effective power of different perspectives and different intellects
working together in search of a common goal. Each question set attempts to highlight
some topic or theme that children might find interesting and relevant to their
own lives, both within and beyond academic schooling. Participants should be
encouraged to draw upon their personal experiences in order to make and support
claims about the world surrounding them. The discussion need not follow exactly
the direction nor the content of the question sets. Instead, the natural curiosities
of particular individuals and groups can be trusted to investigate a full range
of philosophical subject matter.
Continue
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