The curious case of Einstein and fairy tales
Albert Einstein has been one of the most influential personality and a needed quintessential Modern Genius, whom people respect and cherish. He was a scientific genius alright, with his accurate theories and different discoveries but other than that, his great wisdom and beautiful perspective on life from creativity to kindness is what made him so universally special. He was a very intelligent man indeed, and with great knowledge comes various curious questions from others.
Many people were rather surprised by the amount of knowledge he had and mostly, how he conducted himself with it. He has a collection of quotes that are famous to this day and with no doubt, will always be remembered and, among them is a very curious quote that still leaves people flabbergasted. In Christopher Fray ling’s 2005 book Mad, Bad and Dangerous? :The Scientist and the Cinema, Einstein made a statement related to fairy tales when asked about secret behind a scientific mind. He is credited for saying,
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
And so, many people were left confused as to what he meant by saying this.
Fairy tales: A tool for creativity and imagination
It is only safe to say that Einstein had a very imaginative brain, his theories and thought process led people to become his follower. He suggested everyone to have imagination and faith for that is the way to live your life, if not only. So, why would he suggest fairy tales to read, and not any other sci-fi books or mythological stories? Well, he suggested fairy tales because they are created with imagination and plants the seed of imagination in the child’s mind. There has been some digging around about this thought of his through various history researches and archives, and the earliest information was found in an out-of-print volume published by the Montana State Library for Book Week in November of 1958. The entry, a second-hand account at best, reads:
In the current New Mexico Library Bulletin, Elizabeth Margulis tells a story of a woman who was a personal friend of the late dean of scientists, Dr. Albert Einstein. Motivated partly by her admiration for him, she held hopes that her son might become a scientist. One day she asked Dr. Einstein’s advice about the kind of reading that would best prepare the child for this career. To her surprise, the scientist recommended ‘Fairy tales and more fairy tales.’ The mother protested that she was really serious about this and she wanted a serious answer; but Dr. Einstein persisted, adding that creative imagination is the essential element in the intellectual equipment of the true scientist, and that fairy tales are the childhood stimulus to this quality.
There is another archive that explains the existence of the quote through a short story narrative, it goes as;
Once upon a time the famous physicist Albert Einstein was confronted by an overly concerned woman who sought advice on how to raise her small son to become a successful scientist. In particular she wanted to know what kinds of books she should read to her son.
“Fairy Tales,” Einstein responded without hesitation.
“Fine, but what else should I read to him after that?” the mother asked.
“More fairy tales,” Einstein stated.
“and after that?”
“Even more fairy tales,” replied the great scientist, and he waved his pipe like a wizard pronouncing a happy end to a long adventure.
As mentioned above, it is not perfectly clear as to what he said but He most definitely believed in using one’s imagination.
Fairy tales are made with creative imagination and they speak to children in every manner, to have faith and preach love and, most importantly, always be imaginative. It cannot be explained better if not by his other quote,
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution”.
He had various beliefs and was known to be very kind and, he shed light on the importance of having an imaginative mindset so that people would see more progress in later years. With the fairy tales theory, he also wanted to educate people about the importance of liberal arts and humanities to let them know the necessity of it.
And so, the legacy of Einstein has been continuing through his quotes. He has been relevant to this day explaining how universal his existence was. Einstein dreamed of a world full of creativity and imagination, his perspective was to appreciate art and create more of it for the greater good of humanity. What better way to explain the beauty of his thinking than his own other quote,
“If you don’t believe in any kind of magic or mystery, you are basically as good as dead.”
That explains why he’s still remembered and celebrated as the modern genius and will continue to be remembered for years to come.
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