Nate Keating #393

4/15/10

Foundations of Education

Professor Palladino

The Little Prince

What are the possible effects of putting a barrier or limiting the dreams, ideas, and minds

of children? In the short story, The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint- Exupery some of these

ideas are handled in a very subtle way. This short story also brushes the topic of education and

the importance and vitality of it.

The first topic that this story deals with is the openness of the minds of children and the

endless possibilities they posses compared to the narrow-mindedness of adults. One of the most

obvious ways this difference between adults and children is displayed is in the very beginning of

the book. The narrator discusses how when he was a young child he was just starting to have an

interest in drawing and painting when it was quickly extinguished by adults in his life. The

narrator drew a picture of an elephant swallowed by a boa constrictor and asked some adults

what it looked like, and the narrow-minded adults said that they thought it was a hat. Determined

to not give up on his interests that quickly, the narrator redrew the picture but this time made the

boa transparent so that you could view the elephant in the boa’s stomach. When he took his new

drawing to various adults they said, “ put away the drawings of boa constrictors, outside or

inside, and apply myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar.” It is from this

response by the adults that the narrator gave up on his budding career as an artist.
 This interaction between the narrator and the adults in his life is an example of the

authors view on education and adults in general. Children have some of the most imaginative,

creative, and uninfluenced, and unspoiled minds anyone can posses and our education systems

spoil their innocence. I tend to agree with this view presented in the book for a couple reasons.

The first reason is that the creativity that kids poses is limitless and it can be ruined when adults

start deciding what is important for kids to know and learn. The curriculums that students have to

follow today are determined by the government as well as the individual state. When adults start

deciding what should be a part of the curriculum it is possible that they are crippling the potential

that each child possesses and might even put a barrier on learning.

I think that this is a story that should be given to educators to read and used as a tool to

jumpstart an evaluation of how they are currently running their classrooms. Every educator needs

to ask themselves if the way they are teaching their students is helping them or hurting them. An

educator might be teaching a student all of the things they need to know to do well on a state test

or get into college but if they are putting a barrier on the child’s creativity or intelligence then

they are doing more harm than good.

This book raised some other interesting questions about education. I cannot help but

wonder that if there was a society where the education system was different then it is today

would the society be better than ours. Would they have cures to cancer and aids, and how would

it affect the society? Is it unreasonable to assume that the society would be better than ours? In

my opinion, I think that Antoine De Saint- Exupery would not be in favor of the way school and

education is currently being run. I get the impression that he would favor more of an un-

schooling type of education where students were able to explore whatever they were interested in

and there would be no barriers placed on their creativity.

 The Little Prince is a short story that has some very subtle clues that we are

limiting our children. We have made it so that adults decide what is important for children to

know and we do not allow our children to explore on their own. It is not too late for society to fix

the way that we educate our children and when we do, I think that our society will greatly

improve.