The necessary educational falsehoods

Metaphors, to provoke an illusion of wisdom, keep us wrong but convinced that we know everything.

When someone "say one thing for another", or lies or use a metaphor.

From this we deduce that a metaphor is a lie though, in fact, need not distort reality but function explain, clarify, help the recipient understand.

The metaphors, the definition of the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, says : "A trope that involves transferring the direct sense of the words to a figurative, under an implied comparison, p. for example., pearls of dew. The spring of life. Restrain the passions", (the metaphors, I repeat) are especially used as a teaching because teaching should be based on what the student already knows.

When the teacher teaches the child what is a nation, you can say it's like family, only much bigger. In this case : family is a metaphor for the nation.

Back to the beginning, if metaphor is "say one thing for another", like lying, then you might say, by simple deduction, which we teach to lie.

Returning to the example above, it is not true that a nation is like a big family. A nation works very differently to how a family.

When we receive our earliest childhood teaching these wonders, thanks to which we can leave school with the intention of showing everyone how now we know all about the concept 'nation', the hypnotic effect of using a metaphor understanding can join us to death.

The metaphors, which often have recourse despite what I am now saying against him, to settle the illusion of wisdom, we remain convinced that wrong but we know everything.

Note: Original in Spanish (without translation by Google): Las necesarias falsedades educativas.

(Este es el Artículo Nº 2.063)

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