The “Children Are Sponges” Idea Is Harmful to Kids
Do you know about baby sea squirts? These little marine creatures begin life actively swimming around, searching the ocean floor for a good home. When they find their spot, each sea squirt glues itself down and never moves again. Because it no longer needs to be active, it doesn’t need its brain anymore, so it eats it.
Even though mature sea squirts are brainless, they can teach us a big lesson: Brain health requires being active. This lesson is especially relevant for parents and educators, because there are a lot of forces these days that keep kids passive. Media messages don’t help. The internet has over 26 million websites comparing babies and young children to another sedentary marine organism: sponges. Psychologists, pediatricians, and educators are using the kids = sponges comparison to convey that kids are rapid learners who soak up information. That’s true, but the sponge metaphor is a terrible way to get that message across. It implies that babies and children are passive, just absorbing up what goes on around them, like sponges. That idea is not only wrong; it’s harmful.
