We only subsist through culture and, in particular, through our ability to think symbolically and metaphorically.
No personal and human advancement is possible without symbolic thinking.
Indeed, it is through meanings that humans invested in objects, arts and signs (such as writing) that humanity has been able to store and transform information into knowledge and wisdom. This need was spurred by an understanding that there is more to reality than meets the eye, as well as by the ability of humans to imagine, and to think through analogies, metaphors, and narratives.
This is true for any area of knowledge, including those that are seemingly factual and non-contentious. Yet for too long, narratives and metaphors have been relegated to the realm of the irrelevant or not-so-important. Narratives are in most cases only given importance for their ability to gain and practice language. This is mainly due to our valuing more measurable facts, abilities and skills rather than the processes of connecting, interpreting and reinterpreting cultural artefacts and the different forms of narrative.
A society that falls prey to this type of instrumental reasoning, puts emphasis on an education that is measurable and that is valued only for its direct contribution to labour and economic measurements.
The past and the arts are mistakenly seen as unnecessary commodities or niceties and therefore devalued from their millennial role of being the guardians of memory, able to provoke innovative thinking and to provide answers to present-day challenges.
For the past eleven years, Prof. Adrian Gellel of the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, has been developing and promoting Symbol Literacy as a pedagogical method that helps children, as young as four years of age, to interact with art, narratives and rituals.
Besides believing in the power of the arts to connect children with the wisdom of past generations, literature shows how the skills needed for this literacy, that is the skills of silence, observation, interpretation and narrative thought contribute to cognitive and affective development.
Thus, interacting with the stories of Bacchus or St. Michael though the various artistic representations, engaging with the symbolic meanings of rituals such as giving gifts on Christmas or Għid l-Imwiet (the Maltese version of All Hallows) or connecting with the stories and signs available in such places as Ħaġar Qim or Palazzo Verdala, provide the child with the sensitivity to decode meaning while building a cultural repertoire necessary for the refinement of imagination and the transferring of knowledge to completely different situations.
Over the last ten years, more than 9,000 primary school children have engaged with, and through, art-based, place-based and ritual-based activities.
This was only possible through a wide-range of collaborations which included:
while on the other hand the educational institutions including:- The National Literacy Agency,
- The Assessment for Learning Unit,
- The Directorate for Digital Literacy and Transversal Skills and
- Most Primary schools.