Pinocchio, the importance of education

Pinocchio is the protagonist of The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and one of the characters best known by children and adults, thanks to its jump to the big screen at the hands of Disney. Although there are other adaptations in theater, film and television. In the collective imagination there is the image of Pinocchio as the wooden boy whose nose grows every time he tells a lie, but this work is not just about childish lies.

I want to focus on the Disney version because it is the best known, despite the numerous differences it presents with the original. It premiered in 1940 and continues to be a good example of the importance of education in children.. On the other hand, as the world has changed a lot since 1940, it is important to contextualize and try to imagine what life was like in those years if we want to update, in some way, such a beloved character.

Pinocchio and other stories

At the beginning of the film, three books appear: Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Pinocchio. Jiminy Cricket opens the latter and the story begins. I find the nod to these other two works interesting, which will have their animated Disney version a decade later.

If we compare the works, we can find different parallels:

The protagonists They are children who do not want to grow up or who have difficulties moving into adulthood.They own moral lessons about what is right and what is wrong. They present animals with human characteristics, whose role will be fundamental. The children in the works ask many questions, they are curious. The three works They have a certain criticism of various aspects of society, especially related to education.

We could analyze each of them very deeply, but today I am going to focus on Pinocchio and some of its most relevant aspects.

The birth of Pinocchio, the wooden boy

Pinocchio is a puppet carved by Geppetto, an honest, hard-working and kind-hearted man. We observe in Geppetto a paternal instinct from the beginning, we see it in the way he takes care of his pets: Figaro, the cat; and Cleo, the fish. He treats them as if they were part of the family, he has created a home with them and behaves like a father; however, He longs to have a real son and wants Pinocchio to come to life.
The Blue Fairy will be in charge of fulfilling Geppetto’s wish and giving life to Pinocchio. It is no coincidence that the material chosen is wood, as it has great symbolism, even in some mythologies the idea of ​​the wooden man has served to explain creation. Pinocchio will be a wooden boy until he proves himself ready to become a real boy.
The Fairy gives Pepito the job of being the conscience, Pinocchio’s guide to life. The choice of cricket is not a coincidence either, since In many cultures it is considered a bringer of good luck and wisdom. The Blue Fairy symbolizes the role of mother to Pinocchioshe gives him life and appears in the moments when he needs her most.

The road of life

The main problems appear when Pinocchio must differentiate good from evil and learn to overcome temptations. Jiminy Cricket will try to help him, although he fails on many occasions. Conscience is that inner voice that we all have, it is something small, as small as Jiminy Cricket and, sometimes, difficult to hear.

The next morning, Pinocchio leaves the house and sets out on his way to school. This journey is a kind of metaphor for the life path, where we encounter obstacles to achieving goodness and, on numerous occasions, it is easy to deviate and difficult to rectify. Pinocchio is neither good nor bad, but he must learn/grow to achieve wisdom and, as a consequence, stay on the right path.

Due to his innocence and his ignorance of the world, he will encounter problems that will challenge him and he will have to solve. On their way, He finds two tricksters: a fox, known as Honest John, and his friend, the cat Gideon. The choice of these animals is not a coincidence either, since it is common to associate the figure of the fox with cunning and that of the cat with betrayal.

Both characters are ignorant, they cannot read or write, but they are greedy and take advantage of Pinocchio’s innocence. This ends with succumb to the temptation of being an artist and make a profit without any effort.

Pinocchio works as a puppet for Stromboli, he sings and dances, he moves without strings, no one controls him. Here, we observe the irony and metaphor of the puppet: A puppet does not move on its own, it needs its strings and someone to move them. Pinocchio does not need them and is therefore free. However, he soon discovers that the reality is very different.

Learning and liberation

Once freed from Stromboli, Pinocchio falls into Honest John’s trap again, which gives him an Ace of Spades, making him believe that it is a ticket to the island of games. On the island of games, everything seems wonderful, the children can play, smoke, drink, be violent… We can even observe them destroying the famous Gioconda by Da Vinci. There are no laws and children are free; However, they have been deceived and their acts of pure fun end up turning them into asses. Donkeys that they will use for work, that is, lack of education leads them to slavery.

Finally, Pinocchio discovers that Geppetto went looking for him and ended up swallowed by a whale. Pinocchio, worried, decides to correct his mistakes and go to rescue his father. The moment of exit from the inside of the whale supposes the releaseovercoming adversity and opening doors to knowledge.

The lies

On the other hand, the theme of lying stands out. We see that Pinocchio lies to protect himself, he does so when the Blue Fairy asks him why he hasn’t gone to school. Pinocchio knows that he has done something wrong and instinctively protects himself, It’s a defense mechanism.

It is not a premeditated lie, nor is it too elaborate, but rather he improvises it as he goes along.. In the same way that children lie to avoid punishment when they know they have done something wrong. These types of lies usually occur between the ages of four and five, although we know that, in some cases, they can continue to develop. Besides, The importance of lying in this work has given its name to the well-known Pinocchio syndrome.

Educate to be free

It is important to see the film from a period perspective. In it, illiteracy was still a serious problem in Western countries, and both the educational system and the family model were still very subject to a certain way of thinking, intransigent and inflexible in many cases. A way of thinking that is still present in certain corners, but that in many others has been transformed.

The message that Pinocchio leaves us is clear: education frees us, knowledge leads us to make good decisions and not fall into deception. Therefore, it is our responsibility, as guardians of the generations to come, to educate children so that they can be free, develop a critical capacity and can achieve a certain degree of autonomy in their decisions.

I am not only talking about an education restricted to the academic field; of being good at mathematics, languages ​​or sports. But of education based on the ability to reason, to think, to analyze, to be critical… Each child is different, has different concerns and it is our obligation, and at the same time our privilege, to address them. The role of the teacher is fundamental, but if possible the work that parents can do with their children at home is even more so.

Pinocchio and Logical-Abstract thinking

The education and development of the mind is so important in children and adolescents that it allows us to move from concrete thinking to abstract-logical thinking. It is the thinking that allows us to anticipate events through our learning history. Through concrete thinking we can only operate in a more limited way. However, when we take a step further, we begin to be masters of ourselves.

That is why education is so important. When we are able to think about what we have done, the circumstances that surround us, and we acquire the ability to predict what could happen if we carry out a behavior, we will have taken a big step in the development of our thinking. Hence the importance of self-realization and developing the mind through education. In this way, we can be much freer beings.

You might be interested…