Eric Berne, the founder of the school of transactional psychology, points out that children naturally see the "wonder" of the world. Our inability to see things as they are stems largely from the way in which we have been educated.
"Awareness means the capacity to see a coffeepot and hear the birds sing in one's own way, and not the way one was taught. It may be assumed on good grounds that seeing and hearing have a different quality for infants than for grown-ups, and that they are more aesthetic and less intellectual in the first years of life.
A little boy sees and hears birds with delight. Then the "good father" comes along and feels he should "share " the experience and help his son "develop". He says: "That's a jay, and this is a sparrow." The moment the little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing. He has to see and hear them the way his father wants him to.
Father has good reasons on his side, since few people can afford to go through life listening to the birds sing, and the sooner the little boy starts his "education" the better. Maybe he will be an ornithologist when he grows up.
A few people can still hear and see in the old way. Most members of the human race have lost the capacity to be painters, poets or musicians. They are not left the option of seeing and hearing directly even if they can afford to; they must get it secondhand."
Eric Berne in "Games People Play" (Penguin).
