THE IMAGINARY ENVIRONMENT OF “COMMUNITY” IN A CHILDREN'S MIND

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to make clear a structure of the imaginary environment of “community” in a children's mind, through the geographical methods. The author observed children's behavior attentively, and asked them about the following five points, 1) what they play and where they play 2) what they do at a “juku”, a private school, and a “dagashi-ya”, a cheap candy store 3) where they find children's paths and how they pass through them 4) what they call the places of their interests 5) how they explore their unknown places He investigated some names of the places where the children had already known, and made each child draw a cognitive map which covers their “community”. The results are as follows. (1) Children are apt to consider their home and their primary school the base of their behavior, because they put them on their cognitive maps correctly. (2) Children are able to behave freely throughout the school district, particularly at playing fields, alleys, children's paths, “dagashi-ya”, and private schools of abacus. The author understands that the children's image of the school district and shier be havior don't vary so much among them. (3) Generally speaking, gang-aged children like to explore unknown places very much. They sometimes walk beyond the school district, following main streets up to topographical barriers. By chance they may discover interesting play fields, which they prefer to call nick-name. (4) In conclusion, the imaginary environment of “community” in a children's mind has a concentric zonal structure, where the center is either their home or the primary school. They have an expanding mental map of “community” on an imaginary envi ronment. (5) Now in Japan, geographers and teachers have to develop a new curriculum for primary school education. The author believes that we should pay more attention to a structure of imaginary environment in a children's mind.