Developing skills in abstract thinking

[Hannele]

A LONG FREE CHILDHOOD AND RECREATION IN NATURE INCREASE ACHIEVEMENT IN
SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY
I have lots of experience in abstract thinking and my experience shows
that the ability to abstract thinking is mainly based on ordinary shape
recognition ability of seen landscapes: just imagine the thing to think
about as a realistical picture in your mind and watch it with your
mind's eye like you would watch a nature landscape or what you do when
doing handicrafts: your eyes gliding along the regularities of the
surface at the same time as you form a holistic picture of the thing in
your mind. Imagining a nature landscape at the background increases
your ability to handle complex wholes like is much needed in the modern
world: just compare the regularities of the thought thing with the
regularities of theremembered nature landscape.
These ways of thought we can learn in the childhood if we are not too
much pushed toward the too schooled ways of thinking of adults and if
we have enough experience of using the senses in nature, of doing
handicrafts and of doing things by oneself in one's own rhythm instead
of being pushed to trusting only the thoughts of adults which remain at
the real of imagination for a child, not at the field of one's own
experience like it should be.