ABSTRACT
When children draw their first maps they start and end with home. Home and their range outside it are their whole world. The qualities they meet there, just like those they observe in people around them, they bring into themselves. Small children have no defences, filters or ability to process what they experience. They just drink it in unselectively. Hence its influence on developing personality, and even – as they’re still physically maturing – their bodily organs. Hardness has a hardening influence. Aggressive or dishonest surroundings do them harm. Rigid forms and spaces have an entrapping, sterilizing effect on development, fostering rigid-category thinking in place of mobile openness.
