![]() Thus, the visible invisible tension concerning children is a result of both physical distance and socially shared rules. Although it may happen on some occasions, in most societies few parents will do this every day. If they have enough time, it is physically possible for parents to go and stay at the school to look at their children all the time. However, this invisibility is also based on the social norms that require us to separate the private sphere from public institutions. Children’s everyday movement between two places causes their re-appearance in the view of parents at home or teachers at school. In modern societies, institutions for children such as hoikuen or schools are usually clearly distinct from children’s homes and there are substantial differences (distances) between them. The concept of reunion discussed in the previous chapter mainly relies on this type of invisibility: i.e., the invisibility of children as viewed by others due to physical distance between them. Here the extension of our physical world involves time to transfer, and to find out everything in our surroundings simultaneously is impossible given the restrictions of time and space. To confirm what is in the invisible side or space requires us to move there or make it move, and it takes time. The invisibility caused by physical distance and obstacles is related to time, as we learn in the first step of the calculation of speed. Although the technologies of communication now blur such obstacles and distances, our living in the physical world requires us to construct a worldview that includes physically hidden spheres. In other words, invisibility here means the impossibility of finding something in our immediately perceptible environment. Yet the point is not to emphasize perceptual visibility but rather the physical distance and obstacles between the desired object and ourselves. The word “visible” as I use it here refers to our visual perception in the first place. Thus, in the foundation of our actions, there is often an understanding that there is something that we cannot find right now, due to physical obstacles or distances. I also understand one of my colleague lives in a country in another hemisphere of the globe, and I send an email to him when I have something to tell him. I know there is a kitchen next to the room where I work now, and I move there when I feel hungry. Our actions in the world, both at the very local level and at the global level, depend on our understanding of a substantially hidden sphere. This well-known study suggests that one function of our mind lies in coping with the invisibility of objects from very early in our development, even before children start to use language well. Piaget ( 1955) also showed the development of children’s understanding from simple detection of a hidden object to their consideration of possible unseen movement of the object. Infants’ understanding of object concept (Piaget, 1955) was tested by covering an object with some obstacle (e.g., cloth). Piaget focused on when and how children become able to understand the permanence of objects that are temporarily invisible to them. KeywordsĪs mentioned in the previous chapter, psychological research exists in close relationship with reunion and the visible invisible tension, and many studies have discussed human development in relation to this. Religious attempts in history to depict the objects of our worship suggest that the relationship between (in)visibility and meaning construction has been working in our societies to stipulate who we are in relation to the indefinite other. The relationship between (in)visibility and the self is not limited to our lives at an individual level. They act as a composite to promote our meaning construction, bearing a close relationship with the flow of time. Another type of tension is accomplished by semiotic processes (e.g., children’s writing of nikki journals). One is the (in)visibility controlled by some substantial impediment, which also involves social customs (e.g., children’s invisibility to their parents when they are attending school). ![]() Considering what brings about (in)visibility, I discuss this tension from two perspectives. The aim of the discussion in this chapter is further inquiry into the tension of visible invisible: one of two types of dialectic tension discussed in “ Reunion with Others: Foundations of the Presentational Self in Daily Lives” as a foundation of the meaning construction in children’s lives.
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