a prescient educator

It means a great many rivers--it's somewhat hyperbole, though.

It means a great many rivers--it's somewhat hyperbole, though. He or she means that a great many sensory channels are processing information at the same time, and sending it to the conscious mind.

Multitude of rivers seems to me an odd figure of speech--i don't claim there is anything wrong with it, but it's not a figure which would have suggested itself to me.

>>>It means a great many rivers--it's somewhat hyperbole, though.

Not exactly clear . I'm sorry . I could not get you completely.

Multitude means a very great number. In using it with the image of rivers which run down to the sea, the author is using an awkward or inept figure, because, really, there is no circumstance (to my knowledge) in which a very great number of rivers run down to the sea. In fact, rivers and streams tend to run together over drainage areas until one great river runs into the sea, having combined the flow of many, lesser streams--such as the Yangtse or the Yellow River. So i just find it an inept simile.

The author is trying to describe a circumstance in which many children process information through multiple sensory channels--and that implies, separate, discrete channels, not the "self-combining" channels by which "a great multitude" of rivers and streams combine to form one great river, such as the Congo, or the Amazon. So i don't think the author's simile describes what it is he or she is attempting to describe.

People often attempt to construct symbolic images, figures of speech, where one is not needed. I don't see the need for it here--but if one were to do so, one could do much better than this limping description of rivers running to the sea, which i do not think describes the multiple sensory channels alluded to by the author.