Imagination

This - if you ask me - is what makes us human. Where would we be if we lacked imagination?

Every significant development in human history is a result of - more so than any other element - imagination.

Yet, what standards are in place to meet (let alone develop) a child's imagination.

If anything, we beat the hell out of it in school.

As one of my colleagues asked at our inservice last Friday, "What first grader doesn't want to read?"

And that's true. Watch a group of young kids rush to school, where they get to create.

Now, pull up to a high school and note the difference.

It's because usually at a high school they aren't doing things. Rather, they are having things done to them in the name of tests.

Or, try this - ask a group of first graders to raise their hands if they think of themselves as creative. I bet there won't be more than a few hands at their sides.

Try that at a high school. Again, note the difference.

Part of it certainly is growing up and out (unfortunately) of one's imagination.

Part of it, though, is how students are 'schooled' under this outdated education system designed to prepare laborers to work in factories.

But that's not the landscape of the 21st century.

Recently, I was listening to a podcast from the 2007 Annual Convention held by Americans for the Arts featuring Ken Robinson.

I found this little nugget quite revealing - Robinson cites a study done in a book by George Bland called Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today. The study done focusing on divergent thinking, which is the ability to see multiple solutions, alternatives, and possibilities - the counterpart to linear thinking. The test was given to a 1,500 children (specifically, kindergartners). The studied showed that a whopping 98% scored close to the 'genius' level of divergent thinking. Since it was a longitudinal study, the same children took the test five years later. This time 32% tested at the genius level. They completed the final phase of the test five years later as 13-15 year olds. Then just 10% measured at the genius level.

So what happened to the 88%?

They got educated.

This essay by one of my College Comp II writers does an excellent job of getting at the importance of imagination - and keeping it for as long as one can.

Imagination