May 20 2012: Being a responsible citizen requires acts of imagination - how otherwise are we to empathise with those we call 'other', to 'walk in their shoes' (or lack of) and to understand and foresee both the immediate and longer term impact of our behaviours on the others and the environment as well as ourselves?
May 20 2012: "No wonder that it is difficult to break from that mold as an adult."
That's the problem in a nutshell - no wonder. Schools progressively devalue the sense of wonder to the point where kids are afraid to think laterally and use their imaginations - as you point out, Leon, we are conditioned to think in limited ways. I agree with the concept of an 'imagination period' in schools so that wonder and creativity can be enhanced, but the application of these faculties needs to extend into every lesson - imagination to consider new possibilities, to develop empathy, to develop critical awareness of the cultural and political fields that help to support and constrain us (what Freire called 'conscientization') and imagination to better reflect on who we are and how we learn. Imagination in all these forms must underpin scientific inquiry as much as it does the creative arts.
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A reply on Conversation: Children's schools should have an "Imagination" period
A reply on Conversation: Children's schools should have an "Imagination" period
That's the problem in a nutshell - no wonder. Schools progressively devalue the sense of wonder to the point where kids are afraid to think laterally and use their imaginations - as you point out, Leon, we are conditioned to think in limited ways. I agree with the concept of an 'imagination period' in schools so that wonder and creativity can be enhanced, but the application of these faculties needs to extend into every lesson - imagination to consider new possibilities, to develop empathy, to develop critical awareness of the cultural and political fields that help to support and constrain us (what Freire called 'conscientization') and imagination to better reflect on who we are and how we learn. Imagination in all these forms must underpin scientific inquiry as much as it does the creative arts.