IMAGINATION

My great-nephews attend a Waldorf school.  As with most parents, my niece Holly and nephew Christopher have made education a priority in their household.  In fact Holly, a gifted writer, has turned her pre-occupation with parenting (she has 3 boys under age 10… if that doesn’t put the “pre” before “occupation” I don’t know what would) into a website http://hollykorbey.com and several articles embracing all aspects of children’s education and development.  Speaking about the Waldorf experience on which her 2 sons have embarked this year, Holly is enthusiastic.  In a recent article “Babes in Fairyland,” she writes:

"Now my sons’ childhoods are back… It’s as if the fairies visited them while they were sleeping, and filled their heads with poetry, art, and music. It’s as if they woke up from a dream and realized, like Peter Pan, that they didn’t have to grow up. Not yet."

Imagination gives us the power to see the unseen, to know the unknowable, and to solve the unsolvable.  As Holly describes, following the pursuits of imaginary characters transforms the educational experience: “My sons are all in for fairies, too. In school, they have locked eyes and hearts with elves, woodsprites, and most especially, knights who slay dragons.”  The gift, indeed the magic of imagination, links children like my great-nephews to the world’s great thinkers by an unseen thread that transcends time and space. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” “A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.” - Freedom Fighter Nelson Mandela “Seeing through eyes of wonder, children notice things that adults can no longer perceive. But sadly, the shelflife of wonder in most children is quite short.  The diminishment of our natural capacity to see the truly wondrous and to dance in enthrallment with the world begins when wonder is replaced by rationality. This happens to all but those who are fortunate enough to be encouraged to maintain imagination, curiosity, and creativity. In them, the roots of wonder may grow deep enough that it will persist through life. Many of those people become artists and poets. It is from them that we can learn the most about wonder if we have lost this natural childhood gift and wish to recover it.” - Psychologist Dr. David G. Benner "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious...Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are diminished." -Physicist Albert Einstein Holly encourages any tool intended to develop a child’s imagination. “Make it anything where kids are awakened to the wonder of everything they see, and more importantly, everything they can’t.”  Holly’s niece (my great-niece) Sydney is studying piano under the tutelage of Miss Peach, a kind, compassionate teacher whose love for music seems eclipsed only by her love for her students. Mrs. Peach's home is an almost-mystical setting brimming with possibility. There, children connect with music in different ways, and she fosters all connections and encourages the diversity of expression. After each music lesson, every student (and parent and sibling) is invited to choose from Mrs. Peach’s broad collection of instruments from around the world and create a rhythm for herself.  Speaking about the freedom she gives her students to create their own interpretation of songs, Mrs. Peach characterizes her endeavor as a channeling of their innate talent, and herself as a guide. As she sees a student settling in to a calm oneness with his instrument, she steps aside. The student knows she is never out of reach, but knows more importantly that the musical journey is his own release. Of course, there is the added element of innovative ability which equips a child from the “outside in” in concert with imagination, which equips a child from the “inside out.” Michael Fox, professional coach and trainer and founder of m·agine!, writes: “Imagination and innovation are each a reflection of a creative spirit. To imaginate is to dream, to think outside the box--way beyond the box--even, perhaps, to forget there is a box; imagination yearns for abundance. To innovate is to design, to think inside the box; innovation, no kidding, thrives in scarcity. Imagination, at its best, results in innovation. Innovation gives shape to our imagination. Many imaginate; relatively few innovate. An imaginative spirit, ironically, dreams of a bigger box. A bigger box shows up differently in each of our imaginations. For some it might mean a collaborative, creative muse--or, at the very least, someone who'll hold us and reaffirm us when we fail, or when we're so afraid to fail that we fail to try. For others it might be a space free from responsibility and interruption. With lots of green plants that never die. And, please God, no clocks. An imaginative spirit often sighs and thinks, "If only..." Imagination without innovation can be devastating, for it taunts us with our limitations. An innovative spirit, whether inclined to the right or to the left side of the brain, acknowledges the box. With a nod to our Eastern friends, the innovative spirit embraces the box. Whether a painter or a writer, a CEO or a stay-at-home, an engineer or a manufacturer, the innovator makes the most with the least. Or at the least with what's available. An innovative spirit often sighs and thinks, "What's next...?" Is the teacher’s role one of midwife to the birth of new expression, or trainer to honing a talent into a prodigy? Does she seek for her students a deeper level of self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-esteem?  Does he allow that his students’ paths are their own, their expression unique? Are some students so naturally imbued with extroverted gifts that teachers need only to coax their imaginations outside the box?  Are other students more naturally introverted and thus dependent on their teachers to help them innovate inside the box?  Or are the lines more blurred than that? Betty J. Eadie said in "The Ripple Effect," "We live and thrive by doing things, by testing our limits, by opening ourselves up to new experiences and challenges, by seeking joy and even happiness as we step out—not in fear or anxiety, but in faith. Faith opens us to new and sometimes wonderfully crazy ideas.” The world that awaits today’s children will be competitive and demanding.  Encouraging imagination in their pursuits seems a healthy preparation for a future filled with exploration and peppered with challenge.  Nurturing faith in their inherent innovative abilities may be just the ingredient to handle the range of results from defeat to success.    As we nurture the children in our lives and contemplate the effects of the exposure we give them in every learning environment, I conclude with an illustrative story told to, and related by Michael Fox: “While on a trip to New Orleans, I listened to a local gentleman tell of growing up, impoverished, in the city during the Great Depression. The winters were cold, and his family couldn't afford coal to heat their small home. He and his brothers ran to the railroad tracks every day after school; there they cursed the engineers as their locomotives slowly traveled the tracks running along the Mississippi, between the river's bank and Jackson Square. The engineers, angered by the boys' "nasty" taunting, reflexively hurled coal at the brothers. After the train passed the boys gathered up the coal in their shirttails and carried it home to their family's empty furnace. Some people imagined heat; the brothers innovated.”