Why? Why? Why? Any of you who have children know that the word ‘why’ is a litany for any child under the age of 5. They are new to this wonderful wacky world of ours and everything is a wonder that needs explaining. They have a natural inquisitiveness about the world around them that is unbridled and rich. And, they are gullible as heck! You can tell them anything and they’ll believe it.
Little Johnny: Dad, why is the sky blue?
Dad: It’s blue’s turn. When I was young it was green.
Little Johnny: Cool!
My point is not to make fun of poor little Johnny, but rather to shine light on the fact that young people are open to possibilities. They are able to allow their imagination to run with things – imagine what the world would be like with a green sky . . . pretty cool, right? The traits of curiosity and imagination are two traits that are most often mentioned when leaders are asked what skill sets our children will need in the future. The great thing is that children are born with tremendous capacity for both of these skills. The problem lies in the fact that we educate them out of it. As children are schooled, they become less curious, less imaginative. This is the exact opposite from what we want but you can certainly see how it happens by looking at the traditional classroom, can’t you? When children are sat in confining desks, told to keep quiet and memorize knowledge they feel has no practical use at all, we can see how the imagination begins to fade. Like a muscle, if we don’t use it . . . we lose it. I’m certain you have all seen it but the video below gives us a wonderful look at the school and creativity. If you just woke from a coma and have never seen this, I highly recommend it.
In a world where most of the traditional white collar jobs are being automated or off shored, as are many of our manufacturing jobs, we are now in desperate need of creative solutions, working in a more creative capacity. What a wonderful opportunity for this generation . . . if they are trained for it. We need to exercise our ability to think beyond what we already know and step outside of the proverbial box, if there is a box in proverbs, I highly doubt there is. Schools can do this but not in a traditional way. We need to encourage creative answers and imaginative thinking in our students. Allow them time to experiment, fail and re-experiment. This will serve them far better in the world they will be entering than a series of dates from a textbook that they can find in nanoseconds on their phones.
What are you doing to encourage imagination in your students . . . I’d love to hear it.
Keep on learning,
Dave
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