10 July 11 - 10:27
Has imagination disappeared?
Has imagination disappeared?
It seems that children no longer are told to go out and imagine. So often TV and video games are used instead of the creativity that was there when I was a child.
Back in the not so distant past the possibilities were endless all you had to do was let your imagination run wild. You could be in a pirate ship hunting treasure and fighting sea monsters in the morning and having tea in the afternoon with the queen.
I recently started a story to a young friend with the word imagine and to my amazement he asked me whats that? Really, I thought... you don't know how to imagine. I explained it as a sort of dream or story that you can play a part in. He looked at me with a confused look and said so its like when I am playing Mario and I get to make Mario do what I want? I guess you could say that's imagining but really I was stunned the only way he could relate was with a video game. Knowing this child and his family I know he doesn't spend hours on a video game or watching TV or even on a computer. So where has his imagination gone?
When I was his age I remember building forts, playing house and spending my days outside. Rain or shine we were always outside. Our stories always started with words like Imagine or Once Upon a Time. Those stories helped make us dreamers. Anything was possible if you could imagine it.
“It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see,” said Henry David Thoreau. We can all look at a cloud in the sky, knowing its a cloud but can you look at the same cloud and see a castle, or a race car? The possibilities of that cloud being something else are endless only if you imagine.
I wonder what our society is coming to if our children don't know how to dream and imagine. Will there be great story tellers? Or new inventions? Bright new ideas? Will the creative minds of writers, painters, artists and dreamers exist?
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Some of the biggest influences in our everyday life were huge dreamers, who knew even if the things you imagined were out of reach maybe someone else could use your idea for the common goal.
The invention of the light bulb for instance, one of the everyday conveniences that most affects our lives, was invented in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison. He was not the first or the only person trying to invent the light bulb. Many inventors had tried and failed some were discouraged and went on to invent other devices. But each inventor brought a new idea, a new dream and some imagination to the table to try to invent the light bulb.
Children should have the biggest imagination however we as adults have not allowed them to flourish. More often then not I hear people telling children that is not possible, you cant do that. The negative has to stop. We need to be helping children become the next great inventors and dreamers by challenging their imaginations.
So go out and imagine!
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