Without imagination innovation would not occur, it describes the capacity to consider what could be beyond a quantitative reality. To be imaginative requires a mind that is adaptable, lithe in its thought processes and open to suggestion, this is why Charles Darwin described imagination as being imperative to invention and progress.
James Callaghan rang the death knell for imagination in the education system in 1976, when he emphasised the need for a tighter centralisation and regulation of the curriculum, with a focus on literacy and numeracy and an endpoint goal of preparing children for industry. Gone was the child-centred approach of Dewey, Rousseau et al, to be replaced, with the 1988 Education Reform Act, by a highly standardised and mechanised school curriculum, in essence producing a factory processing plant for a quantifiably measurable education system.
This reductive stance has strangled the capacity for imagination within our education system. Central government’s fixation with targets, league tables and tests to judge levels of numeracy and literacy has precluded the fecundity of the learning experience afforded by a more qualitative approach. Exploration, in terms of educational methods, has been effectively prevented as, unless results can be categorised and compared statistically, it is seen as a non-starter. The narrowness of this vision seems inexplicable when years of research from esteemed academics such as Darwin and Lev Vygotsky have shown that the ability to ‘imagine’ is imperative to a child becoming literate. The world we inhabit is one of disorder and flux, psychologists like Vygotsky view imagination as one of the most important tools that we use to create understanding and meaning from this chaos. The capacity for ‘inner speech’ or mental visualisation is the means by which children can reach the most advanced level of comprehension of the world around them. It equates to the level of literacy referred to as ‘ironic understanding,’ a level of cognitive functioning where meaning is seen as something malleable and changeable, rather than static and theoretical.
The recent dramatic advances in technology could have been a boon to educationalists, providing multiple interfaces for children to explore the construction of meaning. Yet this has failed to happen, as policy makers have remained fixated with the processing of information rather than the creation and interpretation of meaning. Teaching a child how to access information in multiple ways is all well and good, but it is equipping them with the skills to construct understanding and order from this data that will produce individuals who are emotionally, socially and intellectually intelligent. Innovative thinking occurs when we exist inside an imaginative space that allows a consideration of what could be possible, rather than a fixation on the actual. An excess of target setting and centralised assessment within educational institutions actively discourages adaptive thinking as pupils who venture into the realms of what could be possible are invalidated by mark schemes and exams that do not allow for this form of thinking.
To achieve a system which values imagination, educators and government have to take the risk of moving away from politically motivated educational goals, which until very recently have been solely preoccupied with the quantifiable. The educational experience is what is important, recognised by the Reggio Emilia Schools, first established after the Great War. These focus on an artistic and metaphorical language, allowing children to explore many different symbolic systems within language, through drawing, sculpture, drama and writing. They encourage both teachers and students to reach out, explore and experiment as far as their imagination will take them. This equips learners to create meaning, as they are exposed to the chaotic and spontaneous from an early age and supported to build their own knowledge systems in response.
Check out these gorgeous kids night lights – they will fuel your child’s imagination.