Capturing and Cultivating Young Imaginations

A key role of a classical lower-school teacher is to act as a muse for students’ imagination and wonder. You can guess that I reveled in this part of my job. But what to do with students who don’t seem to want such a muse? Even more challenging, what about the days or even years when it seems like the whole class is blocked? Why does this happen? Why is it even important to persist in the pursuit of imagination?

Some years of teaching are full of positive momentum where contagious love of learning abounds and typical questions are “what if….?” and “what else can we do with this?” Then there are the years of challenge where the questions run more to “why didn’t you cross that t?” Surely there are imaginative students in each class, but seasoned teachers are well aware that each class has its own chemistry which often seems quite different from the sum of its parts. Certain combinations of behaviors, experiences, and personalities can make creating a culture of wonder and intellectual play feel like fighting an uphill battle. In these classes, open-ended questions aimed toward pondering may meet with anxiety and resistance. The imaginative prompts which were hungrily swallowed down by a previous class might dangle untouched. Both the teacher and students suffer the pain of feeling stuck.

In retrospect, I’m grateful for these years where such challenge forced the greatest growth in my teaching ability. They inspired me to find ways to directly teach imagination and intellectual play, strategies which positively impacted classes to follow. I plan to share a series of these strategies in upcoming posts. Before jumping into obstacles and strategies, I want to address why teaching imagination should even be a priority.

Imagination: 1) the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality Merriam-Webster

Imagination is a prerequisite for creativity in all fields. To solve a novel math problem or design a new tool, we have to be able to picture a solution we’ve never seen. Imagination is also the basis for empathy. To metaphorically walk in another’s shoes requires the mental ability and willingness to imagine the differences in that other’s world. The goal for nurturing imagination is not to develop more fanciful, entertaining students (though we may enjoy that perk). Rather, our goal is to develop students who can visualize possibilities and who can open their minds to understand and love their neighbors and even their enemies well. Imagination is a crucial skill in education, and I would argue that it’s also essential to the ability to follow Jesus well.

Obstacles to creativity

After analyzing why particular students or classes seemed “stuck”, I noted three major obstacles.

Fear: Students may be afraid to take risks that could result in getting something wrong or looking foolish in front of others. I have found this obstacle to be highly contagious, especially when presented by those with social power in the class. Thankfully, I’ve found that a growing freedom from this fear is contagious as well.

Rigid thinking: Some students are more literal and unaccustomed to finding numerous possibilities to a question. Sometimes they are less developmentally ready to think abstractly. Brainstorming can be painful for them, and they need to be coaxed into imaginative play.

Passivity: This obstacle might be the toughest to surmount. Some students are in a habit of waiting for others to make decisions for them and to fix their problems. They are the most resistant to being mentally stretched. Ironically, I faced this obstacle in some of my most physically gifted and motivated students. (Alas, they likely found the reverse to be true of me!) It seems paradoxical to say that they were stubbornly passive, but I found that to be true. Many of these students had no idea of their capacity for imagination.

The irony of being stretched by my early-on “stuck” students and classes was that, in order to find ways to develop imagination in them, I had to combat the same obstacles in myself. In order to demonstrate new strategies to my students, I had to overcome the fear of looking goofy in front of them, as well as the fear that they might leave me hanging. It was helpful to actually address the courage needed to take the risk and to thank the students when they were gracious in responding. These conversations built trust and authenticity and probably surprised some students by revealing that teachers need courage, too. The growing freedom and humor we shared bonded our classroom family. I also had to overcome passivity by realizing that expectations and practices from my past experience wouldn’t cut it and that I would have to ask God for new strategies and for His sustaining energy as I tried them. Finally, I had to overcome rigid thinking and see beyond the initial blocks to my class’ capacity to imagine and make connections together. God graciously gave me the ability to notice, call out, and celebrate areas of growth, both individual and corporate.

At the end of my most challenging year, my principal, who knew this class well, paid me an especially gratifying compliment, “You really captured their imagination.” To that, I will echo 2 Corinthians 12:9; His grace is sufficient for me, and His power is made perfect in my weakness. In yours, too. We are created in the image of the Ultimate Creator, and I believe it’s His desire for each teacher and student to grow in our capacity to imagine His kingdom come.

I can’t wait to share some strategies for you in my next posts. I’d be very blessed by prayers for focus and inspiration as I work on them. Also, if anyone can tell me how to get the words in my post titles to split correctly, I’d be grateful!

With joy and hope,

Alison