Creative Imagination - The Brain's Most Powerful Ability 

 
 
 
Creative Imagination
And Your Child

"To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all."
                                          Anatole France 1881,

The brain is in fact triune in nature.

The Reptilian brain controls our basic instincts. Whenever we are stressed our higher thinking skills shut down and the Reptilian brain takes over.

Its main concern is our survival.

"How do I avoid this spelling test?"
In this setting enchanted learning experiences appear as unattainable as water in a dry and dusty land.

Learning under these circumstances is impossible.
Under such pressure children will never access their creative imagination.

The Limbic system or Mammalian brain controls, among other things, our emotions.

All learning should involve the emotions to a greater or lesser degree. In fact, the most important state for optimum learning to take place is the emotional state. In some schools work is now being undertaken on the subject of emotional literacy as a more accurate indicator of a child’s future potential to succeed and live a fulfilled life than I.Q. Something that is in fact ‘learnable’ and not dependent on where you swam in the gene pool.

When this concept is grasped by educators universally then the creative imagination of children will be released.

The Neo-cortex controls the intellectual processes and is divided into two hemispheres often referred to as the right and left brain.

Each hemisphere has certain abilities associated with it.

 It is the right brain that houses our creative imagination.
 

Western society has tended to value the functions of the left brain and this, historically, has reflected the way children have been taught.

The right brain is potentially far more powerful and, in fact, complements the left brain.

If the two halves of the brain could be made to work together regularly the greater potential exists for learning and creativity. Children exposed to a system that overemphasizes analytical thinking is harmful to the brain's development. One psychologist comments:

" Such people's brains are  being systematically damaged. In many ways they are being de-educated."

Creative imagination is a very powerful ability.

Like Cuisenaire, at school, Einstein displayed talent as a musician and artist.
How many enchanted learning experiences was Einstein exposed to?

He actually failed his math!

The theory of relativity was conceived as the result of a daydream he had on a summers day alone on the top of a hill. In essence Einstein created his own enchanted learning experience through the power of creative imagination.

Using the power of creative imagination he visualized himself riding on a sunbeam to the end of the universe, returning toward the sun. He reasoned that if his dream were to be proved correct then the universe must be curved .

For my part, as I consequence of the failure and subsequent sense of guilt and shame experienced through my failure to grasp math in school, I became motivated to develop a math program that would ensure any and every child could succeed. It took years of determined and driven research.

I was going to make absolutely sure no child I taught would experience that shattering sense of failure and inadequacy.

Children would engage in enchanted learning experiences in the subject that is most likely to cause disillusion and despair. Throughout this process  I drew on the most powerful resource available - my creative imagination.

 Ensure Your Child Succeeds At Math itself is highly tactile and visually ( right brain activities) based but also draws upon logical evaluation of what has been visualized (a left brain activity). Whole-brain-learning approaches are now being developed to ensure both right and left hemispheres of the brain are engaged during the learning process. For example, Brain-Gym is a universally recognized and practiced method of enhancing whole-brain-learning.

Until education systems consciously provide for both left and right brain many of our children will remain seriously disadvantaged, de-motivated and ultimately disaffected. they will be strangers to the liberating power of creative imagination. For many children we will have created an intellectual wasteland where they are consistently denied the opportunity to drink from the refreshing streams of creative imagination.

This has serious implications for society as a whole.

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