Importance Of Imagination In Education

It surprised me at first that Contemporary Realistic Fiction is the most popular genre in children’s books. But after reading this it made more sense why contemporary realistic fiction is the most popular genre. It approaches the reality of children’s own lives. They can also connect to it so much easier than other genres.

In the modern world, children’s literature, fairy tales, and fiction books influence our childhood and early development. In the 1500’s and 1600’s no children’s literature for entertainment existed, they had educational books. As babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, my parents and teachers read us books after books. It is proven that reading to young kids is important for their imagination, vocabulary, and communication skills in early life.

The beauty of creativity is that it is abstract, yet ubiquitous: in art, music or how one decides to compose an essay. However, creativity has recently been declining among the human population. According to an article, named, “The Creativity Crisis,” by Newsweek.com in July 2010, authors, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, state, “the Torrance Test … indicates that the public’s “creativity quotient” has steadily crept downward since 1990” (Prompt 1). Bronson and Merryman report that the test, which evaluates one’s creativity, had been dispensed to myriads of people across the globe, and have concluded that creativity has been slowly diminishing. Kyung Hee Kim, professor at the College of William and Mary, also comments that this is most prevalent and grave among students from kindergarten through sixth grade (Prompt 1). Consequently, society, or in this case, the world fears that current students and future generations will not be nourished with the creativity required to thrive as individuals, affecting the world as a whole. Ultimately, this poses the question whether a creative thinking class, which solely focuses on the education of creativity, should be taught in the school. This school should impose a creative thinking class, due to the fact creativity is a vital element for the future and is the solution to the creative crisis.

There are numerous genre’s in literature, but their level of importance and influence on an individual will differ. Exposure to books and stories is especially important for children because it is their opportunity to acclimate themselves to written language, and in turn create their own visuals for the toneless words. Maria Tatar writes, “Why Fairy Tales Matter: The Performative and the Transformative” to demonstrate how fairy tale’s written language can spark a child’s imagination as well as empower them. Through personal insight from distinguished writers— Richard Wright— Tatar builds her argument for the benefits of fairy tales— particularly the violent stories. The writer organizes her essay in a concrete fashion by using each paragraph to build on a proposed idea or to present a belief, but does not use contemporary writers personal anecdotes or heed to her own advice of avoiding childish fairy tales.

Anthropomorphism is a healthy way for children to be introduced to difficult plots and emotional characteristics that real human beings encounter. Although some interpretations of anthropomorphic animal use in books are negative because the fear that animals in reality do not have human characteristics, and thus confuse the child reader. Others offer the view that in order to fully understand ourselves, anthropomorphism is the key to a child’s development of imagination. Bringing in the element of believable characters makes a story based upon the child’s needs and creates a lifelong love of books.

. Captivated by the trials of others’ encounters, the reader finds hope in his own life. For some, books are an escape. He is able to disappear into a new world, with different lives, and extreme or sometimes even similar situations. However, his real world problems are still ever-present. In Sherman Alexie’s article, “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood,” he claims that many

Children’s literature can take many forms, from far-fetching science fiction to spell binding who-done-it mysteries. One of the most popular ideas presented in these various forms is that of escapism. The characters in these stories explore quite complex social issues in ways that are less confrontational then realism. One might consider why escape is such a central theme; as a child there are numerous benefits to fantasy, it allows readers to experiment with different views of the world and takes hypothetical situations and invites them to make connections between this fictive scenario and their own reality. John Stephens an English professor at Macquarie University has said “ Fantasy writing operates through metaphor- so that the unfamiliar is used to stand in for, or comment upon, the familiar.”

Children’s literature is an effective teaching tool for children but also a way for children to escape their daily lives through fantasy. Didactic material can be used to teach life lessons, manners and morals where subversive and fantasy genres can allow children to release from daily expectations and allows an outlet for their large imaginations.

Fantasy and science fiction are two wonderful genres of literature that can be enjoyed by all ages. They allow us to escape into other worlds filled with magic, mythical creatures, and futuristic societies. While all ages enjoy these stories, they are particularly important for children as they can help them to grow and understand the real world around them. Although these books have fictional settings and characters, they contain experiences, emotions, and messages that children experience in the real world. Two of the works of fantasy/science fiction that I read this week are Clever Jack Takes the Cake by Candace Fleming and Leo a Ghost Story by Mac Barnett. Both of these stories create worlds of fantasy that children can relate to and learn from.

According the most recent national assessment recorded in the Washington post, “the nations high school seniors have shown no improvement in math and reading performances since 2009.” In the most recent years, education has taken a huge downfall. Since 2010, over 45% of students drop out. Many students have problems with the grading system, so many different testing programs and having to follow a set of rules and not expand on those rules. The education system needs to induce more creativity, enforce the ways on how education is important and elaborate more on the rules of grading.

Although many view children's fiction as suitable only to children, and an embarrassingly immature pursuit for a serious person, children' stories mold the way we think. They allows us to look at very complex and difficult issues in a safe and playful way, and they give us the freedom to imagine the unimaginable.

Doughty, A. A. (2013). 'Throw the Book Away': Reading versus Experience in Children's Fantasy. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Literary heroes that are also ordinary children are engaging to readers, particularly child readers. James Pope and Julia Round write that “Roald Dahl is a fascinating author in that his books for children feature child heroes who are very often neither hero nor villain, but a wild, subversive combination of both” (258). These characteristics are also true of Coraline and Harry Potter, as they are presented as imperfect, but ultimately find the power within themselves to save what is important to them. Children readers are empowered by Coraline and Harry because they identify with these ordinary children and feel as if they can also make a difference in their lives, as the characters defeat the evil in theirs.

In "Child Play" I learn that imagination is a big part of growing up, I learn that alright for me to make up games and play them out. It alright to run outside, pretend to like the pirate like in "Assassin 's Creed" to save the islands from bad soldiers. I am glad to be ten and have lots fun playing and making up games. But like in "Chanticleer and the Fox" I learn to never close my eyes to people I don 't know, it could lead to something bad or something well although it safer never to do it. I also learn it sometimes better to keep your mouth shut, unless you want to get into more trouble, like when my friend broke mom favorite bowl and I said his sister did it, seeing his sister get in trouble with his mom and ours, was so sad, I broke down and said that he did it, getting him grounded for a week and we could not play, if I kept my mouth shut no one would know and we could still play. But it still felt better telling the truth or I would also be grounded the week for lying. What I learn in the story was to never trust fluttery it only gets you trouble. What I learn from the story " It could be Worst" is to accept and like what you got it could be worst, like my situation I am in now, is in 2005 to 2011, I had a beautiful brick house with lots of yards to play and the only other kid on the road my friend Shimon. It was I was born and mom and dad were going to grow old, however in 2011 the man they were buying the house from sold it out from under us. We ended up in a bad

There are numerous children’s books available for educators to utilize as they create, integrate, and incorporate reading books into their lessons. When selecting books for students, many factors come into play. One central component to employ when selecting Children’s books is ensuring the book is developmentally appropriate for the child (Lennox, 2013). In order to select