by 2025-2027 Associate Member Jody Langan
I have been thinking a lot about imagination lately.
I’ve been thinking about the many conversations that I have been having about the current state of the world, demands not only reforming but abolishing current systems in place in our society. I’ve also been holding on to my students’ and my own children’s constant questions beginning with “why”, and my own struggles to work through coming up with answers that I felt were worthy enough for what they deserved to know.
“Why do we have small desks in our classrooms? Why are only kids the same age in a class?”
“Because at one time, baby, someone imagined it. They shared what they imagined. Someone else agreed with the idea too. And the idea stuck and spread.”
This morning, I returned to a brilliant podcast episode (On Being with Krista Tippett) with Jason Reynolds, critically-acclaimed author of numerous novels for middle schoolers, called “Fortifying Imagination”. Reynolds shares,
“You know, usually, people talk about, well, this is the history of a thing. And it is, but that history is birthed out of the imagination. It literally was conjured up. Imagination is so powerful that it could set forth 400, 500 years of something wrong, which means that it very well could set forth 400, 500 years of something right. That’s sort of the beauty of humanity.”
Once we understand that every norm, policy, and construct in our world was born in the imagination as an idea, we can begin to understand the importance of imagination and can accept the idea that we can imagine and manifest a new way of being and doing. We can literally write (and read) our way into ways of being.
Kids are SO good at asking why. Instead of only trying to answer their questions, I am also building my capacity to develop their imagining power. I follow up by having them generate some “what ifs” afterwards.
“Why do we only have small desks in our classrooms?”
- “What if there were big tables so we could work together?”
- “What if we had couches like a living room?”
- “What if we didn’t have chairs at all?”
This is where speculative fiction shines! Fantasy and sci-fi in children’s literature is one of the places that we point to when we think about imagination. Over and over again we are pushed to imagine, what if? It is full of magical worlds, talking animals, and playful storylines, but “children’s fiction has a long and noble history of being dismissed” (Rundell 2019). Reynolds also said,
“I think sometimes we reduce children and young people to half-formed things. And so we write half-formed stories about them. And even that ties to the way people talk about children’s literature. People talk about children’s literature as if it is a category that is full of half-formed work, but that too is because they believe children are half-formed. And so I think those of us who acknowledge the humanity of young people, those of us who acknowledge the complexity and the beauty and the sophistication of childhood know that when you’re writing it, all of those elements have to be present.”
A gift of spending time with young children has been the revelation that their imaginations are incredibly powerful and justice-centered. I have been continuously working on creating a learning space that honors young children as full humans with ideas that are worthy of being considered by the adults in our learning spaces. As we continue to work on what this looks like in the classroom and school level, I was also interested in providing the opportunity for them to imagine our future world in a broader scope through writing – and this was where a speculative fiction writing unit was created.
Children’s literature and children’s imaginations play a huge role in shaping our world. It is imperative that we maintain the ability to be creative and imaginative. Change doesn’t happen when things stay the same; the work of making new worlds always begins in the imagination (Thomas 2016). Reynolds said,
“because, at the end of the day, ultimately, I need young people — we, the collective we, need young people to be able to activate their imaginations. If they cannot, if they don’t have — if, by the time you’re out of high school, your imagination is shot, we’re in trouble, big time. We’re in trouble.”
How might we continue to offer opportunities for students to activate their imaginations, even in the midst of curricular changes and mandates?
But imagination is not and never has been optional: it is at the heart of everything, the thing that allows us to experience the world from the perspectives of others: the condition precedent of love itself.
Katherine Rundell.
Note from the Editor: Part 2 of this blog post will feature the author’s brief scope on the speculative fiction writing unit.
References
Krystal, Arthur. (2014). What Is Literature? https://harpers.org/archive/2014/03/what-is-literature/
Reynolds, Jason. (2021). Fortifying Imagination https://onbeing.org/programs/jason-reynolds-fortifying-imagination/?fbclid=IwAR2dThHWtqhriVJe7cNwAuu6QpVPt_xjLdZnn_3pUg4VFOSn04fF5yNlIU0
Rundell, K. (2019). Why you should read childrens books, even though you are so old and wise. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Thomas, E. E. (2016). Stories Still Matter: Rethinking the Role of Diverse Children’s Literature Today. Language Arts, 94(2), 112–119.
