The Other AI: Why Imagination Matters
Written by Abby Shaw
I recently had the opportunity to attend Deeper Learning, a conference for educators seeking to deepen learning for their students. This year’s theme was focused on AI and how there are many threads beyond just Artificial Intelligence. Dina Buchbind Auron, founder and president at Education for Sharing, helped kick the conference off by sharing about an AI thread most important to her work: Abundant Imagination. She opened with a reflective question asking “Are you cultivating an environment where kids know their imagination is important and valued?”
Gulp.
Are we, as adults, teaching young people that it is not just okay to use your imagination, but that it is important to the world? Is forcing children to learn according to a standardized test really giving space for their imagination? Are adults deciding what children should research or write about valuing their imagination?
I think about how our learners have turned a bare playground with random planks, buckets, bricks, and pvc pipe into campgrounds and toasty snack factories. Or how they have transformed a windowless room into a colorful coral reef. Or the many stories they have told and written. Or the real problems they solve together during Community Meetings. Or the research questions they design and follow. When I think of these things, I’m comforted knowing that they feel safe enough to dream big. I get excited at what creations they might engineer or stories they may craft. And I’m inspired to find ways to lean into my own imagination and creativity.
At The Village School, we send the message to the learners that their imagination is valued. Through unstructured play, open-ended project time, and learner-made badges, I strongly believe that the message has been received: let your imagination run wild.
After reading a Dory Fantasmagory book, a 9 year old Discovery learner wrote “I learned that there is a lot of imagination in the world and you can use that imagination to entertain yourself and show the world how lucky you are to have a big imagination!” Let these words encourage you and remind you how lucky we all are to have access to Abundant Imagination.
As Dina said, “imagination is our most renewable resource.” Don’t let the cultivation of imagination stop at school. Take this as a sign to unplug from the world, lean into your imagination and let it take you on new adventures!
