Sometimes, language blows my brain up – blows my hair back. I am going to get to an extensive review of this book here in a few days: Smart World – Breakthrough Creativity and the new Science of Ideas by Richard Ogle – Harvard Business School Press Boston, MA USA Copyright © 2007 by Richard Ogle.
Until I do, blow your hair back with the essence of the following excerpt:
Imagination is not the poor cousin of reason, trafficking in desire-driven fantasy, dreaming, and delusion, but rather, as Fauconnier and Turner show, the very basis on which intelligent, sense-making thought builds. Independently, the philosopher Colin McGinn has reached a similar conclusion in his recent book Mindsight, arguing that without the faculty of imagination, there could be no thought, rational or otherwise. To think intelligently is to create webs of meaning about how the world might be, and this is the work of imagination. Reason follows, creating the rational links and chains of inference that validate and extend our knowledge of reality. Fundamentally we are, as McGinn asserts, Homo imaginans. P. 72
Photography by Bill Dahl – All Rights Reserved – 2010
I LOVE this…..how can we translate this knowing into our public schools….the real work is creative not tested to death…v
Well — I think it would likely start by finding the right instructors — persons who truly are homo imagians — by the way they live their lives vs. some kind of certificate or book knowledge. Then I think it’s a matter of developing a curriculum around a specific set of outcomes one intends to produce. I think it has to be terribly experiential for the students, laced with inspiring literature, video, music, art — locations to explore together — people — one-on-one interaction with persons who are employed in the creative arts — both currently and those that are emerging. Students have to have the opportunity to participate directly and intentionally in this process.
Does this make sense?