Try to imagine the following: an Asian-style dragon flying over an Italian Renaissance-painted landscape. I would bet most readers at Hopkins will be able to conjure this untraditional image quite easily. Imagination is a difficult concept to approach, in that it is highly personal and hard to explain to others. It is not a common academic focus, generally limited to psychological sciences and mystic philosophy circles. But the undertones of imagination building are present in society, as children are encouraged to create worlds in which to play with their real-world friends.
The principle question is whether imagination is a learnable or sharpen-able skill. Can you really "imagine" something you have no concept of? Early European, Asian and Mediterranean cultures interacted through highly connective commerce and warfare systems, which catalyzed cultural exchange. But though an Ottoman merchant could probably imagine an Italian village or a Portuguese fortress, he could not picture any aspect of Mayan or Chumash, that is to say New World, setting and culture.
That all changed after the Post-Columbian era where diverse cultural ideas have been spread throughout the world by movement and information technology. Here is where the argument kicks in. At present, a vast majority of the global public have limited access to education, lack unfiltered coverage of world events and rarely have the opportunity to travel and engage foreign cultures and societies. These limits are not conducive to imagination growth.
Alternatively, a rarefied economic elite (sociological definition), which often corresponds to cultural elitist, has the best education available, a variety of media outlets concerning a wide range of topics and an overstuffed passport, at least by worldwide standards. From a young age, the imagination is engaged and encouraged.
In today's globalized world, for workers to have a strong imagination is a legitimate expectation for top employers. In the fields of marketing, entertainment, consulting, engineering and countless others, leadership is more and more pushed to redevelop images and practices for foreign markets and political systems.
Over 50 percent of American births for women under 30 are out of wedlock. A high percentage of the births are to minority women. The correlation between parental care and stability later in life has been strongly recognized in the psychological community, and the blend of racial and economic inequality and hypocrisy in America denies children born in such circumstances the ability to acquire the skills, through education and imagination growth, needed to compete with elite peers.
The world education system is obviously a larger beast than this column can tackle, but suffice to say it is inadequately serving the population. I assert that more imaginative students would do better across the board in academic, social and artistic settings, and propose an addition to modern curriculums: time spent specifically targeting imagination development. This can be done for very cheaply and still be radically effective.
The spread of cheap tech provides a window to the world long denied to the masses, and it is fast revolutionizing education techniques. Imagination class would increase innovation and curiosity, which I believe to be vital to international success and progress.
More importantly, it would break the hold the elite classes have on imagination. The global creativity potential is going to waste as agendas discouraging multiculturalism and encouraging in the box thinking are set by calculating military-industrial-media-political complex elites aiming to maximize personal profits and power access.
Obviously this assertion is a bit of a reach, but the takeaway is that imagination should be encouraged and nurtured in children and adults. Official encouragement of inclusive activities is greatly lacking in most academic and work-related settings. Many universities and colleges require freshmen to take an introductory writing course. Requiring all students to take at least one imagination course during their time at the institution would benefit student morale, creative output and possibly even kindness. Strong imaginations often correlate to empathic abilities, which are desperately needed in the current era of individualism and "every man for himself" attitudes.
Of course, everyone imagines, from the newborn baby to the bedridden old woman. But we should recognize that, while all imaginations may be created equal, they are not provided equal opportunities to develop. As with so many other aspects of education, imagination is being overlooked by an elite who take it for granted. Perhaps it is time to stop ignoring its role in human society.
