Imagination is more important than knowledge

In this picture, I am taking a boat ride with a three year old to Great Wolf Lodge. As you can see, we really aren't in a boat, but it's a jungle gym.

I've said it before, but the amount of imagination that children possess fascinates me. I love how they can get in a slide and it suddenly becomes a boat that can take us anywhere. I think that as children, we start out with no limitations or boundaries, and our imaginations can carry us anywhere, and as we get older, the world says that imagination doesn't mean as much as knowledge, and you need to learn facts and put childish games behind you. I disagree. Imagination is more important than knowledge.

With a child, or anyone for that matter, they can learn facts and facts and facts, and just know the facts. You can train them to be a little computer, but that's all they'll be, and a computer isn't creative- they just know the facts. Don't get me wrong- I'm not bashing all education and I don't believe that children should do whatever they want for their creativity to shine, but teachers shouldn't bring down children's ideas, even if they don't make sense, because although a child's ideas may not make sense to an adult, imagination shows development. And the more creative, the more capabilities.

The little girl in this picture had knowledge of what a boat looks like, and knowledge of what a jungle gym looks like, but she used her imagination to put the two together and make a boat out of a jungle gym. I helped prompt her creativity by asking where we were going and what we were going to do. To this, she responded, "we are going to Great Wolfe Lodge." She had knowledge of Great Wolfe lodge because of a previous family vacation. She knows what all of these things are, but, using her imagination, she can go there anytime in a boat.

As a teacher, I plan on prompting my children's creativity and not stunting it. A child's imagination should be able to soar and not be limited by any person, place, or thing. I mean, if a jungle gym can be a boat, who knows what anything else can be. At work, I have seen normal wooden blocks become a bed, a stage, a zoo, and a house. Children have the capacity to expand anything and make it whatever they want, and most of the time, it's adults who stunt their imaginiations and make them boring. Children should never be stunted. Imagination is an extremely important part of their overall development, and as a teacher, I plan on letting imagination based of knowledge be the most important thing.

This is very philosophical to me and what I want to do because children have the capacity to imagine anything, and they should be able to do that in a safe environment. Chilren shouldn't be controlled by what the teacher tells them about things, and they should be able to take that, and expand on it.