The author began writing this essay the day after waves of euphoria swept over what appeared to be a profoundly altered public space. Americans had seen the most diverse gathering of people coming freely together to affirm a common purpose no one could quite yet define. No one had instructed them to come out in the cold of that inauguration…

On one side, pure horror at catastrophe, the work of human beings or nature alone; on the other side, speechlessness, an apathy of powerlessness. Lured by the media, educators become spectators of multiple tragedies, distanced, unable to grasp others' pain. How do they deal with the crumbling of the taken-for-granted, of the reliable and…

The author was invited to speak at a poetry slam conducted by Urban Poets, a group of teenage poets who perform their own works with the most passionate intensity. She had trouble deciding what to say to the young generation whose world differed so much from hers. She turned to Walt Whitman and a poem he wrote, "To the Young Poets," telling them…

Analyzes how people create or discover meaning through language and how imaginative literature helps them to do this. (DD)

Recognizes that the recent terrorist attacks were a powerful reminder that the imagination can be a destructive as well as a constructive force. Addresses the unsettling question of what it means to educate the imagination in the wake of September 11th. (SG)

Uses Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" and other novels to dramatize and highlight the conversations, conflicts, and multiple voices within and around the reader. Challenges readers to listen to all the voices in their minds for the sake of achieving a more communicative form of life. (MG)

Claims that the possibility of freedom is an aspect of one's individuality, and this possibility must be actualized through circumstances and conscious involvement with other human beings. Argues education should open spaces to enable poor and minority children to imagine new possibilities for themselves. (NH)

Penetrates educational rallying symbols and technological paradigms to celebrate Donald Schon's reflection-in-action approach to teaching. Advances an alternative, nonpartisan vision of American Education that fulfills promises, opens spaces for inquiry and dialog, and overcomes a spreading passivity. Affirms freedom, imagination, passion, and the…

Moralistic and utilitarian emphases have long made imaginative activity seem suspect in American schools. Students must be freed in order to become conscious of their various interpretive undertakings and to reflect upon the various ways that experiences may be ordered. (Author/GC)

Considers the modes of education that will enable people to choose themselves as open to works of art and the responsibility of art teachers to enhance qualitative awareness, to release imagination, to free people to see, shape, and transform. (Author/RK)

Standards in art education contradict the nature of art: the unexpected, the imagined, the explorations and creative discoveries. What must be communicated is the importance of the arts and aesthetic education, the nurture of informed understanding of art, and meaningful standards that emerge intrinsically and are not imposed extrinsically (SK)

The existential contexts of education reach far beyond the conceptions of Goals 2000 or the appalling actualities of family breakdown, homelessness, violence, and other "savage inequalities." Classroom encounters with the arts can move the young to imagine, extend, and renew. If the arts' significance for growth, inventiveness, and…

The essays in this book are the author's attempt to connect her own seeking with the strivings of other teachers and teacher educators who are tired of a self-centered, technocratic existence and who want to enhance their understanding of diversity. The essays concentrate on imagination as a means through which to assemble a coherent world,…

Articulates two cornerstones of a vision of public education in the United States: (1) the need for community and for a coming together with something to pursue; and (2) the importance of the imaginative voice of the artists in human conversation. (CMK)