Imagination is indispensable for knowing the world. However, visual and musical imagery are ignored in education. Adult literacy education can be enhanced by the process of reading the world through print, pictures, and music. (SK)

A teacher describes using melodrama as a way to combine the elements of humor and drama to engage the imaginations of young gifted children. Techniques for use with elementary through junior high students are presented along with the script of a play for first or second graders, with the last lines left blank for students to supply their own…

Surveys relevant literature on the question of how people learn through doing drama. Proposes a construct to describe this learning process. Concludes that drama, even more than other storytelling and other fictional processes, employs the world-creating and hypothetical processes some have attributed to basic learning processes, which permeate…

To foster individual development, educators must seek the gifts in every child, in those not demonstrating academic abilities as well as in the most brilliant. Instead of stifling thinking, creativity, and interest development, educators must encourage these behaviors. Currently, a big discrepancy exists between the child's potential and what…

A long-term, phased class project in which groups of students planned, created, and taped a multiple-episode soap opera/travelog is described as an example of the potential for using students' creativity more fully. Students created a central character, itinerary, and script using the unusual or exotic throughout. (MSE)

Seven principles are presented for improving creative thinking, based on assumptions of creativity as a perceptual shift resulting from a metamorphic mental image. Principles include (1) the future initiates and pulls creative thought; (2) initial fact finding is best postponed; (3) problem redefinition is often retrospective; and (4) metaphors…

In this lesson plan, students explore the cultural significance of masks. After exploring the world of African masks and storytelling, they create masks that tell stories of their own. In these six lessons, students first recall contexts in which masks are worn in the United States, and then discuss their use in stories. Students then investigate…

This special section on the spirit of play discusses (1) characteristics of adult play; (2) styles of playfulness; (3) the creation of environments that foster children's sense of wonder; and (4) strategies for training teachers to be playful and to be attentive to children's play. (HOD)

The "Everyday Learning" series has been developed to focus attention on the everyday ways in which children can be supported in their growth and development. It is for all those who are involved in children's development and learning, including people caring for young children in their own or others' homes, such as parents, grandparents…

This resource book contains over 300 exercises and games for individual and group work in creative writing. Though the book's exercises are intended for group work with adults, teachers of children will encounter many new ideas for the classroom, and individuals working alone will have no difficulty adapting the exercises to their needs. The…

Argues that, as the world becomes increasingly less human and more technocratic, staying in contact with whatever is humane requires conscious effort. Suggests the use of poetry writing assignments as a means of preserving children's inventiveness and imagination. Provides examples of poems written by schoolchildren. (SG)

This article presents a model to evaluate the imagination and creativity of strategic planners. Characteristics recommended for strategic planners include the cognitive styles of extroverted, intuitive, feeling, and perceptive; marginal personality orientation, which allows for an open-minded viewpoint with integrative skills; internal locus of…

Noting that parents need to recognize that fears are a normal part of a child's development and that a child must be helped to deal with them, this book provides a very practical approach to fear reduction in a user-friendly form. The first part of the book, for parents, discusses: (1) definitions of fear and fear symptoms in children; (2) the…

This booklet provides parents with practical ways to introduce their children to the arts with the continuous message to encourage children to imagine. This book revises and updates the earlier publication "Three Rs for the '90s." Following the foreword by Robert Coles and an introduction by Jane Alexander, the chapters include: (1) "Dance and…

This book aims to enlarge the possibilities of reading by suggesting ways to make reading more imaginative and by encouraging a new attitude toward the act of reading. The book discusses the mystery of learning to read, the physiology and psychology of reading, the ongoing contests between various methods of instruction. It guides readers through…