Imaginative Feast

Bauby, Jean-Dominique
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
New York: Vintage, 1997
I don’t switch off my aesthetic brain at 7:05 p.m. when I leave the computer and settle on the sofa to watch the Yankees throw out the first pitch. I notice the conceptual choices behind each pitch, the players’ highly [...]

The Workings of the Imagination: Full of Contradictions

Egan, Kieran, Maureen Stout, and Keiichi Takaya, eds.
Teaching and Learning Outside the Box: Inspiring Imagination Across the Curriculum
New York: Teachers College Press, 2007
Much to the vexation of my friends and family, I love to play devil’s advocate, arguing an opposing side just for the sake of considering it and as a way to expand the [...]

Advocacy for Imagination in Sociocultural Literacy: Implications for Aesthetic Education

Gallas, Karen
Imagination and Literacy: A Teacher’s Search for the Heart of Literacy
New York: Teachers College Press, 2003
Karen Gallas is an experienced and revered teacher of children, and Imagination and Literacy is part of The Practitioner Inquiry Series from Teachers College Press. These credentials, alone, recommend this book. This work is a thoughtful account, in which [...]

Changing the Nature of Education One Teacher at a Time

Lewis, Richard
Living by Wonder: Writings on the Imaginative Life of Childhood
New York: Parabola Books, 1998
Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) hosted an “Imagination Conversation” on June 25th as part of the National Dance Education Organization’s annual conference, bringing together a diverse group of artists and artist/educators (digital artist Paul Kaiser of the Open Ended Group, writer/activist Jonathan [...]

A Little Book Full of Big Ideas!

Cobb, Edith
The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood
Dallas, TX: Spring Publications, 1993
This is a book to sit with and enjoy over a cup of coffee, or to excitedly sneak a few pages of on a crowded subway; it is a book to discuss with friends, and a book to feed your teaching. Part biography, part philosophy, [...]

Playing Through Life: How Fantasy, Imagination and Make Believe May Aid in Building and Sustaining Stable, Resilient, Focused and Creative Lives

Singer, Dorothy G. and Singer, Jerome L.
The House of Make-Believe
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990

Book cover from THE HOUSE OF MAKE-BELIEVE by Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer appears courtesy of Harvard University Press, Copyright ©1990 by Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer.
Athletes have been using the power of the imagination for [...]

Greene’s Cultural Call to Action

Greene, Maxine
Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, Art, and Social Change
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1995.
If you seek solace from the drone of daily life and envision a society in which our imagination enables us to strive together for a better, more engaged future, read this book! If you share my love for education, social justice, [...]

The More You Know, the Better You Can Imagine

Tharp, Twyla
The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life: A Practical Guide
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006
“Memories are slippery, like butter, “ a fifth-grader announced at PS 116 in Manhattan. He was reflecting on Hilary Easton’s dance theater piece, It’s All True. As Lincoln Center Institute teaching artists we are endeavoring to layer [...]

The Role of Imaginative Play

Barell, John
Playgrounds of Our Minds
New York: Teachers College Press, 1980
Few people would disagree that in the 21st Century, the rate of change is accelerating. A YouTube video posted in October 2008, Did You Know? , illustrates this with some attention-grabbing points. “The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.” “We are [...]

Play to their emotions. Tell an interesting story. Humanize the facts. A formula for imaginative learning.

Egan, Kieran
Imagination in Teaching and Learning: The Middle School Years
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992
I’m really bad at remembering dates. For me, there is a big holiday in late December and I was married sometime in the spring. I get a phone call every year from my mother, where she really has nothing to say [...]