The “Too Cool for School” Syndrome and Story Hour

De Vos, Gail
Storytelling for Young Adults: A Guide to Tales for Teens
Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003
It is my deep belief that every tree on this earth has a story to tell. To my mind, every young person has, as well. If honest communication is achieved then growth and imagination flourish. In a time where hands [...]

Creative Courage and Imaginative Learning: New Perspectives on How Psychology and Philosophy Intersect in My Work at LCI

May, Rollo
The Courage to Create
New York: W.W. Norton, 1994
“Creativity is the encounter of the intensively conscious human being with his or her world,” (54). Rollo May holds that creativity’s central importance is it’s bringing something new into being. I like this definition, and finding it in May’s text showed me an example of where May’s [...]

Utopian Education: A Glimpse of What It Might Look Like

Whitin, Phyllis, and David J. Whitin
Inquiry at the Window: Pursuing the Wonders of Learners
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1997
I have a head full of images of the perfect classroom and they all have a central theme: students wanting to know more. The aim of stimulating curiosity has driven much of my teaching and growth as an educator. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Helping Students Find their Voices: teaching ideas and tools for fostering an imaginative use of language in the classroom and beyond

Pugh, Sharon L.; Hicks, Jean Wolph; and Davis, Marcia
Metaphorical Ways of Knowing: The Imaginative Nature of Thought and Expression
Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1997
Image: Copyright 1997 by the National Council of Teachers of English. Posted with permission.
We live in a visually oriented world. Advertisers know all too well that a picture is [...]

Involve Yourself in Learning to be an Inventive Teacher

Jagla, Virginia M.
Teachers’ Everyday Use of Imagination and Intuition: In Pursuit of the Illusive Image
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994
At Lincoln Center Institute several years ago, I recall the talk amongst teaching artists centered on planning: planning for planning sessions, developing lesson plans, the values and pitfalls of over planning and under [...]

Philosophy Light with a Compelling Call to Arms for Educators

Warnock, Mary
Imagination & Time
Blackwell Publishers, 1994
During the past two years teaching artists, partnering educators, and the leadership and staff of Lincoln Center Institute have been exploring the concept of imagination as a central value in education. As an LCI teaching artist I have participated in some of these explorations—verbal and embodied, where we have discovered [...]