2016 – 6th Grade National 4th Place Winner

Sadie Nelson, Texas.

“The art of moving forward lies in understanding what to leave behind.”- Seth Godin

Many believe that knowledge sparks the power of imagination. Society thinks that the only way to have the unlimited power of imagination is to constrain knowledge. With this mindset you are taking your ability to imagine from unlimited to limited beyond belief.

First of all we must ask what imagination truly is. Imagination is the ability to form ideas that have never been seen or discovered by another human. After we input the image we want to create, we can turn that into new knowledge. As William Edwards Deming stated, “Learning cannot take place without some theory.” If critical thinking is likely to lead to learning through imagination, then knowledge may be created.

Knowledge and imagination are companions that need one another to come to life. This is similar to fire and oxygen. Fire is created when a chemical reaction occurs between oxygen and the process of combustion. The oxygen is a necessity to bring forth the fire. When it comes to our thoughts knowledge can be created by imagination but imagination is the joy of the knowledge, the joy of discovery. Just as Albert Einstein said, “Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” With that we can take just a simple piece of imagination and build on it to discover more knowledge.

Today our society creates this image that knowledge is the ultimate power. Our education systems place such an abundant importance on knowledge. We base our studies, our tests, and our measure of brain capacity mostly on knowledge. We need to be focusing on creativity skills and not graded just based on the knowledge portion, but the imaginative half as well. Younger kids seem to have a greater ability to imagine than older kids. I believe that this is because they don't quite understand the struggles and the reality of what our world really is. If education systems gave these kids, such as high schoolers, a little room to have a creative side and express themselves they would learn valuable factors and elements that they would use in life. For example, in the future children will be introduced to greater occupations that haven’t even been discovered yet. If schools unlock the chains that are holding back creativity, that will be able to unleash their students abilities or obtain those occupations.

Can you imagine a world where imagination and knowledge have equal importance. Our industrial systems alone would skyrocket in new ideas and inventions. If imagination and knowledge had equal importance and neither was superior, our works would be filled with more color and laughter. The inventions produced would lead to great wealth through imagination and knowledge. This is what started the Renaissance during the Middle Age. Just as Seth Godin stated, “The art of moving forward lies in understanding of what to leave behind.”

 

 

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