I don't know if you can provide someone with an imagination through education, but I do think you can educate a child to stamp it out. I had a friend in High School who was brilliant, straight A's easily...but I realized how totally unprepared she was for anything that required an independent thought or idea, she didn't even know how to access fantasy or imagination... but I learned that she had spent her young school years in Germany, forced into a second language, and forced into switching from being a left hander to a right hander! Evidently in the 1950s some schools at least didn't tolerate children writing with their left hand. I think she ended up having to suppress so much of herself, working so hard to always please others, that she lost track of a lot of herself.
But is there a correlation between imagination and compassion/empathy? I'm not sure.....
I do wonder about people who cannot put themselves in another's shoes (and maybe that is lack of imagination). I hear men complain all the time that they couldn't identify w/Buffy, but WTF? I have no trouble at all identifying with a male hero...
Anyway, I saw Obama the other night on Jon Stewart and I had never seen him look so confident, relaxed, and Presidential. I could easily see him making it through the primaries, and into the White House because he really does have a lot of intelligence and good sense to draw upon. I'm hoping that other people will take the time to really stop assuming he can't win and will actually listen to him. Of course I also think that Hillary Clinton and Edwards are strong candidates....
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2007-08-25 08:26 pm (UTC)but I learned that she had spent her young school years in Germany, forced into a second language, and forced into switching from being a left hander to a right hander! Evidently in the 1950s some schools at least didn't tolerate children writing with their left hand. I think she ended up having to suppress so much of herself, working so hard to always please others, that she lost track of a lot of herself.
But is there a correlation between imagination and compassion/empathy? I'm not sure.....
I do wonder about people who cannot put themselves in another's shoes (and maybe that is lack of imagination). I hear men complain all the time that they couldn't identify w/Buffy, but WTF? I have no trouble at all identifying with a male hero...
Anyway, I saw Obama the other night on Jon Stewart and I had never seen him look so confident, relaxed, and Presidential. I could easily see him making it through the primaries, and into the White House because he really does have a lot of intelligence and good sense to draw upon. I'm hoping that other people will take the time to really stop assuming he can't win and will actually listen to him.
Of course I also think that Hillary Clinton and Edwards are strong candidates....