During the month of August, we read Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Esolen. If you did not find the time to read it this summer, I urge you to pick up that book and read it as we begin a new semester! [If you read just one chapter per week, you’ll have it finished before the end of the semester!]
When Stephen noticed this book lying on the kitchen counter, he cautiously asked,
“Ummm.. Mom, why are you wanting to destroy our imagination?”
So I decided to share with him some thoughts about what I was reading, and he finally realized I wasn’t conspiring with Mr. Esolen on some evil scheme to destroy his imagination.
Truth is, we don’t have to formulate an evil scheme to destroy our children’s imagination. We’ve already been trained to do so. [Read the book to find out why!]
Warning: This is a challenging book bulging with witty irony. Be prepared to be shaken.
The Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child include the following:
- Keep Your Children Indoors as Much as Possible, or They Used to Call It “Air”
- Never Leave Children to Themselves, or If Only We Had a Committee
- Keep Children Away from Machines and Machinists, or All Unauthorized Personnel Prohibited
- Replace the Fairy Tale with Political Cliches and Fads, or Vote Early and Often
- Cast Aspersions upon the Heroic and Patriotic, or We Are All Traitors Now
- Cut All Heroes Down to Size, or Pottering with the Puny
- Reduce All Talk of Love to Narcissism and Sex, or Insert Tab A into Slot B
- Level Distinctions between Man and Woman, or Spay and Geld
- Distract the Child with the Shallow and Unreal, or The Kingdom of Noise
- Deny the Transcendent, or Fix above the Heads of Men the Lowest Ceiling of All
{Did that spark your interest? It did mine!}
This book made me breathe a huge sigh of relief at times. I shed a few tears at other times. It probed my heart deeply as I examined how I have limited my children’s imaginations… and how I’ve encouraged their imaginations to flourish. It was convicting and relieving all at the same time. For example….
Keep Your Children Indoors as Much as Possible, or They Used to Call It “Air”
I enjoy nature study and outdoors hiking, and yet I seldom go outside, especially during the summer months. Braving the great outdoors is tough because of severe allergies – to bugs, to pollen, and to the sun itself. [This sounds so ludicrous, almost like I’m a vampire. But I am actually allergic to the sun. It does weird things to my skin.] It’s the summer that’s the hardest for me as I attempt to protect myself from the elements that wreak havoc upon my skin. I’ve had to work beyond that and simply play outside this summer fully bedecked in long-sleeve shirts and jeans, for I wish for my children [no matter what time of year] to notice the beauty of creation, to behold the sky…
When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Psalm 8:3-4
Without going outdoors, there is none of this beholding-the-vastness-of-the-sky. Without beholding the vastness of the sky, we miss out on one of the wondrous gifts that God has given us – this gift that reveals the glory of God and proclaims the work of His hands.
Without going outdoors, we do not notice the little things that are indeed big things.
“Persuade a child that a giraffe he sees once every couple of years is really impressive, but the wren on the fence post is only a drab little bird… Persuade the child that the Grand Canyon is worth seeing… But ignore the variations of hill and valley… bare rock and rich bottom soil, in your own neighborhood.” (p. 37-38)
Does this not probe the heart? What am I missing by not opening my eyes to the world right here – right in front of my eyes every single day? We don’t need field trips to a Discovery Center to discover! We can discover just by looking underneath a rock. or watching an insect. or gazing at the sky. or studying the growth of trees. or one million other things.
“If a child displays an unseemly desire to know something about cows, introduce him to an Internet Cow, giving Internet Milk, and leave it at that… We will tell him to do anything, so long as it is virtual and not real.” (p. 46)
Have you ever been guilty of this? I have.
This year we’ve discarded much of our former method of pursuing Internet reinforcement and activities. We now exercise the basic tools of learning at the early elementary stage and allow our free time to be consumed with more exploration… and imagination!
I will leave this as just a few simple thoughts of one thousand.
If you’ve read Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, I’d love for you to offer your own thoughts in the comments of this post! Feel free to email your thoughts or even let us know of another thought-provoking book to read! As always, I’d love to hear from you!