Imagination

The word "success" in the education field is generally accepted to mean, good grades and test scores, or rate of graduation, or numbers going on to college. Yet I wonder if the term might be expanded. Most would agree that this kind of success isn't all our children need in order to be ready for adulthood.

On Sundays sometimes I catch a wonderful program on KALW radio, San Francisco, called Philosophy Talk. Today, "Knowing the possible is better than knowing the actual" was the first statement that startled me to attention. The discussion focused on the importance of imagination, citing the philosopher David Hume, who wrote about the thinness of reason and the basic benevolence of the individual. The show's expert noted studies that reveal that babies have the capacity for empathy. As I continued to listen, another statement leaped out of my radio: "Is success measured by happiness or by productivity?" News headlines added to the mix of questions rattling around my brain. Secret prison in Afghanistan, sanctions for Iran, divorce, melting ice cap, unknown millions of children who die of malnutrition in Asia and Africa, and on and on.

What is important for our children to learn in school? What should the role of the arts be in society? Do we need to prepare people to face huge global issues or to be good consumers? To be able to love others as themselves or to have a good job, a house, spouse and children? What is the role of those who don't fit into the American Way, like the mentally ill, people with disabilities, the homeless, the incarcerated, shut-in seniors? What is real success?