Chapter 28 The Appeal of Imagination from WAYS OF KNOWING THROUGH THE REALMS OF MEANING by William...

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28

THE APPEALTO IMAGINATION

INSIGHTS1. Materials for instruction should always be se-

lected so as to appeal to the imagination of the students.

2. Good teaching is imaginative in quality.3. The effective teacher chooses materials that

kindle the imagination of the learner.4. Using imagination in teaching is important for

learning.5. Teaching avails little unless the student

wants to learn.6. No matter how high the quality of curriculum

materials may be, if the student has no interest in them, he will not readily make them his own.

7. The best clues to the motives of man are found in his distinctive human capacities.

631

632 PART THREE:THE CURRICULUM FOR GENERAL EDUCATION

8. The highest powers of man provide the key to understanding the lower levels of motivation rather than the converse.

9. The thesis of this book is that the fundamen-tal human motivation is the search for meaning.

10. A human being is a creature whose distinc-tive life consists in having meanings and whose basic aim is to fulfill them.

11. The distinctively human qualities of mind and spirit are the clue to human motivation.

12. Imagination belongs to the active inner life of a person.

13. Imagination is the conscious center of psy-chic existence.

14. Imagination is the power that renders experi-ence vitally meaningful.

15. Imagination has remarkable power in fulfilling a person’s existence.

16. Through imagination one is captivated by the vision of new and wider possibilities.

17. Imagination is a form of ecstasy.18. Imagination is a manifestation of human free-

dom.19. The life of imagination belongs to everybody

as an essential mark of his humanness.20. There is no person for whom the growth of

the inner life of meaning is not the real goal of all his striving.

21. All human beings are aiming at the higher things of life, and ultimately at realization of the highest meanings.

22. Students learn best what they most pro-foundly want to know.

23. The students learning efficiency is in direct relation to their motivation.

24. The materials of instruction should be se-lected in the light of students’ real interests.

THE APPEAL TO IMAGINATION 633

25. Curriculum content must be chosen so as to maximize meanings.

26. What students really care for, even if for one reason or another they may not acknowledge it, is the awakening of the inner life through the nurture of imagination.

27. Students will respond to and learn readily materials that release them from their ordinary concerns and lift them onto a new plane of mean-ing.

28. The principle of appeal to imagination calls for the selection of materials that are drawn from the extraordinary rather than from the experience of everyday life.

29. Through his studies the student should find himself in a different world from the commonplace one of practical life.

30. The student should see more deeply, feel more intensely, and comprehend more fully than he does in his usual experiences.

31. Effective teaching requires extraordinary in-sight into the profound depths of the human mind and a level of understanding far different from the judgments of practical life.

32. Moral teaching, like instruction in personal re-lations, is plagued by unimaginative practicality and obviousness.

33. Authentic moral meanings are reestablished only when the extraordinary mystery of uncondi-tional obligation is recognized.

34. In every realm of understanding the principle holds that material for instruction should be se-lected for its power of stimulating imagination.

35. The appeal to imagination has everything to do with finding materials that have unusual power to speak to persons in the depth of their being by giving them a vision of a new order of life in which they can participate.


36. This cultivation of the life of imagination is the distinctive purpose and ultimate aim of gen-eral education.

37. Success in solving the problems of life is best achieved by those whose imaginations are kindled.

38. Power to act is not a prize to be directly grasped, but a consequence of deep understand-ing.

39. Through concern for the life of imagination persons may be assured a meaningful existence, that will yield rich fruits in practical affairs.

40. Imaginative teaching is suitable for everyone and it is even more essential in the poor school and for the less able child than in the best school and for the gifted child.

41. The means by which imagination may be kin-dled differ according to the person, his level of ma-turity, and his cultural context.

42. The teacher must exemplify an imaginative quality of mind.

43. A condition for successful imaginative teach-ing is an unconditional faith in the possibility of re-alizing meaning through awakened imagination in any and every student.

44. The teacher must have a working conviction about the essential nature of persons and of the highest human good by which persons are ulti-mately constrained, namely, the fulfillment of meaning.

____________________


The first three principles for the selection of materials for instruction relate efficiency in learning to the logical patterns of the organized disciplines. They show how a radical reduction may be effected in the quantity of what needs to be learned, by capitalizing on the fact that authentic knowledge does not consist of isolated bits of experience, but belongs to organized fields with characteristic designs that provide important guides to teaching and learning. The fourth and final principle of selection relates to the quality of the inner life of the teacher and learner rather than to the logic of the fields. It is consequently different in kind and in point of reference from the first three.

MATERIALS FOR INSTRUCTION SHOULD ALWAYS BE SELECTED THAT APPEAL TO THE IMAGINATION OF THE

STUDENTSThe fourth principle is that materials for instruction

should always be selected so as to appeal to the imagi-nation of the students. Good teaching is imaginative in quality, and the effective teacher chooses materials that kindle the imagination of the learner. The aim of the present chapter is to explain what is meant by imagination in teaching and why it is so important for learning.

IF A STUDENT HAS NO INTEREST IN THE CURRICULUMHE WILL NOT WANT TO LEARN

The central problem to which imagination speaks is that of motivation. Teaching avails little unless the student wants to learn. No matter how high the quality of curriculum materials may be, if the student has no interest in them, he will not readily make them his own.


It is importantfor an educator to realize

that everyone dreams, including theteacher. In order for students to havegenuine interest in a subject, it must

appeal to their imaginations, not to theteacher’s. How does a teacher find out what the students are really interested

in and how is that incorporatedinto the curriculum?


Picture


SOME SOURCES OF MOTIVATIONNow what are the sources of motivation? Some are

found in biological needs. When people are hungry or thirsty, cold or in pain, they are moved to action that will fulfill their wants. Other sources are social. People are dependent on one another for protection and for the satisfaction of desires that cannot be attained in isolation, and so they are moved to meet their demands by suitable forms of social behavior. Other sources are intellectual curiosity, love of beauty, ethical concern, and hunger for the divine.

Many investigators of human behavior regard the basic biological and social needs as the fundamental sources of motivation and all other alleged higher sources, such as intellectual, esthetic, moral, and reli-gious interests, as secondary and derivative. Investiga-tors consider man’s continuity with the lower animals as the most significant clue to his motivation, and they see his distinctiveness in the ways in which he uses the special capacities of intelligence to secure biosocial de-mands. From this standpoint, the motives of a person are derived from his animal origins, and his higher pow-ers are instruments for the efficient satisfaction of basic organic needs.

THE HIGHEST POWERS OF MAN PROVIDE THE KEY TOUNDERSTANDING THE LOWER LEVELS OF MOTIVATION

But is the foregoing account of motives satisfac-tory? Do the functions usually designated as “higher” really exist primarily to serve the basic organic needs? There is much evidence for the contrary view, to the effect that the best clues to the motives of man are found in his distinctive human capacities and not in that part of his nature that he shares with the lower animals. In fact, some authorities in the biological sciences af-firm that biological drives themselves can best be un-derstood in the light of the psychic life of man. For ex-ample, the biologist Edmund W. Sinnott in Cell and Psy-


che1 argues that organic hungers are identical with con-scious purposes, the organic being the outside appear-ance of what is known inwardly to consciousness. Along similar lines the paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Phenomenon of Man2 shows that the evolution of the cosmos, from the very first organiza-tions of energy to form atoms and molecules, on through the various stages of plant and animal emer-gence, to its culmination in man and society, requires the postulation of omnipresent powers of a kind that we understand directly in our mental and spiritual life. Again, the highest powers of man provide the key to understanding the lower levels of motivation rather than the converse.

The contrast between the two views of human mo-tivation is well illuminated in Hanna Arendt’s study al-ready referred to in Chapter 3.3 She says the contempo-rary condition of man is determined in large part by the necessities of biological and social needs, his higher functions being harnessed to the service of survival and reproductive demands. This condition sharply contrasts with the classical Greek view that the highest good is the life of contemplation within a community of free, equal, and responsible persons in continuous dialogue, having a sense of meaningful relationship with ances-tors and posterity in a historic tradition, an engaging in the creation of a cultural treasure of enduring worth. Implicit in Arendt’s analysis is the conviction that the present desperate situation of humankind can be traced to the inversion of values evident in the contem-porary subordination of the higher human functions to the lower ones.

1 Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, New York, 1961.2 Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, New York, 1961.3 The Human Condition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1959.


DISTINCTIVE HUMAN QUALITIES OF MIND ANDSPIRIT ARE THE CLUE TO HUMAN MOTIVATION

The thesis of this book is that the fundamental hu-man motivation is the search for meaning. A human be-ing is a creature whose distinctive life consists in having meanings and whose basic aim is to fulfill them. He can never rest content simply with biological satisfactions. He is forever disturbed by wants that are alien to ani-mal existence. His real longing is for meaning, and whether he recognizes it or not, all his striving, what-ever its apparent object, is directed toward the enlarge-ment and deepening of meaning. On this basis we af-firm the view that the distinctively human qualities of mind and spirit are the clue to human motivation, in contrast to the position that the basic biosocial needs govern human behavior.

IMAGINATION BELONGS TO THE ACTIVEINNER LIFE OF A PERSON

The above view of motivation is directly relevant to the understanding of imagination. Imagination be-longs to the active inner life of a person. It is the con-scious center of his psychic existence. It is the power that renders his experience vitally meaningful. By con-trast, unimaginative aspects of experience are routine, dull, and unexciting. They do not grasp one at the core of his personal being. They are essentially meaningless.

IMAGINATION HAS REMARKABLE POWER INFULFILLING A PERSON’S EXISTENCE

Imagination has remarkable power in fulfilling a person’s existence. It centers in the depths of his per-sonal being, yet at the same time it releases him from self-preoccupation. Through imagination one is capti-vated by the vision of new and wider possibilities. Imag-ination is a form of ecstasy (meaning literally, “standing outside of”), in which one is lifted out of himself and transported to a higher level of existence. Imagination


is a manifestation of human freedom, in which one is not constrained by the necessities of the natural and social environment or of his own biological drives, but is able to participate in a world of meanings that the hu-man spirit discovers are its native home.


THE FUNDAMENTAL GOAL OF HUMAN EXISTENCE IS THEFULFILLMENT OF MEANING—ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE

AIMING AT THE HIGHER THINGS OF LIFE, AND ULTIMATELY AT REALIZATION OF THE HIGHEST MEANINGS

It may be thought that this life of imagination be-longs to a certain small class of unusual persons, in-cluding intellectuals, artists, and mystics, but not to or-dinary people, and surely not to those who are less able than the average. Many human beings and many hu-man experiences are unimaginative. But it need not be granted that nothing better is possible for most people, most or all of the time. If the fundamental goal of hu-man existence is the fulfillment of meaning, then the life of imagination belongs to everybody as an essential mark of his humanness. Accordingly, there is no person for whom the growth of the inner life of meaning is not the real goal of all his striving, whether or not he is con-scious of it as such. It is a fundamental error to regard most people as more or less intelligent beasts among whom live a few unusual souls who happen to enjoy the “higher things of life.” All human beings—and perhaps all lower beings too, in an unconscious way—are aiming at the higher things of life, and ultimately at realization of the highest meanings.

STUDENTS LEARN BEST WHAT THEY MOST PROFOUNDLYWANT TO KNOW—THEIR LEARNING EFFICIENCY IS IN

DIRECT RELATION TO THEIR MOTIVATIONThese considerations are directly relevant to the

problems of education. Students learn best what they most profoundly want to know. Their learning efficiency is in direct relation to their motivation. The materials of instruction should be selected in the light of students’ real interests. If the biosocial concept of motivation is accepted, instructional materials will be selected so as to help the student satisfy his basic organismic wants. If, on the other hand, motivation is believed to spring


from the higher human functions, curriculum content will be chosen so as to maximize meanings.

Remember,students do not

fantasize about what theyalready have. The successful

teacher will take themwhere they have

not been.


Picture


TRADITIONAL ACADEMIC CURRICULUM IS DEFICIENT INMEANING—FUNCTIONAL CURRICULUM IS DEFICIENTTHAT EMPHASIZES THE PRACTICAL CONCERNS OF

THE LEARNERModern educational practice has been largely gov-

erned by the ideal that studies should be meaningful. The traditional academic curriculum was found deficient in meaning for the great majority of students, and in its place a more “functional” curriculum was developed, guided by the principle that the greatest interest (and the most meaning) would be attached to studies con-tributing to the practical concerns of the learner. It is presupposed by the proponents of the functional cur-riculum that what students are for above all is the suc-cessful satisfaction of their desires, the elimination of their frustrations, and the full opportunity to discharge their impulses, and that the aim of education is to maxi-mize these goals as far as possible for as many as pos-sible

THE AWAKENING OF THE INNER LIFE THROUGH THENURTURE OF IMAGINATION

Suppose now that the concept of meaning presup-posed by the functionalists is mistaken and that what students really care for, even if for one reason or an-other they may not acknowledge it, is the awakening of the inner life through the nurture of imagination. Then studies directed toward the satisfaction of organic and social demands will not enlist enthusiasm or induce ef-fective learning. Students will respond to and learn readily materials that release them from their ordinary concerns and lift them onto a new plane of meaning.

THE APPEAL TO THE IMAGINATION CALLS FOR THE SELECTION

OF MATERIALS THAT ARE DRAWN FROM THE EXTRAORDINARY

RATHER THAN THE EXPERIENCE OF EVERYDAY LIFE


The principle of appeal to imagination calls for the selection of materials that are drawn from the extraor-dinary rather than from the experience of everyday life. They should be such as to transform ordinary perspec-tives rather than to confirm them. Through his studies the student should find himself in a different world from the commonplace one of practical life. He should see more deeply, feel more intensely, and comprehend more fully than he does in his usual experiences.

In SymbolicsThe principle may be illustrated in all types of

studies. Imaginatively conceived, language may be un-derstood as a game with various possible sets of rules. One can play with roots and affixes, experiment with various combinations of sound and meaning elements, and arrange words into sequences according to various actual and possible syntactical patterns. Language so treated becomes a new and fascinating activity tran-scending the ordinary practices of talking and writing to meet the demands of social exigency. By considering its extraordinary aspects—those realities that lie hidden beneath the mass of common assumptions about hu-man discourse—the inner meaning of language is dis-closed. If, instead, language is taught simply as a means of social interaction and adjustment, the stu-dent’s imagination will not be kindled. He will miss the vision of what language really means, in the deep mys-tery of symbols as channels for the revelation of the in-telligibility of things.

Mathematics imaginatively taught transcends such commonplace problem solving as learning how to make change at grocery stores and how to calculate the heights of buildings. Mathematics is a field of wonder and excitement, with strange symbols and endless pos-sibilities for experiments in thought. A drastic shift has occurred in many of the most thoughtfully conceived mathematics curricula. The newer materials are de-


signed to produce real mathematical insight rather than merely computational skill for practical application. The recasting of elementary mathematics in the light of the ideal of true mathematical understanding is a signal contemporary example of giving precedence to imagi-nation over biosocial adjustment in the selection of the materials of instruction.

In EmpiricsAn imaginative teacher of science does not treat

his field simply as refined common sense. He is not mainly concerned to teach students to think scientifi-cally in the affairs of everyday life, in the manner of those who believe that thinking is simply problem solv-ing and the educated person is one who meets his problems successfully by the application of scientific method. Science is in reality a highly imaginative hu-man enterprise, involving a complete transformation of commonsense ways of thinking. The teacher who wants his students to understand science introduces them to the extraordinary perspectives on things which are af-forded by scientific modes of thought. The fascination (and value) of science consists in its transfigured vision of nature and man, transcending the superficial percep-tions and unexamined judgments of everyday life.

In EstheticsIn the esthetic realm the functional curriculum

makes use of the arts as means of self-expression, af-fording psychological release and better integration of vital energies. The arts are also seen as one solution to the social problems of leisure time in an advanced in-dustrial society. In the imaginative approach to art edu-cation, all such considerations of psychological and so-cial utility are rejected and art is presented as an av-enue to the exaltation of life through objectifying the mysterious depths of man’s creative life. This trans-forming power of art can be imparted by bringing stu-


dents into the presence of works that do not at once disclose their meaning and by showing them how to perceive these works sensitively and expectantly.

In SynnoeticsThe contrast between imaginative and unimagina-

tive instruction is particularly vivid in the case of per-sonal knowledge. Depth analysis of the human psyche shows that the world of self and others is far different in reality from what appears to common sight. That is why common sense approaches to the improvement of hu-man relationships and to self-understanding are so un-exciting and uninstructive. Effective teaching in this do-main requires extraordinary insight into the profound depths of the human mind and a level of understanding far different from the judgments of practical life. The psychotherapist’s use of dreams and the use of projec-tive tests by the skilled counselor are illustrations of what is meant by imaginative materials of instruction in the field of personal knowledge. The extraordinary con-siderations of the perceptive counselor are more power-ful in teaching than are commonsense observations, because they bring the learner closer to the real inner meaning of his personal existence than do the obvious but fundamentally untrue everyday platitudes.

In EthicsMoral teaching, like instruction in personal rela-

tions, is plagued by unimaginative practicality and obvi-ousness. This condition has been accentuated by the wide acceptance of the theory that moral principles are simply rules for promoting social harmony. Authentic moral meanings are reestablished only when the extra-ordinary mystery of unconditional obligation is recog-nized and when the secret inward claim of conscience is reinforced by the consideration of moral dilemmas where the easy justifications of prudence and custom do not suffice.


In SynopticsHistory has been robbed of its proper interest and

meaning when, in the name of meaning, it has been pressed into the service of everyday living, being justi-fied on the grounds that one can live more successfully now if he knows what has happened in the past. The es-sential meaning of history consists in the absolutely unique and completely extraordinary quality of singular events. To understand history is to engage in an imagi-native recreation of the past, the success of which is measured by one’s ability to transcend the preoccupa-tions and presuppositions of the practical present. The capacity for such imaginative transcendence of the present is a fair measure of spiritual maturity.

Although religion in its very essence denies sub-servience to the ordinary, much of what is called reli-gion is in fact interpreted in utilitarian fashion. In reli-gious instruction God is often represented as the all-powerful ruler to whom the faithful resort for benefits that cannot be secured through natural channels. Such cosmic practicalism is likely to appear to students both as untrue and uninteresting. On the other hand, imagi-native religious teaching emphasizes the profound mys-tery of the divine. Authentic religious meanings are per-haps best learned by participation in the life of the wor-shipping community, by meditation on the unfath-omable depths of existence, and by the reverent con-templation of sacred symbols, in which the finite and the infinite are wonderfully interfused.

Finally, everyday ideas are not likely to contribute much to philosophic understanding. The essence of phi-losophy is deep questioning. Its function is to force thought beyond the obvious to the meanings that lie hidden beneath the surface of experience. The appeal of philosophy consists precisely in its imaginative de-tachment from ordinary practice for the sake of a truer vision of things.


MATERIALS SHOULD BE SELECTED FOR THEIR POWEROF STIMULATING IMAGINATION

In every realm of understanding the principle holds that material for instruction should be selected for its power of stimulating imagination. This does not mean that materials should be bizarre, or esoteric, or sensational. Some teachers depend on the appeal of the unusual, no matter what it is, to maintain interest. The appeal to imagination has nothing to do with such romaticism and showmanship. It has everything to do with finding materials that have unusual power to speak to persons in the depth of their being by giving them a vision of a new order of life in which they can participate and by which their ordinary existence can be transfigured.


THE CULTIVATION OF THE LIFE OF IMAGINATION IS THE ULTIMATE AIM OF GENERAL EDUCATION

This cultivation of the life of imagination is the dis-tinctive purpose and ultimate aim of general education. In fulfilling this aim the fundamental disciplines are par-ticularly relevant, for they are the consequence of the direct pursuit of meanings, without subordination to the necessities of practical life. Although the applied disci-plines can also be taught imaginatively, they are per-haps more readily corrupted than are the fundamental fields by a subhuman utilitarian concept of meaning.

SUCCESS IN SOLVING THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE IS BEST ACHIEVED BY THOSE WHOSE IMAGINATIONS

ARE KINDLEDIn respect to practicality, it turns out that the pur-

suit of the apparently impractical fundamental studies using ostensibly impractical imaginative materials proves in the long run to yield the richest harvest of practical fruits. Profound understanding is the source of effective practice, and success in solving the problems of life is best achieved by those whose imaginations are kindled. As in so many affairs of human life, it turns out that in the field of practice the best results are obtained by indirect rather than by direct attack. Power to act is not a prize to be directly grasped, but a consequence of deep understanding. Thus, what the educational func-tionalists struggle to attain deliberately, they may lose because they do not understand human nature well enough. Contrariwise, through concern for the life of imagination persons may be assured a meaningful exis-tence, that will yield rich fruits in practical affairs.

IMAGINATION TEACHING IS SUITABLE FOR EVERYONEA final critical question about the principle of

imagination needs to be considered. Is the imaginative type of general education advocated above really possi-ble for everyone? Is it as applicable to an under-aver-


age child in a slum school as to a bright child in a highly favored suburban school? The answer is that imagina-tive teaching is suitable for everyone and that it is even more essential in the poor school and for the less able child than in the best school and for the gifted child. To hold this as an active working principle requires faith by the teacher in the potentiality for real human fulfillment in every person. It is the consistent witness of those who have labored in such a faith that their confidence was not in vain.

For the fruits of imaginative instruction to appear, three conditions must be fulfilled. First, it needs to be recognized that the means by which imagination may be kindled differ according to the person, his level of maturity, and his cultural context. The teacher has to choose materials to take account of these factors. What will kindle the imagination of a manually oriented child is not the same as for a conceptually oriented child. Imaginative materials for a country child may be differ-ent from those for a city child. They will ordinarily be different for adults than for children. There are no stan-dard materials that can be labeled “imaginative” for ev-eryone everywhere always.

The second condition is the teacher himself ex-emplifies an imaginative quality of mind. Part of his imaginativeness is manifest in his ability to transcend his own subjectivity and to enter so sympathetically into the lives of his students that he is able to create or select materials that will speak to their inner being. His own imagination must also be alive in respect to his own existence. If it is, he communicates a quality of au-thentic life—of having been grasped at the core of his personality by the power of meaning—and the students apprehend this quality of reality even if they do not share in the particular meanings the teacher experi-ences.

The third condition for successful imaginative teaching is an unconditional faith in the possibility of re-


alizing meaning through awakened imagination in any and every student, no matter what appearances may indicate to the contrary. This faith is not to be confused with a blind optimism in the goodness and indefinite perfectibility of every person. It is rather a working con-viction about the essential nature of persons and of the highest human good by which persons are ultimately constrained, namely, the fulfillment of meaning.

WAYS OF KNOWING1. Why should materials for instruction always be

selected so as to appeal to the imagination of the students?

2. Why is good teaching imaginative in quality?3. Why should the effective teacher select materi-

als that kindle the imagination of the learner?4. Why does teaching have little success unless

the student wants to learn?5. What are the sources of motivation?6. Do the highest powers of man provide the key

to understanding the lower levels of motivation?7. Why are distinctive human qualities of mind and

spirit the clue to human motivation?8. How is it that imagination belongs to the active

inner life of the person?9. How is imagination the power that renders ex-

perience vitally meaningful?10. Why is unimaginative aspects of experience

routine, dull, and unexciting?11. Why are unimaginative aspects of experience

essentially meaningless?12. How does imagination have remarkable power

in fulfilling a person’s existence?13. Why is the fundamental goal of human exis-

tence the fulfillment of meaning?14. Why do most human beings aim at the higher

things of life?


15. Why do most human beings aim ultimately at realization of the highest meanings?

16. Why do students learn best what they most pro-foundly want to know?

17. Why is learning efficiency in direct relation to personal motivation?

18. Why should materials of instruction be selected in the light of students’ real interests?

19. Why should curriculum content be chosen that will maximize meanings?

20. Why is the traditional academic curriculum defi-cient in meaning for the great majority of stu-dents?

21. Why is the more “functional” curriculum defi-cient that was developed by the principle that the greatest interest would be attached to studies con-tributing to the practical concerns of the learner?

22. Why should studies be specifically directed to-ward the awakening of the inner life of the learner through the nurture of imagination?

23. In appealing to the imagination, why should cur-riculum materials be selected that draw from the extraordinary rather than the experience of every-day life?

24. How are the hidden meanings of language dis-closed by considering extraordinary aspects of lan-guage?

25. How can the field of mathematics be filled with wonder and excitement with strange symbols and endless possibilities for experiments in thought?

26. How is science in reality a highly imaginative human enterprise, including a complete transfor-mation of commonsense ways of thinking?

27. How does the teacher who wants his students to understand science introduce them to the extraor-dinary perspectives on things which are afforded by scientific modes of thought?


28. Why does the fascination (and value) of science consist in its transfigured vision of nature and man, transcending the superficial perception and unexamined judgments of everyday life?

29. In appealing to the imagination, why should art be presented as an avenue to the exaltation of life through objectifying the mysterious depths of hu-mankind’s creative life?

30. How can the transforming power of art be im-parted by bringing students into the presence of works that do not at once disclose their meaning?

31. How can the transforming power of art be im-parted to students by showing them how to per-ceive works sensitively and expectantly?

32. In depth analysis of the human psyche, why is the world of self and others far different in reality from what appears to common sight?

33. Why are commonsense approaches to the im-provement of human relationships and to self-un-derstanding so unexciting and uninstructive?

34. Why does effective teaching in the domain of personal knowledge require extraordinary insight into the profound depths of the human mind and a level of understanding far different from the judg-ments of practical life?

35. Why does effective teaching in the area of per-sonal knowledge require a level of understanding far different from the judgments of practical life?

36. Why are the extraordinary considerations of the perceptive counselor more powerful in teaching than are commonsense observations?

37. Why is moral teaching plagued by unimagina-tive practicality and obviousness?

38. Why is there acceptance of the theory that moral principles are simply rules for promoting so-cial harmony?


39. How can authentic moral meanings be reestab-lished that bring about an attitude of unconditional obligation to do what is right?

40. Why does the essential meaning of history con-sist in the absolutely unique and completely extra-ordinary quality of singular events?

41. In trying to understand history, why is it impor-tant to engage in an imaginative recreation of the past?

42. In trying to understand history, why should suc-cess be measured by one’s ability to transcend the preoccupations and presuppositions of the practi-cal event?

43. In religion, why should imaginative religious teaching emphasize the profound mystery of the divine?

44. Why are authentic religious meanings perhaps best learned by participation in the life of the wor-shipping community?

45. How can authentic religious meanings be learned by meditation?

46. How can authentic religious meanings be learned by reverent contemplation of sacred sym-bols?

47. How can authentic religious meanings be learned by contemplation in which the finite and the infinite are wonderfully interfused?

48. Why are everyday ideas not likely to contribute much to philosophic understanding?

49. Why is the essence of philosophy deep ques-tioning?

50. Why is the function of philosophy to force thought?

51. How does philosophy force thought beyond the obvious meanings that lie hidden beneath the sur-face of experience?

52. Why should material for instruction be selected for its power of stimulating imagination?


53. Why is it important to find materials that have the unusual power to appeal to the imagination of the learner?

54. Why is the cultivation of the life of imagination the ultimate aim for general education?

55. Why is success in solving the problems of life best achieved by those whose imaginations are kindled?

56. Why is it that in the field of practice the best re-sults are obtained by indirect rather than by direct attack?

57. Why is power to act not a prize to be directly grasped, but a consequence of deep understand-ing?

58. Why is it true that through concern of the life of imagination persons may be assured a meaningful existence, that will yield rich fruits in practical af-fairs?

59. Why is imaginative teaching suitable for every-one?

60. Why is it important for the teacher to have faith in the potentiality for real human fulfillment in ev-ery person?

61. Why is it important for the teacher to recognize that the means by which imagination may be kin-dled differ according to the person, his level of ma-turity, and his cultural context?

62. Why is it important for the teacher to exemplify imaginative quality of mind?

63. How does the teacher transcend his own subjec-tivity and enter so sympathetically into the lives of his students so that he is able to create or select materials that will speak to the learner’s inner be-ing?

64. Why is successful imaginative teaching helped by the teacher’s unconditional faith in the possibil-ity of realizing meaning through awakened imagi-


nation in every student, no matter what appear-ances may indicate to the contrary?

65. Why is it the essential nature of human beings to seek the fulfillment of meaning?

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