The Promise of Language

By Shelagh Dunlop

EDUC-6111 EcoTexts- Sustainability and the

Cultural Imagination

Liz Campbell

June 2022
“The harvest has roots in the soil. The same
can be said from imagination: All novel ideas,
products, and action - all creations and
innovations - find their root in the terrain of
the possible. Imagination comes first.
Imagination comes before the will to act. In
this way, soil represents the potential, the
possible, where the seeds of future, tangible
actions take root.”
(Judson, 2021)
I love the metaphor of imagination as the soil. It
speaks to me because I enjoy being in the garden
and getting my hands in the dirt. And so many
wondrous things come out of the soil, just like
creative ideas can come out of imaginings. It’s a
visual metaphor that is easy for children to ‘see’ as I
try and foster their wonder and creativity through their
imagination.
https://png.pngtree.com/png-clipart/20210224/ourlarge/pngtree
-big-tree-root-clip-art-png-image_2952726.jpg
 “Just imagine
Waking up one day,
Looking out your window
This quote called out to me because I had just
finished looking at the Imagine A Day book by Sarah

starting to say…
Thomson with my early learners. They had some
interesting statements because of it. But nothing like
El’Jay.

No dead birds because of El’Jay’s imaginings are so profound for an 8 year

old… the things this child has already experienced in

No dead trees because of

their short life to write this poem is actually mind
blowing.

No dead people because of”

By El’Jay Johnson 8 Years old quoted in: (Felstiner, 2009)

 “Educational practice focused on known outcomes
I chose this quote because sadly it is so true and has foster a “right-answer” culture among the
been for my entire career. Despite my Board
implementing learning collaboratives for math and
students, who have virtually no incentive to
literacy and trying to promote inquiry learning, really generate ideas or to experiment with their own
thoughts and aspirations through divergent
nothing has changed. Teachers at my school still
complain about students being
uninterested/unmotivated. thinking. They are rewareed almost completely
I do wonder if our curriculum just had big ideas for
learning in the various subject areas rather than overall based upon their demonstration of convergent
expectations and specific expectations; would this give
teachers more space to be creative in how they
thinkings; specifically, how closely they can
approach teaching and give more room for students to
approximate an outcome that is already known.”
express their learning in different ways.

(Kelly & Brush Education (Edmonton), 2016)


I didn’t really understand how learning happens in an
exploration-based Kindergarten program - until I started
teaching it. I wish I knew, when I was teaching in the
Grades, what exactly learning can look like when you allow
students’ natural curiosity and wonder to take hold. I chose
this quote because I think it is an important reminder that
children are innately curious and I believe we have an
obligation to nurture that through the grades, challenging
ourselves as educators to think outside the box when trying
to cover curriculum content.
(Kelly & Brush Education (Edmonton), 2016)
“We come into the world with this disposition as
natural-born researchers and investigators. We spend
much of our preschool days investigating, gathering
information intentionally and sometimes unintentionally
through endless exploration, interaction, and
experimentation with the world around us. …. In
consumption-intense educational environments, (this)
natural curiosity that goes hand in hand with natural
intuitive/adaptive creativity quickly evolves into much
more limited research practice characterized by finding
and reporting of curricular content.”
 References

Felstiner, J. (2009). Can poetry save the earth? A field guide to nature poems. Yale University Press.

http://site.ebrary.com/id/10348464

Judson, G. (2021). Cultivating leadership imagination with cognitive tools: An imagination-focused approach

to leadership education. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 194277512110220.

https://doi.org/10.1177/19427751211022028

Kelly, R. W. & Brush Education (Edmonton). (2016). Creative development: Transforming education through

design thinking, innovation, and invention. Brush Education.