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IMAGINATION AND ITS 
 PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN A. KIRKPATRICK, B.S., M.Ph. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " FUNDAMENTALS OF CHILD STUDY," " GENETIC 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY, 
 
 THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE MAKING, 
 
 OF MONEY," w FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIOLOGY," ETC. 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
 ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY EDWIN A. KIRKPATRICK 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 120.4 
 
 ^° & * 
 
 U A<S 
 
 MA*' 20 1320 
 
 tgfte gtftengum jgregg 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
 PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 
 
 i1A57Q072 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Science embodies universal truths. Literature expresses 
 truth as seen or exemplified by individuals. Neither liter- 
 ature nor the science of psychology alone can adequately 
 deal with the subject of imagination. Psychology seeks 
 to present what is true of all minds, but in no type of 
 mental activity is there greater individuality than in the 
 exercise of the imagination. 
 
 The writer, in his many years of teaching psychology, 
 has enjoyed this subject because tests given students and 
 their reports of introspective studies show that the same 
 laws govern all minds, though they are partly disguised 
 by an infinite variety of image combinations. No topic 
 reveals to students more clearly their mental processes 
 and at the same time shows them that other persons 
 arrive at the same results by different routes. It gives 
 the author satisfaction, therefore, to share with a larger 
 group than that comprising his own students the pleas- 
 ure and advantage to be derived from a study of so in- 
 teresting a subject. He hopes that this little book will 
 introduce many to a study of the facts in the realm of 
 imagination as exemplified in their own minds and in 
 the minds of others, especially children, and as revealed 
 in play, science, art, and literature. With this end in 
 view, scientific technicalities and exhaustive treatment 
 have intentionally been avoided. 
 
 Although the book may be studied by individuals suc- 
 cessfully, it will prove much more interesting and valuable 
 
 [iii] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 when used by a group of persons who report and discuss 
 individual observations and make group experiments. It 
 is hoped that the manner of treatment and the exercises 
 at the close of each chapter will make the book especially 
 useful to teachers' reading circles. The references at the 
 close of the book may also prove valuable in giving a 
 wider, more intensive, and varied view of the subject. 
 
 E. A. K. 
 
 [iv] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I. IMAGINATION AND RELATED ACTIVITIES 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Preliminary Review 3 
 
 Making the absent present. Sources of the material used in 
 imagination. Free use of images. Kinds of imagination. 
 Imagination as a method of working. Illustrations and 
 exercises 
 
 II. Mental Images 17 
 
 Variety, number, and vividness. Control of images. Why 
 some images are usually more prominent than others. Ver- 
 bal images. Exercises and illustrations 
 
 III. Images and Percepts 26 
 
 After-images. Hallucinations. Suggested and suggesting 
 images. Standard images. Exercises and illustrations 
 
 IV. Mental Laws and Imagination 35 
 
 Mental habits. Associations of similarity and contrast. Other 
 laws than those of habit and association. Generic and indi- 
 vidual images. Exercises 
 
 V. Imagination and Memory 48 
 
 Imaging and locating experiences. Constructive imagination 
 and memory. Conflict of memory and creative imagination. 
 Special varieties of images as aids to memory. Exercises 
 
 VI. Feeling and Imagination 56 
 
 Images and sensory feelings. Constructive imagination and 
 emotional states. Mood and creative imagination. Instincts — 
 and imagination. Desire and imagination. Exercises 
 
 VII. Imagination and Dreaming 63 
 
 Dream imagery. Sensations and dreams. Recent experi- 
 ences and dreams. Wishes and dreams. Exercises 
 
 [v] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 VIII. Reasoning and Imagination 69 
 
 Similarity and purpose in reasoning. Symbols and exact 
 reasoning. Images, judgment, and decision. Imaging in 
 induction and deduction. Exercises 
 
 PART II. THE IMAGINATIVE LIFE OF CHILDREN 
 
 IX. Factors involved in the Early Development 
 
 of Imagination 81 
 
 The beginnings of imagination. Language and images. 
 Tendency to animism. Imitation and imagination. Remi- 
 niscence and anticipation. Imagination and the omnipo- 
 tence of childhood. Exercises 
 
 X. Later Development of the Imagination as 
 
 AFFECTED BY AGE, CIRCUMSTANCES, AND INDIVID- 
 UALITY . go 
 
 The chief factors involved. Characteristics of imagination 
 at different ages. Periods of imaginative development. 
 Exercises 
 
 XI. The Period of Imaginative Play 102 
 
 Playing with images. Influences affecting creative activity. 
 
 Imaginary companions. Exercises 
 
 XII. Constructing the Real World 116 
 
 — ^ The period of constructive imagination. Comparing and 
 constructing. Truth and fancy. The imaginary made real. 
 Individual construction. Exercises 
 
 XIII. The Period of Daydreams 125 
 
 The imagination of the adolescent. Life idealized. Roman- 
 tic imagination. Ambition. Exercises 
 
 XIV. Evils and Dangers of Imagination in Children 134 
 
 Playful and pleasurable imagining. Serious or purposeful 
 imagination. Imagination in relation to lying. Mental con- 
 flict as a cause of wrongdoing. How to guard against the 
 dangers of imagination. Literature and imaginative activ- 
 ity. Exercises 
 
 [vi] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART III. SCHOOL SUBJECTS AND THE IMAGINATION 
 
 XV. Use and Training of Imagination in School 157 
 
 Disciplining the imagination. Stimuli to the imagination. 
 Directing the imagination. Mental conditions favoring 
 imagination. Exercises 
 
 XVI. Learning to Read and Spell 167 
 
 Imagination involved in learning to read. The thought 
 method. The symbol or phonic method. Learning to 
 spell. Exercises 
 
 XVII. Imagination in Drawing and Constructing . 177 
 
 Images and drawing. Models and images. Constructing 
 and imaging. Designing and inventing. Exercises 
 
 XVIII. Imagination in Arithmetic 183 
 
 From concrete things to symbols. From auditory to vis- 
 ual images. Measurement and imaging. Computing and 
 imaging. Imagination and problem-solving. Exercises 
 
 XIX. Geography and the Imagination 192 
 
 Geography as a stimulus to the imagination. Geograph- 
 ical language. Constructive imagination and geography. 
 Geographical imaging and reasoning. Exercises 
 
 XX. Imagination in History and Literature . . 197 
 
 Enlargement of the social environment through imagi- 
 nation. Historical and literary ideals. Dramatics in his- 
 tory and literature. Illustrating and writing as a stimulus 
 to the imagination. Literary expression and imagination. 
 Exercises 
 
 XXL Imagination in Nature Study and Science . 204 
 
 Imagination and observation. Artistic and poetic study. 
 Practical nature study. Scientific nature study. Exercises 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 209 
 
 [vii] 
 
INTRODUCTION . 
 
 Imagination has been the Cinderella of the intellectual 
 faculties, so far as the attention and interest of those who 
 are charged with the care and culture of the young are 
 concerned. Educational literature has been filled with 
 discussions of the nature, value, and training of percep- 
 tion, memory, and reason ; but imagination has always 
 been kept in the background, — so much so, in fact, that 
 most parents and teachers have only very hazy notions 
 respecting the role which this intellectual process plays 
 in human life and the prominence which it should be 
 accorded in education. Nine out of ten persons speak 
 of imagination as though it were not a vital factor in 
 mental operations, — as though it could be ignored or 
 eliminated without loss to the efficiency, stability, or 
 balance of the human mind. 
 
 It is true that "Training the Imagination" is a topic 
 sometimes discussed at educational meetings ; but anyone 
 who has listened to these discussions will readily bear 
 witness to the fact that the majority, perhaps, of educators 
 who appear to be well informed on most educational and 
 psychological subjects find themselves at sea when they at- 
 tempt to distinguish imagination from other forms of mental 
 activity, and especially when they discuss the function of 
 imagination in the various branches of school instruction 
 and the part it should play in the educational program. 
 
 Professor Kirkpatrick's book has been prepared with 
 a view to clearing up misconceptions in the minds of 
 
 [ix] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 parents and teachers respecting the relation of imagina- 
 tion to the other intellectual processes, the varieties of 
 imaginative activity in the adjustments of daily life, the 
 changes in the content and form of imagination that 
 occur in the course of a child's development, individual 
 differences in the prominence, intensity, and quality of 
 imagination, and the proper utilization of this activity in 
 the work of the school. The author has treated his 
 theme as a whole and in its various subdivisions in an 
 unusually concrete and lively manner. His generalizations 
 are all based on data derived from the circumstances and 
 experiences of the daily life of childhood and youth in 
 the city and in the country, and in homes with varying 
 ideals of training and discipline. Many persons have co- 
 operated with him in the effort to discover how different 
 minds work imaginatively under varying conditions and 
 at different periods in mental development. In this way 
 a large amount of accurate and live material has been 
 collected, and typical examples are presented and inter- 
 preted in this volume. It makes a document of excep- 
 tional interest and value for students of human nature, 
 and especially for anyone who acts as counselor for the 
 young or who gives instruction on any subject in the 
 
 school or in the home. 
 
 M. V. O'SHEA 
 The University of Wisconsin 
 
 [x] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE 
 IN EDUCATION 
 
 PART I 
 IMAGINATION AND RELATED ACTIVITIES 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 PRELIMINARY REVIEW 
 
 Making the absent present. The following will serve 
 as an introduction to our subject : "He opened the gate, 
 saw the white cottage through the trees and shrubs, 
 caught the odor of roses and, as he approached the door, 
 heard a joyful cry, saw the door flung open, and felt her 
 arms about him." Is this an account of a man's experi- 
 ence as he approached a suburban home, or is it a de- 
 scription of what he mentally represented as he sat in his 
 office in the city, among far different sights, sounds, and 
 odors ? If the latter is the case, we have an example of 
 imaginative activity. 
 
 This power of viewing the absent as though it were 
 present is one of the most distinctive characteristics of 
 human beings. Animals have it either not at all or to 
 only a slight degree. For the most part they live in the 
 present, while people occupy their minds for hours at a 
 time with the absent, the past, and the future. An animal 
 is modified by his past experiences, and on that account 
 his future actions will be different, but there is little reason 
 for believing that any animal becomes distinctly conscious 
 of those past experiences, independent of the surround- 
 ings in which they occurred, or that he pictures far in 
 advance what his actions are to be. 
 
 It is because human beings have this extraordinary 
 power to represent the absent that they are able to become 
 
 [3] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 familiar with objects and events distant in space and time 
 and are able to use the results of past experience in rep- 
 resenting and planning what they shall do in the future. 
 The animal's mental experiences are determined by the 
 here and now, the man's by what has been and may be. 
 
 A popular view of imagination is that it is concerned 
 only with the untrue and the unreal ; but this is correct 
 only in the sense that the reality and the truth are not 
 manifested in stimuli immediately present. Imagination 
 may concern itself either with what has existed or may 
 exist in the future, or it may represent what never has 
 been and perhaps never will be experienced by any human 
 being in exactly the form pictured. In the illustration 
 given above, the man may be living again in imagination 
 an actual experience and may represent nothing which 
 did not actually happen, or he may be representing what 
 is likely to occur when he goes home at night. Again, 
 he may be representing an experience that he has never 
 had, among scenes that he has. never visited or heard 
 described. In all these cases things not present are made 
 real in his consciousness, which is the most distinctive 
 characteristic of imaginative activity. 
 
 When the image of the scene is a memory of what 
 actually happened there is less freedom of representation 
 than when new surroundings and events are mirrored in 
 the mind. We may say, then, that the more completely 
 what is not present to the senses is made to seem real in 
 consciousness and the freer this seeming reality is from 
 any actual associated experience of the moment, the 
 greater, is the degree of imagination. The man who pic- 
 tures exactly scenes that have occurred or will occur is 
 using his imagination just as truly as the one who pictures 
 
 [4] 
 
PRELIMINARY REVIEW 
 
 the unreal and the impossible. The only difference is 
 that in the one case knowledge of the world as it is ex- 
 ercises a stronger controlling influence over the imagina- 
 tive activity than in the other. 
 
 Sources of the material used in imagination. However 
 free imagination may become, it must begin with materials 
 supplied by real sense experiences. A man who has 
 never had any visual experiences has no material for 
 representing how things actually look. If he pictures a 
 beautiful form it is in terms of touch and motion rather 
 than of light and shade, while representation of color as 
 it appears to the eye is utterly impossible to him. He 
 can only conjecture that colors differ, as tactile, auditory, 
 or olfactory sensations differ ; and when red or yellow are 
 mentioned he may represent them as resembling one kind 
 or another of the sensations with which he is familiar. 
 He cannot possibly experience in consciousness the sen- 
 sation felt by normal people when objects of those colors 
 are presented to the eye. 
 
 It has often been suggested that animals or beings on 
 other planets may have senses entirely different from 
 those that we possess. Whether such is the case or not, 
 it is utterly impossible for us to represent what those 
 senses might be except in terms of sensations that we 
 have experienced. It is true that we may represent objects 
 entirely different from any that we have ever seen and 
 perhaps from any that have ever existed, but in doing 
 so we must use material derived from actual sensory 
 experiences. We may picture an animal or a plant differ- 
 ent from any that we know or possibly combining the char- 
 acteristics of plants and animals in a way unknown to 
 science, but in doing so we have used material derived 
 
 [5] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 from actual observations. Our image of an entirely new 
 creature is made possible only by combining parts of many 
 separate observations in an entirely new way. 
 
 Free use of images. The material used by the imagina- 
 tion consists of images that are like the sensations ex- 
 perienced when the stimuli were present. When these 
 images are arranged in exactly the same way as their 
 originals were in some experience or series of experi- 
 ences, there is little freedom of imagination, and the 
 process is usually designated as memory or reproductive 
 imagination. When, however, some of the images are 
 modified or transposed and when images derived from 
 various experiences are combined into a new unity, we 
 have a better example of free activity of the imagination. 
 The person who, when the word " tree " is spoken, 
 always pictures a particular tree standing amid certain 
 surroundings has not as great freedom of the imagina- 
 tion, so far as trees are concerned, as the one who pictures 
 the general form of a tree that can be located anywhere 
 and instantly become of any size, species, or shape. An 
 active imagination not only brings vividly before the mind 
 sense experiences, in the absence of the objects produc- 
 ing them, but it exercises great freedom in isolating 
 sensations from their associates and in making new 
 groupings of images. When images can thus be disso- 
 ciated and combined with others there is a high degree 
 of freedom as regards the material that the imagination 
 may use. The fact that the images are thus free to enter 
 into new combinations does not, however, give the 
 imagination complete liberty when a new complex image 
 and perhaps a series of events is to be constructed. In 
 making such a construction it may be easy to separate 
 
 [6] 
 
PRELIMINARY REVIEW 
 
 the images from their former associates, but one may have 
 difficulty in combining them in ways that differ greatly 
 from combinations that have previously been experienced. 
 
 Kinds of imagination. On the basis of the above facts 
 regarding freedom of imagination, we may distinguish 
 three rather distinct types of imaginative activity. These 
 are, first, reproductive imagination, in which the past is 
 presented to the mind with the images arranged just as 
 they were in the original experience ; second, construc- 
 tive imagination, in which the separate images are com- 
 bined not according to some particular experience but in 
 accordance with their more usual arrangement or as 
 directed by descriptions ; third, creative imagination in 
 which the images are freely arranged in accordance with 
 one's own feelings and purposes. 
 
 The first type of imagination is quite similar to memory 
 and may be identical with it. There may, however, be 
 this difference : In memory we know that certain things 
 happened at a particular time and place and in a certain 
 order or relation, while in what is called reproductive 
 imagination there may be less accuracy as to the order 
 and relation of events but greater vividness of imagery, 
 so that it almost seems as if the sensory experience were 
 being repeated. It follows, therefore, that although repro- 
 ductive imagination and memory are often nearly iden- 
 tical, yet there may be a high degree of imaginative 
 activity with much inaccuracy of memory or a high de- 
 gree of reliability of memory with a limited exercise of 
 imagination. 
 
 In constructive imagination laws of association and 
 volition have a prominent part. The most common use 
 of constructive imagination is that in which it is directed 
 
 [7] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 by words or symbols of some kind. If you are told how the 
 objects in a room have been arranged and are then able 
 to picture its appearance so that you find it just as you ex- 
 pected when you enter, there has been effective use of the 
 constructive imagination. Through association the words 
 call up images of objects and their relations and the uni- 
 fied picture is formed accordingly. If the room and the 
 objects described are familiar, it may be easy to form vivid 
 pictures ; but if the arrangement is entirely different from 
 that to which one has been accustomed, it may be difficult 
 to construct the scene as described because of the tendency 
 to reproduce in accordance with former experiences. 
 
 What is actually imaged when a description is given 
 conforms in part to the words used and in part to the 
 kind and arrangement of images which are most familiar 
 to us. This may be illustrated by the following descrip- 
 tion: "As we were driving along the road we saw a house 
 and a barnyard with various animals in it." Some per- 
 sons in listening to such a description may do little con- 
 structing, but merely reproduce vividly some suggested 
 scene with which they are familiar. Those who construct a 
 definite picture are likely to do so in accordance with their 
 usual experience of roads, houses, barnyards, and animals. 
 If a more detailed description were given, the whole scene 
 would perhaps have to be changed. For example, it might 
 be said, " The house is sixty feet long, five feet wide, and 
 forty feet high ; the road is of white crushed stone ; the 
 fence is a cactus hedge ; and the animals are elephants, 
 camels, kangaroos, reindeer, and wolves." One must then 
 change his picture so completely that he realizes that con- 
 structive imagination is influenced by habit as much or 
 even more than it is by the exact meanings of words. 
 
 [8] 
 
PRELIMINARY REVIEW 
 
 In creative imagination one pictures according to his 
 emotions, desires, and purposes, although in doing so he 
 is of course influenced by his previous mental habits. If 
 you are asked to plan how the objects in a room of a 
 certain size and description shall be arranged, for certain 
 purposes or in order to produce the most beautiful effect, 
 you must exercise your creative imagination. If you pic- 
 ture the room as quite similar to a particular model or 
 with the arrangement most familiar, you employ less 
 originality in creating the complex image than if the char- 
 acteristics of various rooms are combined in such a way 
 as to make one of a new type that is useful or beautiful. 
 Freedom from the usual is one of the marked characteris- 
 tics of creative imagination, yet if this freedom does not 
 recognize the essential nature of things, the product of 
 one's creative imagination may be neither useful nor 
 beautiful. The inventor and the artist must show freedom 
 in making new combinations, but the complex whole must 
 be such as the nature of the material and the purpose of 
 the creation demand, or it will be of no value. 
 
 These three forms of imagination all necessitate the 
 production of images based on original sensory experi- 
 ences. Constructive imagination involves the ability to 
 separate images from their original associates and to 
 arrange them in new combinations according to directions, 
 while creative imagination requires the same power to 
 select and rearrange images and also the faculty of deter- 
 mining how they shall be arranged in order that some 
 ideal or purpose may be realized. Reproductive imagina- 
 tion is especially valuable in describing our own experi- 
 ences ; constructive imagination, in the understanding and 
 appreciation of descriptions given by others ; and creative 
 
 [9] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 imagination, in evolving imaginary descriptions and stories. 
 In the industries reproductive imagination enables one to 
 construct according to a sample pattern, constructive 
 imagination helps one to follow directions and interpret 
 plans, while creative imagination gives power to devise 
 new machines and processes. In art reproductive imagina- 
 tion enables one to reproduce what he has seen, construc- 
 tive imagination helps one to illustrate a story or poem, 
 and creative imagination is the source of every original 
 conception. 
 
 We see, then, that the materials used in imagination 
 are necessarily derived from sensory experiences, but that 
 these materials may be modified and arranged in ways 
 quite unlike those of the real world or they may be 
 arranged in accordance with the actual or probable events 
 of our own lives or those of others. The historian who 
 pictures people as they have really existed is using his 
 imagination in accordance with the facts of particular 
 situations. The novelist who describes imaginary charac- 
 ters which have had no separate individual existence may 
 be directing his fancy in accordance with the nature and 
 relation of things as they are found in the real world, or 
 he may exercise his imagination in representing what will 
 stir the emotions or produce aesthetic satisfaction without 
 regard to the actuality, probability, or even possibility of 
 the existence of such things as he describes. In the first 
 case he is portraying essential but not literal truth, while 
 in the latter case truth is regarded only so far as is neces- 
 sary to produce the desired mental effects. 
 
 The scientist who imagines all substances as consisting 
 of molecules composed of ultimate atoms, or who pictures 
 atoms as electrons or centers of electric forces, is using 
 
 [10] 
 
PRELIMINARY REVIEW 
 
 his imagination to help him to grasp the truth. The mere 
 fact that things can be imagined more vividly one way 
 than another does not prove the truth of the one theory 
 as opposed to another. 
 
 A reader who pictures accurately what is described by 
 the historian, novelist, or scientist is truthfully represent- 
 ing what they have set forth, but some of what is imag- 
 ined may have no counterpart in the world of objective 
 reality. Imagination is not in itself either true or false ; 
 it is merely a mode of representing experiences in con- 
 sciousness. It is only because the imagination is often 
 occupied with representing the agreeable rather than the 
 actual that there is a tendency to contrast the imaginary 
 with the true and to speak of a liar as one whose imagina- 
 tion is too strong. The impulse to imagine things as one 
 would like them instead of as they are may, of course, lead 
 to unconscious lying, while he who lies intentionally need 
 not necessarily image vividly but may merely strive to make 
 others form pictures which do not conform to actuality. 
 
 Imagination as a method of working. There are three 
 principal ways of meeting situations and of solving prob- 
 lems : one method is that of observing and manipulating 
 objects, another, of imaging them, and the third is that 
 of using symbols which represent them. 
 
 By the first method one would find how many inch 
 cubes there are in a three-inch cube by cutting it into inch 
 cubes and counting them, while by the second method he 
 would image the three-inch cube as being divided into 
 inch cubes and count without actually seeing them. By 
 the third method he would use figures or symbols to repre- 
 sent the cube and the mathematical process by which he 
 could calculate the number ; for example, 3x3x3 = 27. 
 
 [«] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 If you are asked to tell how many posts placed a rod 
 apart would be required to fence a field eight by ten rods, 
 you could find the number by placing the posts at the 
 proper distances and counting them, or you could imagine 
 the field surrounded by the posts a rod apart and count 
 the number, or, without representing the field at all, you 
 could use symbols standing for distances and numbers 
 and calculate according to the formula, " The number of 
 posts equals twice the length and breadth of the field 
 in rods." 
 
 You may determine whether two colors match by look- 
 ing at both of them at once ; or in the absence of the 
 colors you may imagine how they look and decide whether 
 the ribbon seen at one store will match the dress seen at 
 another ; or one who is used to dealing with colors may 
 represent each color or shade by a number and letter and 
 can thus designate what colors are to be combined or 
 matched, as is done by the dyer of yarns. The first, or 
 perceptual, method is surest but also the slowest and 
 sometimes impracticable ; the method of imagination or 
 representation is quicker, though less accurate, but one 
 that can be used at any time ; while the conceptual, or 
 symbol, method, when proper symbols and formulas have 
 been learned, is quickest and most accurate. 
 
 The child in building a house with blocks is likely to 
 depend chiefly upon the perceptual method in choosing 
 and placing his blocks. Later he will be able to image 
 the blocks and their arrangement before actually selecting 
 and placing them, while an architect indicates the plan 
 of a house by means of figures and lines. 
 
 There are great differences in people as to their ability 
 to deal with things in their absence and as to the methods 
 
 [12] 
 
PRELIMINARY REVIEW 
 
 they employ. Some may use images, others symbols. 
 Some persons must have the things before them, others 
 may represent them so vividly that it is not necessary to 
 have the objects present, while a few with more abstract 
 concepts need only symbols and formulas in order to 
 determine conditions and quickly form a plan of action. 
 Imagination may therefore be regarded as a mental proc- 
 ess in which images of things, persons, and events take 
 the place of the sensations that may be or have been 
 produced by them. It is also a mode of thinking in 
 which images of experiences rather than symbols stand- 
 ing for those experiences are the materials with which 
 the mind works. 
 
 Illustrations and exercises. The following are reports 
 of individuals as to the use of imagination. It will be well 
 for each reader to note down instances in which he uses 
 his imagination effectively and of other cases when it fails 
 to serve his purposes or leads him into error. From many 
 such observations he can form an idea of the part that 
 imagination really plays in his mental life. 
 
 Images play a large part in my existence. While reading 
 books I almost always imagine myself to be certain characters, 
 while acquaintances take other parts. But when reading books 
 which are not stories I do not image the different characters as 
 much as I do the circumstances. 
 
 In day dreaming, when I close my eyes I can always see 
 things just as if they were real. I also feel sensations very 
 keenly as they impressed me in the first place. For instance, 
 one day last summer I went with a family to Mt. Wachusett. 
 My girl friend and I tried to see how far we could run up the 
 Indian trail without stopping. In thinking of this day's outing 
 this feeling of actual fatigue is uppermost in my thoughts. 
 
 [13] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 The next thing I think of is the cool place we found in 
 which to eat our dinner, and how good it seemed to sit down to 
 eat after being so tired. I can actually picture the whole group 
 as we walked, ate, or did other things throughout the day. 
 
 I always see in my " mind's eye " the thing itself, hardly 
 ever words or definitions. For instance, I think of a day in 
 camp. I see perfectly the glassy stillness of the lake at sunrise ; 
 I hear again the bugle sounding the reveille in the boys' camp 
 across the bay ; I hear the rattle of dishes in the kitchen, smell 
 the coffee, and the fish frying ; and so on throughout the whole 
 day. Every little incident comes back into my mind, and I see 
 and hear and live again all those delightful experiences. If I 
 close my eyes now I see plainly the tiny bedroom in the cottage, 
 hear the rustle of the leaves and the soft lap, lap of the water 
 upon the rocks of the shore at night. So it is with all my past 
 pleasures They flash upon that i nwar( j e y e 
 
 Which is the bliss of solitude. 
 
 In thinking of people I usually see them at the sound of the 
 name. On some occasions, however, I have an auditory image, 
 as of the trilling laugh of my favorite cousin, or hear again the 
 peculiar tones in which someone has spoken. 
 
 Cicero is an exception. I never picture the man, but the first 
 page of the textbook and his first oration against Catiline. If a 
 book were given me, opened at that place, with my eyes shut 
 I believe I could put my finger on the words " O tempora ! 
 O mores ! " so vividly do I see them on that page. 
 
 I cannot image the fragrance of a rose from just the abstract 
 idea " rose," but let me form an image of some particular rose 
 or roses and I can image their fragrance and thorns as easily 
 as their beauty. 
 
 My imagination often reminds me of my duties. If I do not 
 feel like writing home some night, I picture mother looking in 
 vain for a letter from me, and I write the letter. 
 
 [14] 
 
PRELIMINARY REVIEW 
 
 I am able to understand the people I come in contact with 
 by imagining their feelings and motives. I am able to under- 
 stand the different studies I take by picturing what I study 
 instead of just reading it. 
 
 In imagining a day's outing I thought of a certain grove near 
 a pond where I had a picnic five years ago. I saw the baseball 
 game in which I was pitching and was knocked from the box. 
 These images were plainly visual. Then I had a motor image 
 of the races in which I strained every nerve to win. Then came 
 my gustatory image of eating a large quantity of sandwiches 
 and ice cream and drinking tonic. The motor image appeared 
 again of my struggling to complete ten strokes in the water 
 before giving up. In connection with the baseball I could place 
 an auditory image, that of hearing encouragement from members 
 of my side. 
 
 I can never recall the image of a person's face, and rarely 
 of a person's form. If I try hard to do so the image is distorted 
 or unnatural. I can remember only once in my life when the 
 image of a face has come to me vividly ; that was the face of 
 my dead uncle. 
 
 Landscape scenes, no matter how familiar, are never imaged 
 in my mind except in a very vague and fragmentary way. My 
 lack of imagination in this line does not prevent me from enjoy- 
 ing very much descriptions of scenery in books, though it may 
 be only the beauty of the language that impresses me. 
 
 My poor imagination has been, I think, a hindrance to 
 me in English composition and in the study of geography. 
 For instance, when the Mississippi River was mentioned I 
 thought not of a river but of the line representing the river on 
 the map. 
 
 I was surprised to find how much and to what good use I 
 could put my images, vague as they were, in solving problems 
 in arithmetic. 
 
 [15] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 When I am sewing, making a dress or hat, I picture how the 
 dress or hat will look when finished. If I have an untrimmed 
 hat, I picture how I wish it to look and then trim it or have 
 it trimmed. 
 
 When I am to go to a strange place for a day or two, before 
 I go I picture how I think it will look. 
 
 At home many times I am told that we are going to have 
 a certain dish for supper or dinner, and I am disappointed 
 when it doesn't taste as I had imaged it would. 
 
 When trying to write out notes for folk dancing I often seem 
 to see the girls in the different positions and sometimes I can 
 seem to hear Miss L. giving directions, and thus I can write the 
 notes more fully. When answering questions in " Minimum 
 Essentials " in geography I often visualize the map of Europe, 
 or if I want a particular city I locate it mentally on the map. 
 
 16] 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MENTAL IMAGES 
 
 Variety, number, and vividness. There are as many 
 kinds of mental images as there are varieties of sensory- 
 experiences. In recalling your breakfast orange this morn- 
 ing you may have an image of its shape and color, of the 
 sound it made when you dropped it, of your sensation of 
 movement in reaching for it, of how it felt to your hand 
 as you grasped it, its odor as you smelled it, and its taste 
 as you began eating it. You may also imagine the feel- 
 ing of weariness, hunger, headache, or well-being that you 
 experienced at the same time. 
 
 In imaging the visual appearance of an object you may 
 think not only of its form and size but also of its color, 
 as orange, red, green, or blue. In imaging the experi- 
 ence of touching an object you may represent not only its 
 feeling of smoothness or roughness but also its tempera- 
 ture, as warm or cold, or the pain that it may have 
 produced if it were sharp or struck the skin with force. 
 In representing the taste of an object you may image it 
 as salt, sour, bitter, or sweet, while in the case of smell 
 the varieties of imagery are indefinitely numerous. 
 
 It is quite probable that of the various possible images 
 some appear much more frequently and with greater vivid- 
 ness than others. If you recall your breakfast table this 
 morning, your images may be chiefly of the visual appear- 
 ance of the various objects and persons, or you may 
 
 [17] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 mentally hear the clatter of knives and forks and the 
 voices of the various people at the table. Again, the 
 odor of the food, its taste, its contact with the hand or 
 the tongue, or the movements made in procuring and 
 eating it may be most prominent. 
 
 In anticipating what is likely to occur at a banquet or 
 a reception your mind may be filled with visual pictures, 
 with auditory images of voices and music, with images 
 from any of the other senses, or from general bodily feel- 
 ing. Any or all of these may appear, but it is probable 
 that one sort of imagery will occur much more frequently 
 than others in your imaginative pictures and also that this, 
 or possibly a different kind of imagery, will be more vivid ; 
 that is, more like a sensation than any of the others. 
 
 With a large proportion of people visual images occupy 
 the most prominent place, auditory next, followed some- 
 times by one, sometimes by another of the other varieties. 
 Some persons depend almost entirely upon one kind of 
 image, but most people form all kinds to a greater or 
 less extent. 
 
 There are a few whose images of objects are so vague 
 and indefinite that they assert that they have no images 
 w T orth mentioning. When you name an object such as 
 an apple they know its shape, size, color, etc., but they 
 do not image it with sufficient vividness to produce a con- 
 scious state like that experienced when one sees, smells, 
 or eats an apple. It is difficult for those who form vivid 
 images to understand how it is possible to have any idea of 
 an apple when it is not present without forming distinct 
 images of the sensations that it gives, but nevertheless we 
 must accept the statement of many observers that such 
 may be the case. 
 
 [IS] 
 
MENTAL IMAGES 
 
 Ccmtrol of images. Many persons who under ordinary 
 circumstances have only vague or fleeting images of the 
 objects of which they are thinking are able, if they wish 
 to do so, to form vivid images and hold them in mind 
 for several seconds, On the other hand, some people who 
 ordinarily image vividly in all their thinking may be unable 
 to keep any selected image in mind and make it more 
 distinct. It is not at all unusual for those who occasionally 
 form vivid images of smell to be utterly unable to form 
 voluntarily an image of even the most familiar odors. In 
 general, however, the images that are spontaneously most 
 prominent in consciousness are also most easily controlled. 
 
 A few people seem to have almost complete control 
 over certain images so that they can deal with them just 
 as they would with real objects. A painter, for example, 
 may study his model properly posed, then dismiss her and 
 paint from the mental image that he has formed ; or a 
 musician may image so vividly the tones corresponding 
 to a musical score as to know exactly how it will sound 
 when played. Such vividness and power of control of 
 images are, however, rare. Most people believe that they 
 have more vivid images and better control over them than 
 they really possess. You may think that you have a clear 
 and accurate image of a chair, a dish, or a postage stamp, 
 but if you are asked to draw it or describe it minutely, it 
 will usually be found that the image is not nearly so detailed 
 and accurate as the actual perception. 
 
 Control of images may be tested not only by represent- 
 ing mentally the sensations an object has actually given 
 you but by imaging how it would appear under various 
 conditions. For example, if an object has been seen only 
 from the front in its natural size and position, can you 
 
 [19] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 imagine how it would look seen at an angle or from above, 
 or if its dimensions were greatly enlarged, or if it were 
 placed much nearer or farther away, or if its color and 
 its surroundings were changed ? People often purchase 
 objects that prove entirely unsatisfactory when placed in 
 their homes because they are unable to represent their 
 appearance in certain surroundings. A person who can 
 image a familiar tune as played upon the piano may be 
 unable to image the same tune played on a violin. 
 
 Power of constructive imagination depends very largely 
 upon the degree of control that one has of his images. 
 This is illustrated by the following : A three-inch cube, 
 red on the outside and white on the inside, is cut into 
 inch cubes. How many cubes will there be with one red 
 surface, how many with two red surfaces, and how many 
 with three ? Another test is to image a long word and 
 then see if you can name the letters backward correctly 
 and as rapidly as you could if you were looking at the word. 
 
 Why some images are ustially more prominent tha?i 
 others. Extensive experiments show that most people 
 form more visual images than any other kind, and in a 
 considerable number of cases the visual images are also 
 most vivid and most completely under voluntary control. 
 There are several reasons why this should be so. In the 
 first place nearly all material things are visible, while many 
 of them have neither taste nor odor. Again, in perceiv- 
 ing an object that may yield several kinds of sensation 
 we almost always see it many more times than we hear 
 it, touch it, taste it, or smell it. It is not at all strange, 
 therefore, that when that object is represented in our 
 minds, its visual appearance is the most prominent and 
 perhaps the only image that is formed. 
 
 [20] 
 
MENTAL IMAGES 
 
 Again, if we notice the ways in which the various sense 
 organs are used we shall find that the eye is under much 
 better control and much more active than any other sense 
 organ. We can not only shut out all sensation by closing 
 the eyes but we can instantly turn them away from what 
 we do not wish to see, and fix them upon some other 
 object. It is not easy to close the ear to all sounds, and 
 it is impossible to turn completely from one sound to 
 another. We can get sensations of touch from any object 
 near us, but a much longer time is required to approach 
 objects and touch them than to look at them. Taste is 
 much like touch in these respects, and many objects yield 
 no taste whatever. With regard to olfactory sensations 
 there is very little possibility of controlling them except 
 by closing the nostrils or keeping at a sufficient distance 
 from the source. Since the visual sensations are so easily 
 and continuously controlled it is not strange that we should 
 also develop ready control of visual images. 
 
 The prominence of visual imagery has also been in- 
 creased by the conditions introduced by modern civiliza- 
 tion. Visual language and the extensive use of pictures 
 and diagrams have greatly stimulated visual activity. 
 Among people who read little, auditory images are often 
 decidedly prominent. This applies both to children who 
 have not yet learned to read and to adults who make 
 little use of books and papers. 
 
 Verbal images. Some persons instead of imaging things 
 image the words or symbols that stand for them. Your 
 own tendency in this respect may be discovered in the 
 following way : Go over carefully in your mind your ex- 
 periences at a picnic or a party, or make out plans of what 
 you are going to do on a certain day. After you have 
 
 [21] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 done so notice to what extent your mind has been filled 
 with images of things and events as they have appeared 
 or would appear to you, and to what extent it has been 
 occupied with words suggesting or describing those objects 
 and events. Some persons will find these images to be 
 almost wholly concrete, while a few will have chiefly a 
 series of images of words as either seen, heard, or spoken. 
 Some will have both kinds of imagery, and in many in- 
 stances if a person is asked to describe the scene that 
 he has been picturing, many of his concrete images will 
 give place to verbal, that is, images of words. Others, 
 however, speak or write words with little or no previous 
 imagery of what they are to be. 
 
 Such an experiment as this would seem to reveal the 
 fact that definite images, either concrete or verbal, ordi- 
 narily play a minor part in the thought processes of some 
 individuals. They become conscious of various events and 
 describe them, but with only faint and fleeting images 
 of things or words. It is not improbable, however, that 
 many persons who think that images are present to only 
 a slight extent in their ordinary thinking do in reality 
 form motor, or kinesthetic, images. They experience again 
 the movements that they made when an event happened, 
 or the movements involved in speaking or writing the 
 words describing it. Such imagery is prominent in many 
 people, but the individual is not always distinctly aware of 
 the fact. This kind of image is often mingled with other 
 kinds and with actual sensations of movement to such an 
 extent that it is not noticed. Many people who think they 
 have distinct images of taste find, upon more careful 
 observation, that they are only imaging the motions of 
 the tongue and lips, and perhaps actually making such 
 
 [22] 
 
MENTAL IMAGES 
 
 motions, while genuine taste images are scarcely present 
 at all. In a similar way instead of imaging the feeling 
 of objects to the skin we image the movement of a finger 
 over the object. Even visual images are closely associated 
 with the actual movements of the eye and with images 
 of such movement. Again, in using verbal images actual 
 and imaged movements play a large part. It is safe to 
 say that motor, or kinesthetic, images figure largely in 
 the mental operations of all persons, whether they seem 
 to have much or little distinct imagery, either concrete or 
 verbal. On the other hand, many people who think that 
 their motor images are very vivid will find upon close 
 observation that what they had supposed to be motor 
 images are really sensations of actual movements that 
 they are making while engaged in thought. 
 
 Motor images represent our reactions to things and 
 events. As sensations are merely signals to which we 
 react in appropriate ways, it is more important to us to 
 know what to do when a certain sensation is experienced 
 than it is to observe the exact character of that sensation. 
 It is natural, therefore, that in representing past experi- 
 ences, or those that may come in the future, the action 
 involved should hold a prominent place. For this reason 
 actual movements and images of movements play a large 
 part in the mental operations of all persons whether they 
 have much or little vivid imagery of other kinds. 
 
 EXERCISES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Read the following sentences and notice which of the images 
 aroused by the italicized words are most vivid : 
 
 1. The dog is one of the most useful of animals. There is no 
 musical instrument equal to a violin. Not all churches have bells. 
 
 [23] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 He ordered pork for dinner. At breakfast he had oranges. Of all 
 flowers I like roses best. 
 
 2. To test control of images, form as vivid images as you can 
 (a) of the taste of sugar (not how it feels on the tongue), (fr) the odor 
 of violets, (c) the feeling involved in the movements of running 
 upstairs, (d) the color and shading of an apple of some familiar 
 variety, (e) the pitch and quality of a friend's voice, (f) the exact 
 color of a friend's eyes. 
 
 3. In the case of symbols notice in what way you think of names, 
 figures, formulas, etc., whether as they sound or as they look, and 
 in which form you can best hold them vividly before the mind. 
 Notice also whether you make slight movements or image move- 
 ments as you think the symbols. 
 
 4. Test your verbal images by timing yourself as you try to spell 
 backwards familiar words. The average time required by adults for 
 spelling backwards such words as the following : " constancy," 
 ft treatment," t? carpenter," " respected," was found by Professor 
 Gordon to be about six seconds for those who have good visual 
 images and eight seconds for others. 
 
 5. Compare your experiences with the following observations that 
 have been made by other students : 
 
 Pictured sensations are very common to me ; in fact, I cannot 
 imagine any condition, hunger, joy, want, or misery that would be 
 impossible for me to feel and see mentally. Visual images are more 
 numerous in my experience than any other, while auditory, olfactory, 
 and gustatory are next in order. In visual images I picture the past 
 (actual occurrences), the present, and a wonderful future. A word 
 suggestive of a past experience will bring the entire scene and even 
 the entire day to me as plainly as if I had seen it on a moving-picture 
 screen. If the ocean is represented I actually see its motion, smell 
 the salt breeze, the old wharves, the fish. If the country is pictured 
 I smell the pine woods and hear the murmur of the wind in the 
 branches. Events of a day follow rapidly in a short space of time ; 
 although each is plain and clear in detail. 
 
 In ordinary conversation mental images are continuous ; in fact, 
 in singing, studying, playing, walking, I use imagery extensively. 
 
 [24] 
 
MENTAL IMAGES 
 
 I realize into what misery one's imagination may lead one, and I try 
 to control mine to some extent; however, it is very strong, and 
 visual images are almost always prominent. I picture the impossible 
 also, although the possible and p7-obable are more common. 
 
 I have spoken of olfactory and auditory sensations which I often 
 experience; gustatory is perhaps equally recurrent. I can taste the 
 salt spray of the ocean, bananas and cream, watermelon, sulphur, etc. 
 
 I could write indefinitely of mental images, because I have them 
 almost continuously, and concerning everything in this world and 
 the next. 
 
 The word "coffee" brought to my mind a cup of coffee standing 
 on a table, and then I thought of the odor. The first image was 
 visual, and the second was of smell. 
 
 I tried five other experiments of this same kind. The words 
 " cow " and " horse " brought to my mind a cow and a horse which 
 we have at home. The word " mountain " brought to my mind 
 Mt. Wachusett as we can see it from the dormitory windows. At 
 the word " box " I saw a small pasteboard shoe box. At the word 
 tf river " I saw Millers River at a certain point where I had been 
 accustomed to cross it on my way to school. All these were visual 
 images of the objects, and in each case they were memory images. 
 
 My images are mostly visual, then gustatory, then olfactory. In 
 fact, when anything at all is spoken about I see an image of it. 
 Always I form visual images and sometimes others in addition. 
 
 It seems that the visual image is most prominent ; in almost all 
 cases the visual image comes first, auditory second, and so on. Usu- 
 ally the image recalls some personal experience or the time or place 
 of occurrence. 
 
 [25] 
 
CHAPTER III 
 IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 
 
 After-images. Many persons have noticed that sensa- 
 tions of sight, touch, or sound may continue after the 
 stimulus producing them has ceased. This phenomenon 
 can easily be studied, especially in the case of the eye. 
 If one looks for a few minutes at a window, then turns 
 the eye upon a gray surface or a wall, he will see an out- 
 line of the window ; or if he will look at a brightly colored 
 spot steadily for several minutes and then look at a gray 
 surface, he will perceive a colored spot shaped like that 
 at which he has been looking and usually of a color com- 
 plementary to it. The term given to this phenomenon 
 is " after-image," although " after-sensation " would prob- 
 ably be more correct. Careful experiment shows that none 
 of the sense organs respond instantly when they are stimu- 
 lated, and also that after the stimulus ceases their activity 
 continues for a short time. It is to the latter fact that 
 after-images are due. 
 
 After-images are of two kinds, positive and negative. 
 Positive after-images seem to be the result of continued 
 activity of the sensory apparatus of the same kind as that 
 incited by the stimulus, while negative after-images are the 
 result of the kind of activity which takes place after the 
 sense organ has become fatigued. Early in the morning, 
 
 [26] 
 
IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 
 
 when the eyes are fresh, if one glances at the window 
 and then at the wall, he will see a bright outline of the 
 window ; while if he gazes at the window for a while and 
 then looks at the wall, the outline of the window will be 
 dark. If one looks at a red object for an instant and then 
 at a gray surface, he may see a red spot ; but if he fixes 
 the eye upon the red spot for some time and then looks 
 at gray, he will see a green spot. In each case the first 
 was a positive and the second a negative after-image. Such 
 images as these are of an entirely different sort from those 
 usually known as mejital images. 
 
 In the case of a mental image the activity excited by 
 the stimulus to the sense organ has ceased, and yet it is 
 possible for one mentally to experience what affected his 
 senses minutes, hours, or years ago. It is supposed that 
 in the case of a mental image the same nerve centers in 
 the brain as those affected by the original stimulus to the 
 sense organ are reexcited by nerve impulses from some 
 other portion of the brain. Whether there is also some 
 reexcitation of the nerve elements in the sense orsfan is 
 a disputed point. In any case it is clear that a mental 
 image proper is not wholly or chiefly excited by immediate 
 stimulation of the senses. 
 
 Hallucinations. As has already been stated, some per- 
 sons can bring before the mind images that are almost as 
 vivid as sensations from the real objects. If this were com- 
 mon and if images differed from sensations in no other 
 respect than in vividness, great confusion would result. 
 If you imaged a person sitting in an empty chair oppo- 
 site you, you would be likely to think the person was really 
 there. When you form such an image and look directly 
 at the empty chair, if the image were stronger than the 
 
 [27] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 sensation, the back of the chair would be invisible. If, 
 however, the sensation is more intense than the image, 
 you are forced to see the back of the chair and cannot, 
 therefore, believe that it is occupied by the person you 
 have imaged. If your eyes are closed it is much easier 
 for you to believe that the person is really there. There 
 are persons who occasionally have images that rival sensa- 
 tions in intensity. One lady who was frequently troubled 
 with such mental pictures was compelled to use some 
 other sense than sight for testing the reality of her per- 
 ceptions. For example, once when at a reception she was 
 told to take a certain chair in which she saw someone 
 sitting. She hesitated, then put out her hand to the figure, 
 and, finding nothing, took the chair. In general there is 
 such a difference between a mental image and a sensation 
 that if the two are opposed to each other there is no 
 trouble in distinguishing between them. 
 
 If, however, an image is vivid, and there is no contra- 
 dicting sensation, there may be difficulty in determining 
 whether the object imaged is present or not. Even then, 
 however, the image usually does not seem real. This is 
 partly because one is generally conscious of its having 
 been called into mind voluntarily or by some association 
 and partly because the sense organ is not felt to be active. 
 The most favorable condition for mental images to be in- 
 distinguishable from sensations excited by present objects 
 is that in which the sense organ is excited in an indefi- 
 nite way while a mental image is being held in mind. In 
 half darkness, when the real outlines of objects are invisi- 
 ble, it is easy to see almost any object one may image 
 and to believe that it really is present. This is the reason 
 why ghosts, wild beasts, etc., are frequently seen in the 
 
 [28] 
 
IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 
 
 twilight. The feeling of fear arouses an image of that 
 which is most feared, and the indefinite sensations from 
 some real object give the feeling of reality which makes 
 the person believe that his mental image is a genuine 
 percept of the imaged object. 
 
 In such cases one has experienced what may be called 
 either a hallucination or an illusion. It is generally held 
 that if there is no objective stimulus corresponding to the 
 mental image it is a hallucination, while if there is an 
 objective stimulus that is modified and misinterpreted it 
 is an illusion. It is, however, impossible to draw a sharp 
 line between hallucinations and illusions of this type. A 
 sense organ is usually being stimulated in some way when 
 the image is formed, and whenever a hallucinatory image 
 seems to be real it is probably because the sense organ 
 has had some stimulus that harmonizes with the image. 
 Doubtless movement of the sense organ is usually also a 
 factor in giving reality to such images. 
 
 The following is a case of auditory illusion which, if 
 there had been no analysis of the situation, might have 
 been classed as a hallucination : 
 
 One year ago I slept in a room with a porch roof just out- 
 side my windows and a large tree near. In the middle of the 
 night I awoke, and as I lay listening I could hear voices ; then 
 a ladder was placed against the side of the porch, and I heard 
 steps mounting the ladder ; then whispers and sounds as of two 
 men crossing my porch roof. The window was slowly opened 
 and more steps were heard. 
 
 I screamed for help. Mother came, and we discovered the 
 steps to have been the branches of the tree rubbing and bump- 
 ing on the corner of the house, while the whispers and the voices 
 were the leaves rustling in the wind. 
 
 [^9] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 In some cases hallucinations are doubtless caused by 
 irritation of a sensory nerve. A common example of this 
 is found when quinine produces a ringing in the ears or 
 when pressure on the nerve trunk at the elbow produces 
 a tingling in the fingers. Persons who have lost a foot 
 frequently feel discomfort in an absent toe, caused doubt- 
 less by some irritation of the nerve originally connected 
 with that member. 
 
 Hallucinations, when they not only seem real but are 
 believed in, in spite of the testimony of other people and 
 of other senses, become delusions. In such cases the indi- 
 vidual is no longer able to distinguish between the world 
 of images and the world of real objects. This is a com- 
 mon condition of many persons who are insane, and fre- 
 quently accounts for their peculiar actions. Temporary 
 hallucinations are often produced through illness and by 
 the use of drugs. Fortunately most people in normal 
 health have no difficulty in distinguishing between their 
 mental images and their real experiences with objects that 
 are present. 
 
 Suggested and suggesting images. There is a kind of 
 illusion, however, in which images play a considerable 
 part, that is very common. Most objects with which we 
 are familiar are able to give us several kinds of sensation, 
 and when we get one of the sensations we are likely to 
 image the others. This is the reason why one may almost 
 taste the food which he sees, or feel the roughness of a 
 file at which he looks. If one is led to form an image 
 of a sensation which has frequently been associated with 
 one that is actually being received, he may think that he 
 is also receiving the sensation which he has imaged. If, 
 for instance, one has seen an atomizer and smelled the 
 
 [30] 
 
IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 
 
 substance diffused in the air by it, it is generally not diffi- 
 cult, if you speak of the odor of violets and then use an 
 atomizer containing water only, asking him to notice what 
 the perfume is, to make him think that he smells violets. 
 If a man is given the idea that he is to be bled, and then 
 his arm is slightly pricked and some warm water allowed 
 to flow over it, he will almost surely think he is bleeding. 
 It is claimed that in France a criminal was killed by this 
 process of mentally bleeding him to death. 
 
 It has been found in laboratory experiments that if one 
 has had the experience of a wire's becoming hot when 
 an electric current is turned into it, he will feel the wire 
 becoming hot soon after seeing the movement of turning 
 on the electricity, although no current is really turned on. 
 
 In some cases a spot resembling a burn has been pro- 
 duced on a person's skin by applying a postage stamp 
 to it, after giving the subject the idea that he was to be 
 burned. In such cases it is probable that imaging the 
 spot being touched causes an increased flow of blood to 
 that part, and hence there are physiological reasons for 
 the redness that results. Illusions of this kind are fre- 
 quent and easily produced in a slight degree, yet they are 
 generally quickly discovered and corrected. 
 
 Although mental images may cause one occasional illu- 
 sions, they serve an important and useful part in our per- 
 ceptions. If something has been lost and you join in the 
 search for it, you always wish to know what it looks like. 
 Your chances of finding it are very much increased by 
 holding in your mind an image of its appearance. What 
 is true under these circumstances is true of all our per- 
 ceptions. If we form some sort of image before looking, 
 we perceive much more quickly. If you are expecting to 
 
 [31] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 see a certain person in a crowd or to hear his footstep 
 approaching, you will realize his presence much more 
 quickly than if you have no such image in mind. Even 
 a familiar acquaintance may not be noticed or, if seen, 
 may not be recognized immediately if he is in unfamiliar 
 surroundings. 
 
 Anticipatory images of what people are about to say 
 help us to understand even when they speak indistinctly, 
 and in a similar way we may be able to read with rapidity 
 poor writing or dimly seen print. The ability thus to 
 anticipate sensations increases the speed of all our read- 
 ing and is of equal value in our reactions to people. The 
 skilled boxer, basket-ball or tennis player continually antici- 
 pates his opponent's movements and thus prepares for them 
 in advance. 
 
 Standard images. As we become familiar with the 
 numberless objects around us we form what may be called 
 standard images which play a considerable part in our per- 
 ceptions and judgments. These standard images help us 
 to translate from one sense to another. We see an object 
 of a certain size, and we know just about what sensation 
 of weight it will give if we lift it. We see an object at a 
 distance of ten feet, and by means of our standard ideas 
 of the appearance of objects at various distances we are 
 able to compare it with another object two feet or ten 
 rods away. Each species of plant and animal has for us 
 a standard size and appearance, and we compare any indi- 
 vidual specimen with this model and judge as to whether 
 it is large or small or in what way it differs from the 
 usual. These standard images of form, size, and appear- 
 ance of different classes of objects and of different units 
 of measure are of great use not only in our perceptions 
 
 [32] 
 
IMAGES AND PERCEPTS 
 
 but also in constructive and creative imagination. When 
 we listen to a description mentioning objects such as apples, 
 dogs, horses, fences, trees, etc., our standard images of 
 these objects appear. If descriptions are given in detail, 
 we modify these images accordingly. Accurate construc- 
 tive imagination is possible only when standard images 
 are formed and can be correctly compared. 
 
 The notes of the musical scale help to form standard 
 auditory images that are useful in music, although there 
 may be much variation in the loudness and quality of the 
 notes as sounded by different instruments or persons. 
 Words often heard also lead to the formation of standard 
 images which aid in recognizing those words whatever 
 the loudness or quality of the tones in which they are 
 spoken. In a similar way, though to a less extent, there 
 are standard images of weight, sweetness, coldness, etc. 
 
 EXERCISES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 1. Experiments on after-images should be made and the results 
 compared with those obtained by others. 
 
 2. Examples of illusions due to imagination and of hallucina- 
 tions should be recalled and explained. 
 
 3. It will be interesting for several persons to compare the stand- 
 ard images that they usually form of certain classes of objects, such 
 as " horse," " house," ft soldier," " knife," etc. 
 
 4. Classify the following illustrations and compare them with 
 some of your own : 
 
 One night I spent about two hours listening to ghost stories. 
 After a while I had occasion to go out of doors. I looked a short 
 way ahead of me. There I saw what appeared to be a person in a 
 white shirt with blood running from his arm as if he had been hurt. 
 My brother investigated and found a bundle of rose bushes and bulbs 
 
 [33] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 with red labels, covered with a piece of white canvas, which had been 
 delivered that afternoon. After hearing the ghost stories my imagina- 
 tion pictured different unreal images. 
 
 In reading a book, especially if the scene was laid in foreign coun- 
 tries, I have been so interested and seemed to have so fully imagined 
 myself in the same place as that mentioned in the book that on being 
 disturbed it took me a second or so to find I was in my own home. 
 
 I was sent into another room to get a box which was left on the 
 table. I had n't seen the box, but I formed an image of it, on the 
 corner of the table, while I was walking into the room. 
 
 I read a very good description of a summer day's outing, and 
 before I had finished I found that I was fitting each incident with 
 a day's outing which I had. 
 
 When anyone describes to me a scene, a gown, a house, I can 
 see it vividly. When it isn't described fully I make the picture to 
 suit my own taste. For instance, if someone is describing a bungalow 
 I have not seen, if I am told about the living room and nothing what- 
 ever is said about a fireplace, I see a fireplace in the room, unless 
 the person distinctly tells me there is none. As the person continues 
 to describe something, I get ahead of what is being said and imagine 
 how the object looks. Sometimes I am right, but more often my 
 visual image is incorrect. 
 
 If Bunker Hill Monument is mentioned I think of a hot day and 
 feel weary. This is due to the fact that I ascended the monument 
 on a hot day. 
 
 If a person describes an odor foreign to my sense of smell, I am 
 sure to imagine some odor even though it may not be the right one. 
 
 [34] 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 
 
 Mental habits. Persons who have given the subject 
 little attention are inclined to think that mental imagery 
 is largely a matter of chance. Careful observation and a 
 record of one's images will, however, reveal the fact that 
 the same circumstance or word often brings up the same 
 image. Sir Francis Galton was one of the first to notice 
 this truth. He made a record of the images suggested 
 by a list of words, then at long intervals and in various 
 surroundings he again made records and was surprised to 
 find that in a large proportion of cases the same image 
 was suggested whenever the corresponding word was seen. 
 In a similar experiment made by the writer upon a class 
 of college students, it was found that after the lapse of 
 a month, during which there had been a week's vacation, 
 nearly one half of the students had the same images that 
 they had the first time. In most cases those who did not 
 record the same image thought in both experiments of 
 some recent experience. These facts suggest that the 
 coming of images into the mind is governed by law rather 
 than chance. 
 
 The following experiment gives a very clear demon- 
 stration of the principal law concerned. If pupils look 
 at a series of cards with a letter and a number upon each, 
 and some moments later letters of the alphabet are named 
 with the request that numbers be written next them, it is 
 
 [35] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 found that about 5 per cent will write the numbers that 
 were on the cards with the letters. If a letter has had 
 the same number beside it twice, that number will be given 
 in about 10 per cent of cases ; while if the same number 
 has appeared with the same letter three times, nearly half 
 of those taking the experiment will write that number 
 when the letter is named. These experiments, as well as 
 many others that have been performed in psychological 
 laboratories, demonstrate beyond question that the coming 
 of images into the mind is determined by the laws of habit. 
 The primary law of habit is the law of repetition. If 
 two impressions have been received together or in imme- 
 diate succession, when the first is again received the sec- 
 ond will be reproduced in the mind. The more frequent 
 the association of the two impressions the more surely 
 will this be the case. In the experiment previously named, 
 if a letter has been associated once with one number and 
 three times with another, the latter is reproduced in a 
 much larger percentage of cases. Frequency of repetition 
 is by far the most important law influencing imager) 7 . But 
 there are several important modifications or variations of 
 this law. (1) If a single experience in certain circum- 
 stances has produced a deep impression because of the 
 emotion aroused or because of effort associated with it, 
 it may have a more lasting effect than several associations 
 with something else that were of slight intensity. (2) First 
 impressions are nearly always stronger than later ones. 
 (3) Experiences that have been recently associated make 
 a stronger impression, and one more surely recalls the 
 other, than when a longer time has elapsed. Anyone 
 who will record the images aroused by certain words and 
 situations will usually be able to determine why those 
 
 [36] 
 
MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 
 
 images came rather than others that had been associated 
 with the same words or circumstances. 
 
 If the image that comes does not seem to be the re- 
 sult of repetition, intensity, or recency, a more careful 
 study of the preceding and associated states of mind will 
 frequently show that the coming of certain images was 
 prepared for by several experiences or by purposes that 
 one was seeking to realize. Often the image that seems 
 to be aroused by a word is really not so much suggested 
 by the word itself as by preceding words and the accom- 
 panying thought. Notice the image suggested by the word 
 in italics in the following sentence. " By the side of the 
 road, in a swampy place among the grass and surrounded 
 by other flowers, were beautiful flags." Now notice the 
 image suggested by the word in italics in this sentence : 
 " As they approached the town the sound of a brass band 
 and of firecrackers came to their ears, and soon they 
 caught sight of flags waving in the breeze." 
 
 Not only do the laws of habit determine what mental 
 images shall be brought into the mind but they have a 
 very great influence upon the way in which images are 
 combined to form a new picture. This is illustrated by 
 the following observation : 
 
 Whenever I read a storybook I prefer few or no pictures in 
 it, as it seems more real to me to image the characters and 
 places. Almost always they are ones with which I am acquainted, 
 but they weave themselves into the story without my realizing 
 it at first. When anyone tells me of a certain place, a building, 
 a room, or the like, I form a mental picture from the descrip- 
 tion. That image stays until I actually see the place. Always 
 afterward in thinking of it my own first image comes to me 
 before the right one. 
 
 [37] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 This expresses what is generally true. We not only- 
 form our images according to laws of habit but we arrange 
 them in accordance with scenes with which we are familiar, 
 and our subsequent imaging is influenced by these earlier 
 arrangements. This truth applies not only to reproduc- 
 tive and constructive imagination but also to creative. A 
 novelist uses images that are familiar to him and con- 
 structs plots similar to those in books that he has read, 
 and it is exceedingly difficult for him to make his second 
 book entirely different from the first. In a similar way 
 the poet and the artist create in accordance with models 
 familiar to them ; and the influence of habit is further 
 shown in the similarity of their creations. 
 
 Associations of similarity and contrast. Sometimes 
 mental images seem to come contrary to, rather than in 
 accordance with, the laws of habit. For example, we see 
 a certain person and immediately think of another person a 
 thousand miles away whom we have never seen or thought 
 of in connection with the first. It would seem as if the 
 image of the second person could not have been brought 
 to our minds by any law of habit. It will usually be found 
 in such cases that the two persons resemble each other, 
 and it may be said that the first suggests the second in 
 accordance with the law of similarity. This law doubtless 
 plays a large part in our mental life and gives great variety 
 to our imaginative activity. If we never formed any image 
 except as it was aroused in connection with something 
 which preceded or accompanied the original experience, 
 our mental representations would be largely of a reminis- 
 cent character. Whatever variety there was would be due 
 to variety of objective experiences rather than to any varia- 
 tion of mental activity. If we always saw a certain man on 
 
 [33] 
 
MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 
 
 horseback in the same place, whenever that man was called 
 to mind we should think of the horse and the surroundings 
 in which they were both seen ; but if we also saw him occa- 
 sionally in an automobile and at other times in a train, then 
 there is a possibility of variety in our thought in connec- 
 tion with him. The image that comes will be determined 
 by the frequency, recency, and intensity of association of 
 that man with the horse, the automobile, or the train. 
 
 Associations of similarity, however, permit of much 
 greater freedom and variety than in the above case. When 
 we see this man we may think of some other man with 
 the same make of automobile or the same sort of nose 
 or disposition, and thus may bring into association experi- 
 ences connected not only with that particular man but 
 with many other persons, objects, places, and qualities. 
 
 If we look closely into these associations by similarity 
 we shall find, however, that they do not represent a dis- 
 tinct law opposing that of contiguity, but rather a special 
 form of the law of repetition or habit. If a man has a 
 very distinctive nose, the rest of his face may be covered, 
 and yet you may recognize him. This is clearly in accord- 
 ance with the law of habit. Suppose another man has a 
 similar nose, and you concentrate your attention upon that 
 feature, excluding from notice other portions of his face. 
 It will not be strange if the features most frequently asso- 
 ciated with that nose come to mind, and thus the man at 
 whom you are looking suggests an individual who has 
 never before been associated with him in your mind. If 
 we regard similarity as consisting of partial identity, then 
 it is easy to see how, by concentrating attention upon one 
 characteristic of a person or an object, we may, in accord- 
 ance with the law of habit, image something similar to 
 
 [39] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 the present object that has been perceived at a different 
 time and place. Association by similarity is, therefore, in 
 accordance with the fundamental law of habit ; but it dif- 
 fers from the usual working of that law in that attention 
 makes prominent a part or phase of an experience, and 
 thus similar parts or phases of experiences remote in time 
 and place are brought to mind. It is because of such asso- 
 ciations by similarity that we are able to bring order out 
 of confusion, putting together in our minds things that 
 are similar but are objectively experienced at different 
 times and under different circumstances. This makes 
 classification possible and also the activities of inference 
 and reasoning, which are always based upon similarity. 
 
 There is another variation of the law of association 
 worth noting. When we see an exceedingly tall man, 
 instead of thinking of another tall man we may think of 
 one who is very short. Such associations of contrast are 
 in reality little more than disguised forms of associations 
 of similarity. A very tall man and a very short one are 
 compared as to the same characteristic, — height, — and 
 they are similar in that both vary from the usual type. 
 Such associations play a large part in our thinking, for 
 reasons additional to those supplied by the law of similarity. 
 We become most distinctly aware of a given quality when 
 it is presented to us with much variation. We realize 
 more keenly what a thing is by contrasting it with what 
 it is not. We can only form an idea of a large horse by 
 contrasting it with a small one. It is partially for this 
 reason that contrasts play such an effective part in all our 
 thinking. 
 
 Other laivs than those of habit and association. It is 
 evident from the preceding discussion that the laws of 
 
 [40] 
 
MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 
 
 repetition, intensity, recency, similarity, and contrast are 
 the principal known laws by which imaginative activity is 
 explained. It has been claimed that no other laws are 
 needed. This may be true, yet it seems strange that the 
 most variable of mental operations — imagination — should 
 be based upon the fixed laws of habit. Nor does it seem 
 true that imaginative people are the ones with the most 
 firmly established habits of thought, but quite the oppo- 
 site. We know, however, that fixed laws give variable 
 results, as in the case of the weather ; and this may well 
 be true of the imagination, where the conditions are even 
 more obscure than those determining atmospheric changes. 
 
 Our tendencies to image as well as to act are not all 
 of equal strength at birth, hence a child may quickly learn 
 to image food when he hears certain sounds or sees cer- 
 tain objects or movements, but be very slow in learning 
 to image the sound associated with a certain letter. In 
 other words, instinctive tendencies as well as the laws of 
 habit influence the flow of mental imagery. 
 
 The physiological condition which is closely associated 
 with an instinctive action may also be an important influ- 
 ence. For example, when one is hungry, images of food 
 are much more easily suggested to him than at other times. 
 In a slightly weakened bodily state, dangers are imagined 
 much more readily than when one is strong and vigorous. 
 Fatigue or drugs may also greatly modify imagery. 
 
 All persons have the same instincts by which their 
 images are directed but not in the same degree, hence 
 imagination is greatly influenced by native individual dif- 
 ferences in special lines. A series of rhythmical sounds is 
 imaged more readily by all persons than a series of non- 
 rhythmical sounds, but a child with a " musical ear " may 
 
 [41] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 reproduce a series of musical phrases after one hearing 
 better than will another after a dozen repetitions. 
 
 Since individuals thus differ in natural tendencies it is 
 not strange that persons who have had the same experi- 
 ences and should seemingly, according to the laws of habit, 
 form the same images, do, as a matter of fact, show great 
 individual differences in their imagery and in their con- 
 structive and creative imagination because of differences 
 in intensity of the same sensations and images. Imagina- 
 tion works according to the same general laws in all per- 
 sons, but one must know the natural tendencies and the 
 environment, the history and the recent experiences of 
 the individual, in order to predict what images will be 
 brought to his mind under certain circumstances. With 
 some persons this may be comparatively easy, while with 
 others we cannot tell even after a long acquaintance just 
 what they will do or think when certain things happen. 
 
 In the case of such persons, especially those who are 
 inventive or creative in scientific or artistic lines, images 
 and ideas seem to generate spontaneously. Even in our 
 own minds images appear without our being able to dis- 
 cover their progenitors or associates. Careful study, how- 
 ever, of both dream and waking imagery shows that, in 
 general, the probable origin of such ideas may be discov- 
 ered by sufficient study of the conditions and by probing 
 into the past experiences of the individual. The seem- 
 ingly original ideas of each person accord with his usual 
 modes of thinking, whether it be in scientific, musical, 
 artistic, or practical lines. 
 
 Besides the laws already mentioned there are two others 
 that must be recognized as general. The flow of imagery 
 is influenced not only by the images that have been and 
 
 [42] 
 
MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 
 
 are present in consciousness but also in a special degree 
 by purpose or intention. The kind of imaginative activity 
 produced by the sight of triangles depends upon whether 
 we are expecting to construct a design of such figures or 
 to demonstrate a proposition in geometry. 
 
 The other general law is a tendency, conscious and 
 unconscious, to image what is agreeable or pleasant. In 
 certain moods an opposite inclination may be observed, 
 and sometimes we purposely hold in mind images that 
 are disagreeable ; but in the main, if a person is in good 
 health, images associated with agreeable feelings appear 
 more frequently and remain longer in consciousness than 
 those with unpleasant associations. There are, perhaps, 
 a few healthy pessimists, but they do not represent the 
 generality of mankind. Usually only persons who are not 
 w r ell or those who have had very unpleasant experiences 
 dwell long upon images suggestive of past and future 
 unhappiness. 
 
 Generic and individual images. The laws of habit and 
 of economy of energy both tend to limit the variety of 
 images that one forms. In accordance with the laws of 
 habit one who has seen many kinds of horses will not 
 think of all of them but of the kind he has seen most 
 often, most recently, or with which he has the most 
 intense association. He might think of several kinds, 
 one after another, in accordance with these laws, but it 
 would be a waste of time and would probably interfere 
 with his mental operations more than it would help, in 
 most cases. 
 
 In ordinary conversation or reading, a multiplicity of 
 images for each object named would be a hindrance. 
 Many persons, perhaps unconsciously, select one image 
 
 [43] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 to represent the class of objects indicated by a word. For 
 instance, " horse " always calls up in the mind of one girl 
 the image of a black driving horse, and this serves to 
 give reality to the thought, although she may realize 
 clearly that the horse under discussion is entirely different 
 from the one imaged. 
 
 The following observation of a normal student is typical : 
 
 I find that when words like "dog," "cat," "desk," "pen- 
 cil," " school," and the like are mentioned I immediately image 
 the one with which I am most familiar, then generally, if I let 
 my mind go, I think of some less familiar and usually recall 
 incidents connected with them. 
 
 There are two principal ways in which such typical 
 images are formed and used, and by the laws of associa- 
 tion such standard images play an important part in mental 
 operations. In the minds of some the image most used 
 is that of an individual specimen, while in other cases 
 no particular individual is represented but there is a more 
 or less generalized image involving common characteris- 
 tics of the class. To one person "tree" always calls up 
 the image of a particular elm tree growing in front of her 
 house, while to another it brings only the image of the 
 general form of a tree with trunk and branches. There 
 is considerable variation in the way in which these two 
 types of images are used. Generally, however, people are 
 fairly constant in their typical modes of thinking. If, 
 when a tree is mentioned, it is described as an oak tree 
 just coming into leaf, the person with a generic image of 
 a tree modifies it slightly into the characteristic form of 
 an oak but does not form a detailed picture of any special 
 one, while the person who usually forms an image of an 
 
 [44] 
 
MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 
 
 individual tree of the kind of tree described promptly sub- 
 stitutes a fairly definite image and in some instances will 
 think of a particular specimen. It seems likely that the 
 person who makes use of the generic image will be able 
 to think more rapidly and freely than the one who deals 
 with special images, but that the latter will have a greater 
 feeling of reality in connection with his images. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. The effect of common influences upon a group of persons may 
 be indicated by asking a company of people to write the following 
 names : (i) a part of speech, (2) a flower, (3) an animal, (4) a noted 
 character in history. In a group of twenty or more persons it will 
 be found that 75 per cent of them write one of two or three names. 
 
 2. A group of people may be asked to solve mentally the follow- 
 ing problem : " A man bought twenty horses at $100 each and forty 
 cows at $25 each. How much did they cost? " Great individual dif- 
 ferences will be found as to the exact character and arrangement of 
 the images formed and modes of procedure followed by each person 
 in solving the problem. If these do not appear at once such ques- 
 tions as the following will bring them out : Did you image the ani- 
 mals? What was the color? How were they grouped? Did you 
 image the numbers as figures or as auditory or visual words ? Were 
 the numbers represented as seen on paper or on the board and how 
 were they arranged ? 
 
 3. A list of words such as "house," "captain," "tree," "school," 
 may be given, and each individual may describe the images they 
 bring to his mind and try to explain by the laws governing mental 
 imagery just why those images rather than others came. 
 
 4. Discuss the probable origin of various so-called original or 
 spontaneous ideas of sleeping or waking moments. 
 
 5. Illustrate the fact that some persons use a certain kind of 
 imagery much more than any other. 
 
 [45] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 6. Discuss the relative advantages of specific, or individual, as 
 compared with generic, or class, images. 
 
 7. Individual comments on the following observations will prob- 
 ably prove interesting and instructive. 
 
 When you asked us to think of a day's outing I immediately pic- 
 tured to myself everything connected with a drive from Northfield, 
 Massachusetts, to Forest Lake in Winchester, New Hampshire. I 
 had a very clear and distinct visual image of the way the campus of 
 the Northfield Seminary looked that morning, of the horse and car- 
 riage, of the road, of Winchester, of the lake, and of the girls with 
 whom I went. I could picture our lunch and could tell exactly what 
 kind of sandwiches, cake, cookies, pickles, etc. we had. When you 
 told us to write I began to think of words to describe my mental 
 picture. Before that I had no thought of the words. 
 
 Before I came here to school I had imagined how my room would 
 look and I was somewhat disappointed, as I had pictured a single 
 room and I found I was to have a double one. This year I knew 
 which room I was to have, and I had the arrangement of furniture 
 and pictures all visualized nearly as I afterward arranged them. 
 
 Association plays an important part in my images of past events. 
 For instance, when I thought of our drive to Forest Lake and of the 
 girls with whom I went, I thought of a party I attended with those 
 same girls, then of a walk I took with one of them, then of her room- 
 mate and of Smith College. The thought of Smith College brought 
 up the thought of our head waitress who attended Wellesley College, 
 and so on through a long list of events. 
 
 If reading a story, I picture the characters, place, and time. When 
 listening to a description I have a visual image of the place being de- 
 scribed. Usually it is connected with something similar that I have seen. 
 
 The visual image of a beautiful landscape or sunset stays in my 
 mind sometimes for years. 
 
 I cannot so easily call up auditory images. I have heard and en- 
 joyed beautiful music many times, but I cannot call up a very dis- 
 tinct auditory image of any of it. 
 
 All through the years I have been going to school I find that a 
 great deal of my learning has come through the power of imagina- 
 tion. In counting from one to one hundred I have a definite arrange- 
 ment of the numbers. They appear to start and go in a line upwards 
 
 [46] 
 
MENTAL LAWS AND IMAGINATION 
 
 from one to ten, then they shoot off and go crosswise by tens up 
 to one hundred. I have had this image of counting ever since 1 can 
 remember and was surprised to find that other people had different 
 arrangements. 
 
 Regarding the days of the week I have a visual image of the 
 abbreviations of the names following one right after the other, start- 
 ing with Mon. If a day is mentioned, I can immediately see it in 
 a certain place. I also have a definite arrangement in my mind of 
 the months of the year and of the hours in the day and night. 
 
 In studying history and especially geography I always imagine 
 the location of every place that is mentioned and do not feel satisfied 
 to go on reading until I have found a location on the map in my 
 mind. 
 
 I find that since we have been studying Europe I have a mental 
 picture of the map of that continent that is hanging on the wall in 
 Miss A.'s room, and every time anything is mentioned concerning 
 Europe my mind immediately travels to that particular map. 
 
 Whenever the church bell rings I have an image of the church 
 steeple as the source of the sound, and when the fire alarm rings I 
 immediately see a picture of the fire station. 
 
 [47] 
 
CHAPTER V 
 IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 
 
 Imaging and locating experiences. When asked to 
 observe closely their memory processes most people say 
 that images play an important part, and many of them 
 think that it would be impossible to remember without 
 imaging objects and events, or at least the words naming 
 and describing them. They are only partly right. A class 
 was shown a dozen objects in a box and later asked to write 
 a description of them. Most of them reported that they 
 held in mind a visual image of how the objects in the 
 box looked and wrote the description from that. When 
 asked a few days later to write again what they had seen 
 in the box, most of them still imaged the appearance of 
 the objects in the box, while some imaged the words that 
 they had written previously, and others remembered in 
 various ways without vivid and detailed images. 
 
 Many persons believe that memory is made possible and 
 accurate by the power to image vividly, and in instances 
 like the following this is perhaps true. One normal stu- 
 dent says : 
 
 In language work we were required to write a paper on our 
 observation lesson. I noticed that I pictured the room, the work 
 on the board, the pupils, and the conversation very vividly. With 
 these images before me I was able to write about the lesson. 
 In the geography class we took up sun work. In order to get 
 the location of the sun, I pictured it as I had seen it at different 
 times in the year. 
 
 [48] 
 
IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 
 
 Another student says : 
 
 Quotations that I learned in grammar school I can see now 
 in my mind, with the exact location on the page, the length, and, 
 to a great extent, the punctuation. This is a great help to 
 memory I have found, especially in writing a quotation. 
 
 Doubtless the majority of people are greatly aided in 
 memory by vivid images, and a few can depend upon 
 them almost as they would upon fresh perceptions ; but 
 it is probable that in most cases images do not contribute 
 greatly to accuracy of memory, although they do make 
 what is remembered more vivid and interesting. In the 
 box experiment previously mentioned there was a pen, a 
 spoon, and a knife, but no pencil or fork. Many persons 
 evidently had the image of a pencil and of a fork sug- 
 gested to them by the other objects. A few days later, 
 when questioned regarding the contents of the box, sev- 
 eral of them recalled an image of the pencil and of the 
 fork that they had formed when looking at the other 
 objects, and in some instances were sure that they had 
 seen there a pencil of a certain color and a fork with a 
 certain number of tines. 
 
 It is evident from -such cases as this that a tendency 
 to vivid imagery may lead as readily to false as to true 
 memory. The essential element in memory is not that 
 objects and events shall be vividly imaged, but that they 
 shall be properly located with relation to each other and 
 in relation to those associated with them at a particular 
 time. Vividness of imagery may be of little help in accu- 
 racy of location, but some imagery is often necessary in 
 order to get the right associations in memory. With 
 many persons distinct images of the space relations of 
 objects are of great help. 
 
 [49] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 People who form vivid images freely in response to a 
 suggestion may easily be led into mistaken memories. 
 For instance, one sees or hears a person make certain 
 movements, forms vivid images of what the person is 
 probably doing, and may later, in all good faith, report 
 something entirely false regarding what occurred. In 
 order that vividness of imagery may not subject one to 
 error there should be a frequent comparison of images 
 with fresh perceptions, and care exercised that images are 
 accurate as well as vivid. The following is a typical in- 
 stance of the way in which memory may be falsified by 
 the imagination : 
 
 Early this morning I had to write on creative imagination. 
 I imagined it was done and how it looked, and if I had not 
 heard the bell I should have gone to sleep again without writing 
 my paper, because I thought I had written it. 
 
 Constructive imagination and memory. The essential 
 truths regarding the use of constructive imagination and 
 memory are indicated by the following quotation : 
 
 In reading or studying, just so long as I can construct an 
 image for each word, I can understand and reproduce what I 
 read, but as soon as the subject matter becomes so complex or 
 so foreign to all my former experiences that I can no longer 
 picture it to myself, I cannot remember a word of what I have 
 read either once or a number of times. 
 
 Most students are greatly helped by using their con- 
 structive imagination not only in studying such subjects 
 as history and geography but also in memorizing poetry 
 and other literary selections. By means of the images 
 that they form they recall the words much more quickly. 
 Students of another type, instead of imaging that for 
 
 [50] 
 
IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 
 
 which the words stand, first image the words themselves 
 and then perhaps form some images corresponding to 
 their meaning. 
 
 Another method less common, except in the case of 
 mature students, is that of forming only a few distinct 
 images of suggestive words, or of the most significant 
 elements of a situation, in getting the meaning of what 
 is studied. 
 
 Vividness in the use of constructive imagination in 
 reading and studying renders the subject matter much 
 more interesting and impressive, but it does not neces- 
 sarily help in accuracy of reproduction. To many people 
 reading without vividly constructing would be like going 
 through the motions of eating without experiencing any 
 taste sensation. It is doubtless true, however, that very 
 few people form images exactly in accordance with de- 
 scriptions. They image in detail, according to their own 
 pleasure or habit, what is mentioned or described only in 
 general terms. These images may vary greatly from those 
 in the mind of the writer or speaker and from the reality. 
 This is especially true of images of persons. Many peo- 
 ple form very distinct images of persons of whom they 
 hear, which are unwarranted by any description which has 
 been given. One young lady found it almost impossible 
 to enjoy a moving-picture dramatization of " Little Lord 
 Fauntleroy " because the mother of Cedric was so differ- 
 ent in features and complexion from what she had imag- 
 ined. Many people who seem to have very unreliable 
 memories are subject to errors not so much because they 
 cannot reproduce what they have heard as because they 
 construct images varying materially from those naturally 
 suggested by the words. To this inaccuracy of the 
 
 [5i] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 constructive imagination rather than to lack of memory 
 may be ascribed many of the mistakes in reproducing 
 what has been told. 
 
 Conflict of memory and creative imagination. It is not 
 only because constructive imagination is inaccurate but 
 because there is a strong tendency to the use of creative 
 imagination that errors occur in repeating what one has 
 been told or has read. There is a decided inclination to 
 image that which is agreeable to us. Hence in listening 
 or reading one may make little effort to construct in ac- 
 cordance with the words used, but additional images are 
 brought to mind, and these are combined in agreeable or 
 desired ways with those naturally suggested by the words 
 heard or seen. Afterward, in attempting to repeat the 
 description or story, these products of creative imagination 
 are accurately reproduced, but the exact truth is not told. 
 
 This tendency of creative imagination to prevent accu- 
 racy of memory is not confined to what one has read or 
 heard but applies also to one's memory of his own experi- 
 ences. A man who frequently told an incident of his own 
 boyhood to Sunday-school children, in order to give point 
 to some moral lesson, became conscious after a while of the 
 fact that he was not telling the story as he had formerly 
 told it. The desire to make certain truths prominent had 
 led him to modify unconsciously his images of what had 
 really occurred in his boyhood. 
 
 Very few people can report correctly any experience 
 that is at all exciting. They recall only a few vivid 
 images of what actually occurred. These images suggest 
 what, under ordinary circumstances, would be associated 
 with them, and creative imagination quickly reproduces a 
 whole scene. Desire and purpose so influence creative 
 
 [52] 
 
IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 
 
 imagination that one's account of his own adventures is 
 likely to be much more favorable to him than an accurate 
 description would be. 
 
 So frequently is creative imagination opposed to accuracy 
 of memory that unreliability in memory is often ascribed 
 to a too active imagination, and imagination is often sup- 
 posed to be necessarily concerned with what is not true. 
 This latter supposition is of course entirely unwarranted, 
 and the possession of a vivid imagination does not neces- 
 sarily render memory inaccurate. One may picture as 
 vividly as he pleases without being led into error, provid- 
 ing that he will at the same time carefully distinguish 
 between what actually occurred or was reported to him 
 and what he pictures as the possible, probable, or desired 
 circumstances. 
 
 Special varieties of images as aids to memory. Some 
 persons in order to remember a name need to hear it pro- 
 nounced repeatedly, others must see it distinctly written 
 or printed, and still others find it necessary to speak or 
 write it themselves. Such facts as these have led to much 
 discussion with regard to individual types of images and 
 the use of imagery in memorizing. Some individuals re- 
 member best what they see, others what they hear, and 
 others those things in which their own movements are 
 involved. 
 
 Where such tendencies are very pronounced it would 
 seem that various methods of teaching and studying would 
 be most effective according as they harmonized with the 
 type of imagery of individual students. The question of 
 which method to use seems to be most prominent in 
 connection with memorizing lists of names and in learn- 
 ing to spell. Visual methods of teaching are now very 
 
 [53] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 common, and it is claimed that on this account those who 
 have a strong tendency to the use of auditory or motor 
 images are placed at a disadvantage. This is probably 
 true, but a long series of experiments have not yet evolved 
 accurate means of determining just how prominent the 
 tendency is in any particular individual to use a certain 
 type of imagery. 
 
 The matter is much more complicated than at first 
 seems to be the case. If you test a group of individuals 
 by showing them a list of words, then by speaking an- 
 other list of words, you cannot be at all sure that they 
 will remember the words in corresponding images. If a 
 person has a strong tendency to auditory imagery, when 
 he sees a word he will form an image of how it would 
 sound, and when he recalls it the sound rather than the 
 visual appearance comes to his mind. In a similar way 
 a person with the visual type of imagery will picture the 
 appearance of words that he hears and will then remem- 
 ber those visual images rather than his auditory impres- 
 sions. The person with the motor type of imagery makes 
 movements and images of movements when he receives 
 auditory or visual impressions, which aid him in his future 
 recollections. It is found that the average number of 
 words reproduced by a class is usually increased by having 
 them seen, heard, and spoken or written, but this does 
 not necessarily mean that each individual can remember 
 better that which appeals to several senses than what is 
 repeatedly impressed upon one. Such a procedure gives 
 persons of all types of imagery a chance to learn through 
 the kind of impressions they prefer. Hence there are 
 fewer failures. The fact remains, however, that persons 
 who have a strong tendency to one type of imagery are 
 
 [54] 
 
IMAGINATION AND MEMORY 
 
 frequently confused more than they are aided by the 
 presentation of either single words or selections in several 
 ways. The visualizer may learn more quickly by reading a 
 selection twice than by reading it once and hearing it once 
 and reading aloud or writing it once, and similar facts 
 hold true for those of the auditory type. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Individual reports should be given as to the part that images 
 play, (i) in remembering what one has experienced, (2) in learning 
 and recalling words, figures, or diagrams. 
 
 2. Reports should also be given as to the value of constructive 
 imagination in remembering what is read or heard. 
 
 3. To what extent does the tendency to create pictures that are 
 agreeable to oneself interfere with accurate memory? 
 
 4. Report upon the kind of sensations and images that are most 
 effective for you in memorizing. Do you get most help from repeatedly 
 seeing, hearing, or speaking words or from forming the correspond- 
 ing images? 
 
 [55] 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 FEELING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 Images and sensory feelings. The following is a typical 
 instance of feeling aroused by mental images : 
 
 When a sail that I took last summer was mentioned, I imme- 
 diately felt the motion of the boat and had a mental picture of 
 the view of the harbor. When I think of the beautiful residence 
 of Mrs. F., especially on a warm sultry day, I form a mental 
 picture of the pure white marble colonial mansion, with its 
 splendid columns, and the great smooth lawn in front that 
 extends to a high stone wall against which I can hear the dash- 
 ing of the waves, and I feel refreshed and in a very quiet, 
 peaceful mood. 
 
 Another says : " When I read an interesting book, 
 images are formed not only of characters and scenes but 
 of delicious things to eat and of lovely odors, such as the 
 scent of roses." 
 
 To some persons the memory of a burn seems to be 
 actually painful, and the taste image of certain substances 
 may give almost as intense feelings as did the original 
 taste sensation. Many people have the power to see again 
 with the eye of memory beautiful scenes which they visited 
 perhaps years ago. A few persons are able to enjoy re- 
 peatedly in retrospect a musical treat by imaging the 
 music that they have heard. To reexperience the feelings 
 accompanying movements by imaging the movements is 
 not at all unusual. 
 
 [56] 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 In such instances it is evident that the images not only 
 produce feelings similar to those experienced originally 
 but that the accompanying mood or emotional state is 
 reproduced to a greater or less extent. Vividness of im- 
 agery doubtless has a much more important effect upon 
 the feelings than it has upon the efficiency of intellectual 
 operations. 
 
 There seem to be exceptions to the general rule that 
 images produce the same sort of feeling as accompanied 
 the original sensations. These seeming exceptions are 
 usually the result of contrast. Reminiscences of hardships 
 endured may give considerable pleasure in the present, 
 but this is the case only when the outcome of those hard- 
 ships was a happy one or when the present condition is 
 pleasantly contrasted with the former. The memory of 
 former joys is pleasurable unless present unhappiness is 
 contrasted with them and takes the dominant place in 
 consciousness. 
 
 Constructive imagination and emotional states. The 
 emotional effects produced by speakers and writers upon 
 their audiences and readers depend very largely upon their 
 ability to arouse images associated with various feelings 
 of a certain type and so arranged and combined as to 
 produce a distinct and unified effect. Hatred for a per- 
 son or a party is aroused and intensified by words which 
 suggest unpleasant images and evil practices in connec- 
 tion with that person or party, such as " schemes of 
 the gang"; while love, admiration, and enthusiasm for 
 another person, party, or country are awakened and 
 developed by words suggesting mental pictures that are 
 agreeable and inspiring, such as " noble deeds of loyal 
 patriots." 
 
 [57] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 A skillful appeal to the imagination may produce a 
 much more distinct and intense feeling than would per- 
 sonal acquaintance with the person and the incidents. 
 Falstaff is a delightfully enjoyable character to the imagina- 
 tion, but in actual experience such an individual would 
 probably be disgusting. Although his grossness is sug- 
 gested by Shakespeare, yet his amusing qualities are made 
 so much more prominent that we enjoy picturing his 
 actions and words. Little Nell arouses the deepest feel- 
 ings of compassion, but many of those who are most 
 stirred by her sorrows as portrayed by the master of fic- 
 tion, if acquainted with such a girl in daily life, where 
 the pathetic is mingled with the commonplace and even 
 the disagreeable, would fail to have their emotions of pity 
 aroused. It is because great writers skillfully select and 
 combine images so as to produce a complex, unified, emo- 
 tional state of a certain kind in their readers that litera- 
 ture is often more interesting and enjoyable than real life, 
 and imaginary characters are more influential as ideals 
 than real persons whose attractiveness is lessened by 
 prosy details. 
 
 Mood and creative imagi?zation. There is a reverse 
 side to the phenomena of images and of emotional states 
 which is especially prominent in creative imagination. In- 
 stead of the feelings being aroused by the images that 
 are suggested, we have the phenomenon of feelings gen- 
 erating images of experiences of a corresponding type. 
 A person who has a fit of the blues due to fatigue or 
 other physiological disturbances may have suggested to 
 his mind images of experiences associated with unpleasant 
 feeling, and he may form much darker pictures of his 
 present situation and of the future than the facts justify. 
 
 [53] 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 Present feeling seems to act as a selective agent in bring- 
 ing into consciousness images associated with unpleasant 
 experiences or images that contrast unpleasantly with 
 what is now being experienced, and to so direct the 
 combination of these images as to greatly increase the 
 unpleasant feelings and the corresponding depression. 
 The imagination thus intensifies and justifies the emo- 
 tional state, and many people think that the images with 
 which the mind has been occupied are the real cause of 
 the mood. In a large proportion of cases, however, a 
 depression of the vital functions and the consequent dis- 
 agreeable feelings were the chief cause of the unpleasing 
 images occupying the mind and the consequent mental 
 depression. 
 
 Sometimes, however, the cause is primarily mental, 
 although lowered vitality is a contributing factor. Sorrow, 
 failure, or disappointment coming when one is fatigued 
 is likely to call to mind memories of similar experiences 
 and cause the creative imagination to build up a gloomy 
 picture of the future, while in vigorous health such an 
 unpleasant experience would perhaps suggest by contrast 
 former successes and pleasures and lead to picturing a 
 brighter future shortly to be enjoyed. 
 
 Instincts and imagination. Instinctive tendencies, of 
 which we may or may not be aware, play a very promi- 
 nent part in stimulating and directing the imagination. 
 The hungry person finds images concerned with food and 
 eating persistently coming into mind, and the longer he 
 remains hungry the more will such images predominate 
 in his mental processes. When his needs have been fully 
 satisfied such images disappear, and it may be difficult to 
 voluntarily bring them into consciousness. 
 
 [59] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 An individual in whom fear is aroused promptly develops 
 an exceedingly active imagination concerning possible 
 sources of danger. This instinct may almost completely 
 control one when he is alone and in darkness. The faint- 
 est sights and sounds arouse images of objects, animals, 
 forces of nature, diseases, or persons that are feared, and 
 these images are combined into what seems to be a real 
 situation of danger. The actual sensations experienced 
 may have no connection with anything that is dangerous, 
 and if the instinctive fear were not aroused would pass 
 either without notice or with the usual commonplace inter- 
 pretation. But when fear is present they produce images 
 that recall others associated with fear, and soon there is in 
 the mind of the individual a mental picture of a situation 
 that is decidedly precarious. What is true of the instincts 
 of hunger and fear is true of all the other instincts, as is 
 shown most clearly in literature. Evidently love, religion, 
 and ambition, or the desire for approval, are among the 
 strongest stimuli to the creative imagination, since they are 
 most frequently involved in artistic and literary productions. 
 
 Desire and imagijiation. Without desire there is little 
 constructive or creative imagination. Images may be 
 brought to mind in accordance with the laws of associa- 
 tion, but there will be little activity in the way of forming 
 them into complete pictures, unless by so doing some 
 desired end is likely to be gained. The most vivid de- 
 scription of how a game may be played or some object 
 constructed will not result in a unified picture unless there 
 is some desire to understand or to do which directs the 
 combination of images. Still less does the creative imag- 
 ination become active without the stimulus of mood or 
 desire. Desire is not only a stimulus to the imagination 
 
 [60] 
 
FEELING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 but it is a very large factor in determining what images 
 shall be brought to mind and how they shall be combined. 
 The girl who wishes to go to a party frequently finds it 
 almost impossible to keep her thoughts away from things 
 connected with that festivity. If there are difficulties in 
 the way of her going, she imagines a thousand possible 
 ways of overcoming them, and it is astonishing how much 
 ingenuity she may show in getting her heart's desire, even 
 though ordinarily she may not seem to have much initia- 
 tive or originality. If there is no difficulty about going, 
 but the experience is a new one, then her mind may be 
 filled with images of flowers, lights, music, delicious re- 
 freshments, the charming people she may meet, and the 
 interesting things that may happen. She may picture so 
 vividly imaginary scenes as to become entirely uncon- 
 scious of her present surroundings. 
 
 The surest way of stimulating imagination is to excite 
 desire of some kind. The person with many unsatisfied 
 longings is always the possessor of an active imagination, 
 unless he has given up all hope of attainment. 
 
 On the other hand and yet in accordance with the same 
 principle of unfulfilled activity, what is feared or abhorred 
 is a strong stimulus to the imaginative activity. In both 
 sleeping and waking life images of fear and horror come 
 unbidden to some persons and dominate their creative 
 imagination. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. To what extent can you get the same feelings from mental 
 images that you get from sensations ? 
 
 2. What relation is there between the vividness of the images 
 that arise in connection with certain emotions and the strength of 
 the emotion you experience? Illustrate. 
 
 [6,] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 3. Give examples of the images and emotions aroused in your 
 mind by certain pieces of literature. 
 
 4. Study Poe's analysis of the construction of " The Raven " and 
 see how far the nature and vividness of the images aroused produce 
 the intended emotional effect. Analyze some other selection in a 
 similar way. 
 
 5. Illustrate the fact that emotions stimulate the creative imagina- 
 tion and increase its vividness. 
 
 6. Illustrate the influence of desire and also of dread upon the 
 imagination. 
 
 [62] 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 IMAGINATION AND DREAMING 
 
 Dream imagery. Images do not differ greatly in kind 
 and in the ways in which they are brought into existence, 
 whether they appear in daydreams, ordinary night dreams, 
 or in dreams that occur in sickness, under the influence 
 of drugs, or in the hypnotic state. Dreams may be more 
 vivid under some circumstances than under others, but if 
 they are dominantly visual in one state they are usually 
 so in all, and the same is true as regards other kinds of 
 imagery. The chief difference between a night dream 
 and a daydream is that in the latter case consciousness 
 is more complete. One is, to some extent, aware of his 
 surroundings and knows that .his images are mental. In 
 night dreams the senses are only slightly active and 
 the dream images fully occupy consciousness so that all 
 seem real. 
 
 In no form of dream can anything be represented the 
 elements of which one has not experienced sensorially, 
 and in all sorts of dreams the coming and arrangement 
 of images is largely independent of will, although in day- 
 dreams there may be a little conscious guidance of the 
 imaginative activity. 
 
 A person born blind can no more dream of visual ex- 
 periences than he can image them in his waking state. 
 A study of the dreams of the blind reveals the fact that 
 those who have been blind from an early age dream in 
 
 [63] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 terms of touch and motion or of sound. Very few of those 
 who were less than three years old when sight was lost 
 have any visual images in their dreams. Nearly all of 
 those who were over seven when they became blind have 
 visual images in their dreams and also in their ordinary 
 waking life. Of those between three and seven some 
 dream in visual terms and some do not. 
 
 The dreams of persons who are both blind and deaf 
 are almost wholly in terms of touch and motion. They 
 not infrequently talk in their sleep with their fingers as 
 many normal people do with their vocal organs. Dream 
 images are generally more vivid than waking images, or 
 at least they seem so. This is probably due to the fact 
 that there are few or no sensations to contrast with them. 
 
 Sensations and dreams. Although the senses are to a 
 considerable extent closed in sleep, they play some part in 
 dream imagery, and in many instances the dream image 
 is modified or suggested by sensations. When asleep, if 
 the eyes are fatigued or painful, dreams may result, while 
 the repeated flashing of light that does not waken the 
 sleeper may produce the same effect. Probably the most 
 common sources of dream imagery are bodily sensations 
 coming from the internal organs and kinesthetic and 
 touch sensations caused by the position in which one is 
 lying. Touch sensations, especially those of temperature, 
 very often excite dream images. It is not at all unusual 
 for one whose feet have become uncovered to dream of 
 walking barefoot in the snow. 
 
 These facts regarding dream images as produced by 
 sensations have been obtained not only by observing 
 what sensations were being experienced at the moment 
 of waking but by many careful experiments in which 
 
 [641 
 
IMAGINATION AND DREAMING 
 
 sleeping individuals were stimulated sensorially and then 
 awakened and asked to relate their dreams. 
 
 So nearly alike are dream images and sensations that 
 it is sometimes impossible for one to tell whether he is 
 remembering a dream or a real experience. If the dream 
 experience has been concerned with other places, persons, 
 and things than those which appear to him when he 
 awakes, he knows at once that he has been dreaming. 
 Otherwise he may be in doubt. If you have dreamed 
 that some person staying in the house came into your 
 room, did certain things, and then went out again, it may 
 be utterly impossible for you to tell whether the person 
 was in the room or not. You can determine the truth of 
 the matter only by questioning the person or someone else 
 who might know, or by observing whether any object in 
 the room has been displaced in accordance with your dream. 
 
 Recent experiences and dreams. Aside from what may 
 be called " stock dreams," which occur again and again, 
 a close study of the subject reveals the fact that nearly 
 all dreams are connected in some way with recent experi- 
 ence. This is most readily noted in the case of unusual 
 and exciting occurrences. The person who has been in a 
 fire or a train wreck frequently suffers more in his dreams 
 than he did in his actual experience. The painful inci- 
 dents stand out more clearly than in the original, where 
 the tragic was mingled with the commonplace. 
 
 In the case of events less exciting the dreams are much 
 less like memories, and contradictory experiences are often 
 associated with the same person. The death of a friend 
 or relative is a frequent cause of dreams, but usually the 
 person is represented as alive and frequently the circum- 
 stances are very pleasant. 
 
 [65] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 New experiences, even though not very exciting, are 
 a common source of dreams, but very often the persons, 
 objects, and events concerned are so modified and con- 
 fused with images from experiences long past that one may 
 not at first realize that recent events occasioned the dream. 
 
 Fatigue plays a considerable part in dream imagery, 
 and often the whole dream is somewhat in the nature of an 
 after-image. One may continue in his dreams the physi- 
 cal or mental activity in which he was engaged just be- 
 fore going to sleep. The same thing is done or attempted 
 over and over again, usually under difficulties and seem- 
 ingly with little success. Sometimes, however, the condi- 
 tion is reversed, perhaps more frequently when there is 
 partial recovery from fatigue, and a problem which could 
 not be solved when awake is solved in a dream. A num- 
 ber of instances have been reported of correct dream 
 solutions of mathematical and other problems which had 
 baffled the waking consciousness. In a few instances the 
 solution has been found written on paper, although the 
 individual had no recollection of the dream success. More 
 often, however, seemingly satisfactory solutions of difficult 
 problems are found to be quite otherwise when one be- 
 comes fully awake. What seems wonderfully clear and 
 convincing, when dreaming and at the moment of waking, 
 becomes less and less definite and reasonable as one 
 considers it. 
 
 Wishes and dreams. Some psychologists have gone so 
 far as to say that dreams are always more or less directly 
 expressive of wishes or desires. This is probably an over- 
 emphasis upon one of several factors involved in stimulat- 
 ing and directing dream experiences. Wishes in the broad 
 sense of the term correspond to activities that have been 
 
 [66] 
 
IMAGINATION AND DREAMING 
 
 initiated and have not ceased or have not reached a cul- 
 mination. Their effect is therefore not unlike that of 
 occupations that have been carried on just before going 
 to sleep and which continue in the same or in a modified 
 form in dreams. Suppressed desires play a large part in 
 dream experiences, but they are frequently so disguised 
 that only an expert student of dreams is able to detect 
 them and demonstrate their real relation. 
 
 In nervous disorders, especially those due to suppres- 
 sion of desires or of natural impulses, a study of the 
 dreams of the patient will frequently give a clue to the 
 original sources of the difficulty. Not infrequently impulses 
 or desires that were suppressed and covered up, perhaps 
 in early childhood, have remained for many years a dis- 
 turbing element in the mental processes. Sometimes in 
 such cases the subject himself has forgotten the original 
 incident until it is recalled to him by close questioning, 
 either in the normal or in the hypnotic state. Dream ex- 
 periences are frequently used successfully as a basis for 
 such questioning and have thus come to play a large part in 
 the treatment of mental disorders and associated physical 
 disabilities. 
 
 Desire and abhorrence frequently combine in the pro- 
 duction of images of a certain type, as when a soldier 
 who desires to be brave but fears that he will prove a 
 coward dreams of being disgraced by cowardly acts, or 
 when one dreams of yielding to temptation of any kind. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Report upon dreams that seem farthest removed from any 
 actual event, and analyze the images to see if their elements are the 
 result of sensory experiences. 
 
 [67] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 2. Describe dreams that were difficult to distinguish from actual 
 experiences. 
 
 3. Give examples in which sensations experienced at the time 
 were clearly the cause of dreams. 
 
 4. Analyze dreams to find how far they reflect recent experiences. 
 
 5. Show the part that desire and aversion play in some of your 
 dreams. 
 
 6. In what respects does your dream imaging correspond to your 
 working imagination when you are not striving to accomplish a 
 definite thing? 
 
 7. In what respect do your dreams when asleep correspond to 
 your daydreams, or waking imagination? 
 
 8. Compare your nonvoluntary, waking imagination, or daydreams, 
 with your dream experiences, noting likeness and difference. 
 
 [68] 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 REASONING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 Similarity and purpose in reasoning. All reasoning is 
 based on similarity and leads to a conclusion. The chief 
 difference between daydreaming and reasoning is that in 
 reasoning associations of similarity are more prominent, 
 while symbols and general truths partly take the place of 
 images. Purpose and selective attention also hold a more 
 prominent place than in daydreaming. These distinguish- 
 ing qualities of reasoning make it inevitable that there 
 shall be a more complete analysis and careful noting of 
 exact points of resemblance. The images characteristic 
 of dreaming are also more or less characteristic of reason- 
 ing ; but in reasoning, what the image stands for, rather 
 than the image itself, is of most importance. 
 
 Most of the students who were asked whether they 
 believed in capital punishment or not, and their reasons, 
 reported that in thinking about the matter they formed 
 concrete images. 
 
 When the words " capital punishment " came to my ears I 
 immediately saw a condemned man with handcuffs on, standing 
 in a court room with a hopeless look on his face. 
 
 When asked my opinion I began to wonder how this law 
 affected the rest of the world and came to my conclusion. 
 
 When asked my reasons I could see one bad man in a street 
 filled with good people, and wondered why he should be allowed 
 to return to them after he had committed crime demanding 
 capital punishment. 
 
 [69] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 I saw the words " capital punishment," then I saw a man 
 killing another, and the image of an electric chair. Then I saw 
 the picture of a man, haggard and hatless, skulking along the 
 side of a building. Then I saw a man, who had been imprisoned 
 for life, killing his guard. 
 
 First I saw an image of a man with a black robe around 
 him and a rope attached to his neck, with several men stand- 
 ing around him. Then I saw the same man with his relatives 
 before he entered the death room, everyone crying but the 
 intended victim. 
 
 A few had only symbol or verbal images, as in the 
 following case : 
 
 At first I thought of the word itself, and thought it came 
 from caput, thus meaning " beheading " or " life taking." When 
 asked for my belief I at first thought " yes," because of a specific 
 remembrance of the trouble in imprisonment in the Thaw case. 
 Then I thought of the frequent unfairness and injustice. Also 
 I thought that it (imprisonment) is really a worse punishment 
 than taking life, if just ; and if unjust, the man has a chance. 
 I thought that a man might do something very wrong and yet 
 be of use to society in some ways. 
 
 The kind of imagery was mainly verbal and very slightly 
 auditory, with practically no visual imagery except the visual 
 image of the word. 
 
 In another experiment students were asked whether a 
 hunter who passed entirely around a tree in which there 
 was a squirrel, which moved so as to keep hidden from 
 him all the time, really went around the squirrel. All re- 
 ported concrete images. In this case images of space 
 relations are a necessary part of the reasoning process, 
 but there is loss rather than gain in imaging in detail the 
 
 [70] 
 
REASONING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 exact appearance of the man, the species of the tree, 
 and the squirrel, although some do so. 
 
 It is found that in some instances reasoning is not cor- 
 rect because of the lack of definite images. For example, a 
 number of children were given this problem : "If you were 
 to walk directly west from here three miles, and then a car- 
 riage were to come along and you were to get in and ride 
 east two miles, how far would you be from this place ? " A 
 large proportion of the answers were either " five miles " 
 or " six miles." Evidently the children did not in this 
 case form definite images of space relations, but followed 
 their habitual method of dealing with problems which 
 sound very much like this one, by either adding or mul- 
 tiplying. A concrete image of the person as moving in 
 one direction and then along the same course in the oppo- 
 site direction does lead to the correct conclusion. Such 
 concrete imagery is not, however, absolutely necessary to 
 the solution of this problem. One may think of east and 
 west as opposites of each other without concretely repre- 
 senting movements in space. Evidently an image of the 
 features or clothes of the person walking would be of 
 no value. 
 
 In solving such a problem as the following, many 
 normal-school and college students fail either because they 
 do not image concretely or do not analyze and observe 
 the essential elements : " If it is worth sixty cents a cord 
 to cut cordwood into two pieces, what will it be worth to 
 cut it into three pieces ? " 
 
 Symbols and exact reasoning. In exact reasoning, of 
 which mathematics, especially algebra, may serve as a type, 
 the images used must be almost wholly symbols represent- 
 ing relations rather than concrete images of things. In 
 
 [7>] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 geometry images of the lines, angles, and figures play a 
 large part in reasoning. One who has good control of 
 visual imagery may work out propositions quite success- 
 fully without any apparatus for making actual lines. In 
 all geometrical reasoning the lines and figures are partly 
 concrete and partly symbolical. A concrete triangle is 
 represented on paper or in the mind, but unless one thinks 
 of that triangle as being merely suggestive of any triangle 
 of the same type, whatever the length of its sides, his 
 reasoning is likely to lead to false conclusions. 
 
 When the lines in a figure are designated by letters 
 and their relations are expressed in algebraical form, think- 
 ing may become wholly symbolical. To many persons such 
 thinking is vague and uncertain unless they also image 
 the lines symbolized. Without thus picturing lines of 
 various lengths and inclinations combined to form the 
 type of figure being considered, they feel no assurance of 
 the correctness of their conclusions. In order to reason 
 with any degree of clearness regarding the proposition 
 they must do a good deal of concrete imaging. To ad- 
 vanced mathematicians, who have developed to a high 
 degree the power of abstract thinking, concrete imaging 
 seems childish and a waste of time. 
 
 Many scientific persons take satisfaction in using alge- 
 braical symbols instead of concrete instances, even when 
 their reasoning is not concerned with mathematical quan- 
 tities. For example, in psychology, instead of saying, 
 " The odor of an orange recalls to mind images of its 
 form, color, and taste," they say, " Sensation A brings 
 into consciousness images B, C, and D that have been 
 associated with it." Such a mode of thinking lacks in 
 concrete representation of actual experiences, but gains in 
 
 [72] 
 
REASONING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 brevity and generality. In the instance quoted, the exact 
 points necessary for reaching a conclusion regarding the 
 laws of association are represented by the symbols, without 
 loss of time and without the confusion occasioned by 
 representing unessential details and variations that do not 
 change the truth involved. 
 
 To many people, however, such abstract or symbolic 
 reasoning is very unsatisfactory. They prefer to represent 
 a concrete experience, and with that as a basis reach the 
 conclusion that certain results will follow, not only in the 
 instance represented but in all other instances of the same 
 type. Some people can reason nearly as rapidly in this 
 way as others can by the use of symbols only, while other 
 persons must spend considerable time in representing not 
 only the one concrete instance but many others before 
 they can reach a conclusion. 
 
 It is claimed by some persons that a representation even 
 of symbols is not necessary, and there has been consider- 
 able discussion whether such " imageless thought " is pos- 
 sible or not. In cases where an individual is not distinctly 
 conscious of either concrete or symbol images it is probable 
 that some vaguely represented or actual movements of vocal 
 organs, hand, eye, etc., play an important part in the mental 
 operations. When the mind is dealing with familiar mean- 
 ings in the usual way, there is less need for images of 
 any kind. It may, therefore, be true that many people 
 do some thinking without images of sufficient distinctness 
 to be noticeable, and that some do nearly all their thinking 
 in that way. 
 
 The definitions given by children at different ages show 
 that the older they become the less surely are concrete ex- 
 periences associated with words. For example, the primary 
 
 [73] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 child says, when he is asked to tell what the following 
 words mean : car — " goes on a track" ; trouble — "when 
 you break a glass" ; pretty — "got a pretty dress" ; school 
 — "where you learn " ; study — "writing " ; bee — " bumble- 
 bee " ; while an older pupil gives more abstract defini- 
 tions, such as these : bee — " a small insect which is able 
 to change the nectar of flowers into honey" ; pretty — 
 "something that is beautiful"; trotcble — "in danger." 
 It is found also in testing the definitions of older pupils 
 that the more familiar the word is the less are concrete 
 experiences used in defining it. It seems probable, then, 
 that in certain stages of development of the process of 
 thinking and reasoning in any line, images are necessary, 
 but that later the concrete images may be eliminated, and 
 that even images of symbols may, in the case of some 
 persons, have ultimately little place in thought processes. 
 With others, however, vivid images, either of some typ- 
 ical experience or of symbols used in representing that 
 experience, are necessary to clear thinking, and with use 
 such images become more, rather than less, vivid. In a 
 large proportion of cases the images in ordinary thinking 
 are vague and fleeting, but when there is hesitation or 
 doubt they are made more vivid and perhaps also more 
 concrete. 
 
 Images, judgment, and decision. In the case of most 
 persons concrete imagery has a great influence upon judg- 
 ment and choice. This fact is well recognized by skilled 
 orators, politicians, and advertisers. The political leader 
 who succeeded in getting voters to associate with the 
 name of his party the image of a workman with a full 
 dinner pail won the election. A vivid picture of concrete 
 instances of undesirable happenings when a certain tariff 
 
 [74] 
 
REASONING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 policy was enforced, in contrast with instances of happi- 
 ness and prosperity when the country was living under 
 another tariff law, has more effect upon the judgment of 
 men with regard to tariff policies and upon their choice 
 of party than the most logical abstract demonstrations of 
 the fundamental principles of political economy. 
 
 The convincing speaker is the one who calls up in the 
 minds of his auditors a concrete picture which is not only 
 vivid but which arouses distinct feelings of a certain kind 
 and then associates that picture with the person, party, or 
 principle that he wishes them to favor or condemn. Vivid- 
 ness of representation sways the judgment and directs the 
 will of the great majority of people to a far greater extent 
 than does accurate classification according to similarity and 
 careful reasoning in accordance with principles of logic. 
 
 Imaging in induction and deduction. In inductive rea- 
 soning, previous concrete experiences form the basis of 
 expectation or inference as to what is likely to happen 
 under given circumstances. This kind of reasoning is 
 sometimes little more than the working of the law of habit 
 and hence does not necessarily involve much imaging. 
 In our everyday experiences we learn to act in ways that 
 bring the most satisfactory results, but we do not neces- 
 sarily distinctly represent former occasions. We expect 
 that food of a certain appearance will taste in a certain 
 way, and we anticipate the touch sensations which may 
 be gained from an object giving certain visual sensations. 
 We know what will happen if a glass is dropped upon a 
 stone or if a piece of wood is thrown into the water. 
 
 When, however, we attempt to formulate a general 
 truth, such as the statement that lowering the tempera- 
 ture causes the moisture in the air to condense in the 
 
 [75] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 form of drops of water, we must observe much more 
 closely, note similarities of conditions, and do a good deal 
 of imaging before we clearly perceive the basis of the 
 general truth and are able to express it in words. After 
 such a general truth has been formulated, and we attempt 
 to use it in deductive reasoning, we are likely to think 
 of it either by imaging the words or the mathematical 
 formula by which it is expressed or by picturing some 
 concrete instance in which its application is clearly shown, 
 such as a pitcher of ice water with drops of moisture on 
 its sides. In applying the truth to new situations we must 
 observe or image the situation and see whether it belongs 
 to the class covered by the general principle. In doing 
 this the mind may be occupied chiefly with symbols and 
 meanings, or there may be much representation of con- 
 crete experiences, or the typical instance from which the 
 general truth was drawn may be pictured. For instance, 
 the grass may be imaged as becoming wet when the sun 
 goes down and the air becomes cooler. Highly trained 
 thinkers are more likely in both inductive and deductive 
 reasoning to hc.ve their minds occupied chiefly with sym- 
 bols and the similarities and relations for which they stand. 
 There is no clear distinction in the ordinary thinking 
 of most people between induction and deduction. A situa- 
 tion that seems to be similar to others that have been 
 experienced calls forth a representation of the results that 
 are to be expected. If there is any doubt about the matter, 
 the situation is examined more closely and compared with 
 images of other situations that seem to have been similar, 
 and a conclusion is reached as to what will happen, with- 
 out any distinct formulation of a general truth applicable 
 to all situations like this one. In other words, there is 
 
 [76] 
 
REASONING AND IMAGINATION 
 
 a great deal of reasoning from particular to particular in 
 which memory, habit, and concrete imagery play the promi- 
 nent parts, while consciousness of general truths which 
 may be expressed in the form of symbols is vague and 
 inexact. 
 
 Most people expect the reddest apple to be the best 
 flavored, although they have never thought of the exact 
 relation between color and taste. The housewife who has 
 been cheated by one peddler may image the experience 
 and refuse to trade with the next, although she has never 
 made any definite induction as to what classes of persons 
 are likely to be dishonest. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Notice and report the part that images play in your own think- 
 ing and reasoning in specific cases and discuss the advantages and 
 disadvantages of using concrete images in greater or less detail. 
 
 2. Study two such contrasting types of oratory as Burke's 
 speeches and Talmage's sermons and note the part that imagery 
 plays in each case and their relative effectiveness for popular appeal. 
 
 3. Reason either inductively or deductively regarding the usual 
 relation between loss of sleep and good nature, then notice the part 
 that concrete images play in such reasoning or report the part that 
 imagery played in some development lesson or argument you have 
 heard. 
 
 [77] 
 
PART II 
 THE IMAGINATIVE LIFE OF CHILDREN 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 FACTORS INVOLVED IN THE EARLY DEVELOP- 
 MENT OF IMAGINATION 
 
 The beginnings of imagination. The first mental 
 images develop in a child's mind through the habitual 
 association of sensations. When a child a few months 
 old turns to look for the source of a sound, it is probable 
 that if the sound is a familiar one he has some sort of 
 image of what he will see. In a similar way the child 
 who has brought a certain object to his mouth a number 
 of times has an anticipatory image of the sensation he 
 is to experience. When this anticipation is verified he 
 may be said to recognize or perceive, and his disappoint- 
 ment, if the expected sensation does not come, may also be 
 interpreted as indicating an image of what was expected. 
 For instance, a child who often put the smooth leather 
 of his shoe to his mouth seemed disappointed and dis- 
 pleased when he brought a chamois-skin bootee in contact 
 with his lips. 
 
 The enjoyment derived from playing peek-a-boo is 
 probably due in part to the confirmation of an anticipatory 
 image by the expected sensation. If a child shows knowl- 
 edge of an object when he is receiving no sensation from 
 it, there is still better evidence of the existence of an 
 image, as when a child reaches for something which he 
 has dropped but cannot see or for something which is 
 in its customary place yet is not in sight. If an object 
 
 [81] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 has been seen only once in a certain place, the promi- 
 nence and permanency of an image is still more clearly 
 indicated. For instance, a boy a little over a year old 
 who had seen a persimmon placed on a shelf made signs 
 the next day indicating his desire for the fruit, although he 
 could see only the shelf upon which it had been placed. 
 
 In the early development of imagery an interval be- 
 tween the sensation suggesting the presence of an object 
 and the sensation given by the object is favorable to the 
 formation of an image of it. When two or more sensa- 
 tions always occur in immediate succession there is little 
 opportunity for forming images, and the perceptions are 
 largely a matter of habit involving little more than the 
 tendency to make the right motion in response to the 
 sensation being received. 
 
 Language and images. The formation of images is 
 greatly helped by receiving sensations which are associated 
 with an object in the absence of that object and when all 
 the surroundings are different from those in which it is 
 usually perceived. Sounds, especially words, are the most 
 effective means of calling up images of things that are 
 not present. If a child has seen a dog and heard it bark 
 and later, perhaps when in the house, hears it again, he 
 is likely to show interest and doubtless has some sort of 
 visual image of the animal and its movements. In a simi- 
 lar way, if a child sees a horse and pats it while someone 
 repeatedly speaks the word "horse," he is likely when- 
 ever he hears that word to form a visual image of the 
 horse and of the sensations he experienced in touching 
 it. The immediate response to a word by some kind of 
 movement associated with it, such as waving good-by or 
 playing pat-a-cake in response to a suggestion, is not as 
 
 [82] 
 
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION 
 
 likely to be accompanied by images as are words sug- 
 gesting objects. Words are the most effective means of 
 freeing objects from their immediate surroundings and 
 thus developing images that are independent of any par- 
 ticular place or associated object. 
 
 If it were not for words, associations of time and place 
 would be much more limited than they are. Words bring 
 images of objects into the mind in places where they have 
 never been seen and after considerable intervals of time, 
 and thus varied associations of time and place are formed. 
 It is true that when a word is spoken the child forms an 
 image not only of the object named but of the things and 
 events associated with it at some particular time. But if 
 the object has been seen under varying conditions, brought 
 to mind in various circumstances and mentally associated 
 with things with which there has been no experience at 
 the same time and place, the tendency is for the image 
 of the object to suggest less definitely particular associates. 
 In other words, the image becomes freer and consequently 
 does not represent such distinct memories. 
 
 Although images develop rapidly in response to words, 
 yet their definiteness and the possibility of their being 
 aroused by indirect means are very much increased by 
 the child's own use of words. He must have some sort 
 of idea or image when he speaks the name of an object 
 that is not present and manifests a desire for it. We may 
 say that the development of constructive imagination is 
 indicated by the way in which the child puts words to- 
 gether in forming sentences. At first he uses only one 
 or two words to suggest the thought that he has in mind, 
 but later he uses words corresponding to the object and 
 indicating its special appearance, where it is, what it docs 
 
 [83] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 or is used for, in an order which suggests a completed 
 picture of a whole scene or event. Such a use of con- 
 structive imagination is, of course, prepared for by hear- 
 ing and understanding sentences spoken by others. To 
 understand a request such as "Go into the dining room 
 and bring me a spoon from the table," the child must 
 construct the scene and the movements to be made. In 
 a similar way he begins to use his constructive imagina- 
 tion when he shows an interest in stories which reproduce 
 events in which he has participated. 
 
 Tendency to animism. Nearly all children show a tend- 
 ency at an early age to note the resemblances of objects 
 to living things and to treat them as if they were alive 
 and had the characteristics of people. The most universal 
 manifestation of this tendency is shown in the way in 
 which toys resembling persons and animals are used. 
 Their general appearance suggests images of objects that 
 move, eat, and feel ; hence it is not strange that they 
 should be treated as if they were alive. Flowers and 
 trees often move in the wind in ways similar to those of 
 persons or animals, and this brings to the child's mind 
 images of the characteristics of living things which are 
 then readily associated with the trees or flowers. Besides 
 this, flowers, sticks, stones, etc. may resemble in appear- 
 ance a face or some prominent part of the human body, 
 such as an eye or mouth, and this is sufficient to make 
 the child regard them as being like people. 
 
 The child who has experienced certain feelings as a 
 result of movements of objects, and in connection with 
 his own handling of them, learns to infer that other peo- 
 ple under similar circumstances have the same feelings. 
 It is only a slight extension of this tendency which causes 
 
 [84] 
 
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION 
 
 children to ascribe feelings like those of human beings 
 to all sorts of things, animate and inanimate. A child 
 may treat a stick or a stone which has displeased him 
 in much the same way as he would a companion, or if 
 he is of a sympathetic nature, he may, as some children 
 do, pity the wood that is put in the fire or the pebble 
 which must stay always in one place. This tendency to 
 animism, so prominent in children, is a strong stimulus to 
 the imagination and has had a large part in the develop- 
 ment of the myths, legends, superstitions, and religions 
 of various peoples. 
 
 Imitation aiid imagination. Children less than a year 
 old usually begin to imitate sounds and movements. These 
 more or less complete reproductions indicate and help to 
 develop images of movements and ideas of feelings asso- 
 ciated with various objects and acts. When imitation is 
 spontaneous and immediate it is occasioned by sensations 
 rather than by images, but when a child seems to repro- 
 duce voluntarily a sound or a movement, some time after 
 it has been heard or seen, he must be guided by some 
 sort of image, and this image doubtless becomes more 
 definite as he tries again and again to reproduce what 
 he has perceived. 
 
 Further development of images and constructive imag- 
 ination appears in dramatic imitations, when the child 
 reproduces not a single scene or movement but a series 
 of events which occurred at different times and places. 
 In such cases other objects and persons than those actually 
 observed in the original experience may take part in the 
 performance, and some of the acts are only partially per- 
 formed or are perhaps omitted altogether. The child 
 reproduces the experience of going to ride in a carriage 
 
 [85] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 or a car, or of witnessing a fire, or of going to a circus 
 by using furniture or playthings to represent the objects 
 concerned, while he himself, perhaps with the aid of his 
 companions, proceeds to supply the dramatic action by 
 flourishing a whip, shouting to the imaginary horse, clang- 
 ing a gong, or prancing like a circus pony. By such 
 dramatic imitations the child develops clearer images and 
 gains a considerable power of control over them, which 
 enables him not only to reproduce incidents which he 
 has observed but also to construct more completely those 
 which have been described to him. It is interesting to 
 note that in connection with all the early playful exercise 
 of the imagination the child is controlling his movements 
 and manipulating objects to represent imaginary things. 
 Undoubtedly the early power of controlling images is the 
 result of thus regulating his own movements in shifting 
 objects which symbolize to some extent his imaginings. 
 
 Reminiscence and anticipation. At about three years 
 of age, when a child begins to use his creative imagina- 
 tion, he often shows also a marked tendency to recall 
 former experiences. He delights in relating incidents 
 that occurred several months earlier and can frequently 
 give many details indicating a fairly definite and accurate 
 imagery. These reminiscences of past experiences serve 
 as a basis for imaging those that are expected in the future. 
 Memories of what he did last summer or last winter or 
 at the seashore start the child to picturing what he may 
 do and what may happen when those seasons come again 
 or those places are once more visited. Just as in the 
 early use of the creative imagination real objects serve 
 as a stimulus to pretending that they are different from 
 what they really are, so do memories of past experiences 
 
 [86] 
 
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION 
 
 serve as a basis for imagining future episodes similar in 
 general character but differing in various and agreeable 
 ways. Moreover, just as the activity of the imagination 
 is contrasted with, and to some extent opposed by, the 
 actual sensations given by objects, so when a child again 
 has experiences similar to those he remembers, he modi- 
 fies his anticipatory imagery of the future and limits it 
 more closely to actual facts or to the possibilities of the 
 case. At the same time variations in his experience furnish 
 a stimulus to variety in his future anticipatory imaginings. 
 Imagination and the omnipotence of childhood. The 
 traditional idea of omnipotence is indicated by the phrase 
 "He spoke and it was so." There is no thought of means 
 and effort, but the desire or the will produces that which 
 has been conceived. When one considers for a moment 
 it is clear that to the infant's dawning consciousness needs 
 are supplied and wishes are gratified without personal 
 effort. As the infant becomes hungry, food is provided ; if 
 he is pricked and cries, relief is at hand. Later a bright 
 object is seen, and at a gesture or a word it is placed in 
 his hands. During all his time of helplessness, the child 
 is really omnipotent. Much of what he wishes or wills 
 comes almost instantly and without effort on his part. In 
 sharp contrast with this are his experiences as he begins 
 to help himself and supply his needs and desires by his 
 own thought and effort. He must become acquainted 
 with the world in which he lives and conform strictly to 
 its laws or his wishes remain ungratified. The words 
 " dress me " do not quickly result in his being properly 
 dressed, but a very definite series of movements must be 
 carefully made in proper order before the desired result 
 is obtained and he is in a condition to gratify his next 
 
 [87] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 desires. Only gradually is the lesson learned that we live 
 in a world where everything must be paid for by planning 
 and effort suitable to the occasion. A lifetime of school- 
 ing is sometimes not sufficient to teach this lesson fully. 
 Even when it is learned there is relief and pleasure to 
 be found in daydreams in which we lapse again into our 
 childhood condition, of wishes being gratified without the 
 use of means. 
 
 Is it any wonder that the child clings to this world of 
 personal power in which wishes bring their own fulfill- 
 ment ? Poets always dwell much in this world, while the 
 most original scientists and inventors find in it possibili- 
 ties which later, by regulated effort, they transform into 
 actualities. Thus all through life there is contrast and 
 conflict between the world of fancy in which we are omnip- 
 otent and the real world where we can succeed only by 
 almost slavish conformity to the laws of the universe of 
 which we are a part. Yet there are at the same time recip- 
 rocal influences by which law is brought into the world of 
 fancy on the one hand and the present and actual changed 
 into the future and the ideal on the other. Only by proper 
 balance of these contrasts and relations can life be made 
 both sane and ideal. Childhood can be understood and 
 properly nourished into usefulness and happiness only by 
 recognizing that man begins by being omnipotent in the 
 world of fancy while learning the laws of the real world to 
 which he must conform in order to become really power- 
 ful and efficient. Children are thus alternately the most 
 idealistic and the most literal of creatures, now reveling 
 in fancies, now oppressed by realities and their own help- 
 lessness. This divine spark of freedom and of will to be 
 and to possess must not be smothered. 
 
 [88] 
 
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGINATION 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Report the earliest evidence of expectation on the part of 
 infants that you have noticed. 
 
 2. Report the earliest case of evidence of memory or imaging of 
 an object not in sight which has been perceived only once or twice 
 before. 
 
 3. Give remarks of some small child while listening to a story 
 describing the doings of himself or others which show what mental 
 pictures he is forming. 
 
 4. Report instances of the tendency to animism in small children. 
 
 5. Describe some of the earliest dramatic imitations that you 
 have observed. 
 
 6. Give instances of reminiscence on the part of young children, 
 and also of anticipatory imaging. 
 
 [89] 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 
 
 AS AFFECTED BY AGE. CIRCUMSTANCES, AND 
 
 INDIVIDUALITY 
 
 The chief factors involved, A complete history of one's 
 surroundings and of his imaginative activity at various 
 ages would not only be an illuminating and complete 
 revelation of his character but would show clearly the 
 stages of development through which he has passed. It 
 would seem that a large collection of the imagings of 
 children at various ages would, when classified, reveal 
 general truths regarding the characteristics of imagina- 
 tion and the stages of development through which chil- 
 dren pass. The author has collected many instances of 
 imagination and examined them with this end in view, 
 but has found definite formulation of truths difficult. The 
 natural and social surroundings of children, their special 
 experiences, and their own individuality are such impor- 
 tant factors that age differences are obscured. 
 
 The influence of material surroundings and of special 
 experiences is clearly shown in the following : 
 
 When nine years old I was living on an island of Puget 
 Sound. Our home being on the shore of the island, we girls 
 found much pleasure in " beach combing.'' In fact, the low 
 tides usually found us out looking for shells, starfish, and pretty 
 sea mosses. At times of extreme tides we were given a broader 
 beach to search and quite frequently found new specimens. 
 
 t90] 
 
LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 
 
 I think it must have been these extreme tides which caused a 
 secret wish that the water would go out of the Sound for a period 
 of time long enough to search the bottom of the ocean in that 
 vicinity. Many times I found myself trying to imagine what 
 the scene would be in such a case. The millions of fish, sea 
 plants, animals, and wrecks, also money and valuables, which 
 I could picture on the ocean floor are still very plain. The most 
 striking feature of this imaginary adventure, however, was the 
 awful catastrophe which would result if the water should come 
 back suddenly and I happened to be some distance from the 
 shore. The thought of the race before the oncoming wave of 
 water still revives a feeling of fear. 
 
 A short time after we moved from the island the passenger 
 boat that plied between our town and Seattle was sunk by a 
 collision with another boat in a dense fog. The account of the 
 disaster brought up a clear picture of the conditions that might 
 have occurred during the sinking of the boat. I could see a 
 few leaping from the upper decks, but most of the passengers 
 seemed to be in the lower cabins and their rush for the stairs 
 or doorways was most pitiful. Many broke windowpanes in an 
 effort to escape, but the water rushed in with terrible force, 
 causing the cabin to fill in almost no time. The boat in a very 
 short time had found its way to the ocean bottom, where I again 
 could see it as the water receded, and I was investigating the 
 unknown depths of the sea. I was twelve years old at this time. 
 
 The effects of social surroundings and especially the 
 influence of an older and admired companion are shown 
 in the following case of a five-year-old child in the same 
 house with a normal student : 
 
 Almost every morning E. puts something edible in a bag 
 while I am putting up my lunch, and keeps bustling about, 
 keeping up a rapid fire of exclamations such as, " My, don't we 
 have to hurry for that car ! " " Never do to be late in my 
 
 [91] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 school, will it ? " While I am making my bed she spreads hers, 
 saying, " Can't go and leave our rooms looking like this, can 
 we ? " She puts on her hood and coat, gathers up all the books 
 she can carry, hurries with me out of the door, and says, " My 
 car doesn't go the way yours does." Her mother tells me that 
 after she has walked up and down in front of the house a num- 
 ber of times she comes into the dining room and spends hours 
 either getting her reading or spelling lessons or pretending she 
 is a teacher ; always eats her lunch before she " comes home " 
 from school. 
 
 The other evening she saw the grade cards that I use in the 
 training school, and immediately wanted to know what they 
 were for. After explaining them I gave her some, and each day 
 until she tired of it she would come and show me the marks 
 the dog and cat had received. 
 
 Individuality is prominent in the following reminis- 
 cence, although the person is very suggestible and the 
 imagination changes with age : 
 
 One day when I was four years old I saw my mother look- 
 ing over the garden with a troubled expression. She said, "The 
 rabbits are eating up the lettuce. I am afraid we '11 have to put 
 salt on their tails and catch them." The next morning I went 
 to the garden with a sack of salt and caught sight of a " cotton- 
 tail " eating lettuce. I ran after her shrieking, " Here, Molly 
 Cottontail, salt ! salt ! salt ! " but she scampered off, and I 
 was left standing there looking over the garden hedge, holding 
 my salt, with tears of disappointment in my eyes. I felt that I 
 must catch those rabbits, so I set about sprinkling salt on every 
 weed that was high enough for a rabbit to run under, thinking 
 perhaps some would fall off on their tails and they would be 
 caught. I went off to the grape arbor and there fell to playing 
 with my dolls, thinking that in the morning I would find scores 
 of rabbits sitting in the shade of all of the weeds in the garden. 
 
 [92] 
 
LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 
 
 They would all be pink and would lay pink eggs, and instead of 
 the yearly " corn carnival," that was a very festive occasion in 
 Nebraska, they would have me give a parade with my rabbits. 
 We would descend from the clouds above the Methodist church, 
 I sitting in a pink wagon drawn by rabbits as big as horses, 
 that I had made fat by feeding them on corn cobs (a commodity 
 used for fuel on account of the abundance of corn in this 
 region). I would wear a pink hood, and all the rest of the 
 rabbits would pull wagons of pink eggs, and at the end of the 
 parade I would have a pink dog walking beside a pink cat. 
 
 My sister, who was about eight years of age at the time I 
 was five, came to me in the garden one day and said, " We 
 must make a sacrifice and atone for our sins. W T e are all 
 sinners." " I am, ami?" said I. " Well, I '11 break your doll, 
 if you say I'm a sinner." " Now listen," she said, "you are a 
 sinner and so am I, and we must sacrifice the best thing we 
 have." My father had given us each a solid gold link bracelet 
 with a padlock in the form of a tiny heart and a little gold key 
 only a few days prior to this, and both of our minds flew to 
 our bracelets. " Yes," she said, " we must sacrifice our brace- 
 lets," and we went to the house and got them and returned to 
 the garden. She picked out a currant bush in the most remote 
 corner of the yard and said, " We will bury these forever. Dig 
 a hole — now dig one for me." " Dig your own," I said, for I 
 did n't care much about the whole proposition, anyhow. We 
 buried them, and she said a prayer over them. Next she said, 
 " Now shut your eyes and walk fifty steps before you open 
 them." We both did so and when we opened them, for the 
 life of us we could n't tell which bush we had buried the brace- 
 lets under. "If you look for that bracelet," she told me, "every 
 gooseberry in the garden will turn into a stone, and every robin 
 will die this winter because they haven't anything to eat." 
 
 I imagined the robins would lose their toes, wings, and beaks 
 if they didn't have gooseberries, and finally they would lose 
 their feathers and turn into fishes. The next day I wanted my 
 
 [93] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 bracelet and hunted for it. So did she, and we hunted for over 
 a month but never found them. 
 
 We had a bed of tansy in the yard, and everyone knows that 
 ants won't go near tansy. I imagined that if my mother would 
 let me go away for a day or two I could lay rows of tansy 
 around the world, and all of the ants would jump into the ocean. 
 I began by fringing two sides of our yard with it and soon got 
 tired of the proposition. I decided that since the ants bothered 
 our neighbors as much as they did us, that they could help, too, 
 if we were to accomplish the deed. 
 
 We had a big pine tree in the yard, that moaned and sighed 
 at night. Many is the box of headache pills that I buried at 
 the foot of this tree to relieve it of its pain. 
 
 When I was six we were going to move to Wisconsin, and 
 I imagined some very definite things about the appearance 
 of the place in which we were to live. I imagined it would 
 be a big yellow house on the edge of the forest, and that each 
 day I would take my dolls to a lake in the middle of the 
 forest, where we could see fairies making angel-food cake in 
 the hollow trunks of trees and baking it on the sand on the 
 banks of the lake. 
 
 My sister, of whom I have spoken as being about three years 
 older than myself, used to tell me that I was adopted and that 
 my name was Louise Smith before I came to live in her house, 
 and that was the reason I didn't look like any of the family. 
 It took little to convince me, for I had heard many visitors 
 say, " Where does she get her big eyes from ? " " Her hair 
 is not the color of anyone else's in the family." " She doesn't 
 act like either her brother or sister," etc. I imagined that I 
 had been the child of very wealthy parents, and that one day 
 when my mother was shopping I had gone for a long ride by 
 myself. I had ridden so far that I could n't find my way home. 
 I believed this adopted story until I was fully twelve years 
 of age, and when in a melancholy mood I would cry and 
 beg my mother to tell me who my real mother was. Then 
 
 [94] 
 
LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 
 
 I began to show a marked resemblance to my brother, so my 
 convictions were slowly shattered. 
 
 When I was about twelve years old I got an idea that I 
 wanted to go to boarding school. We were living in Denver, 
 and I sent for every catalogue of a boarding school that I could 
 find in magazine advertisements. I daydreamed for months 
 over the idea and made up my mind that sometime, when I 
 should inherit the money to which I was to fall heir, I would 
 send all the girls to boarding school who wanted to go. I would 
 have a big summer house for them to visit in Vermont in the 
 summer, because it was too far back to Denver ; I would have 
 one girl become an artist, one a pianist, one a domestic-science 
 teacher, another an actress, and the rest should all get married 
 and name their children after me. 
 
 At about this time my father was in the theater business. I 
 went to the theater often and came home determined to be a 
 great actress. I set up a row of candlesticks in the attic for the 
 footlights and put on all the old finery of my grandmother 
 that was kept in an old walnut chest in a dark corner of the 
 attic. I swept across my improvised stage with all the dignity 
 of an empress. I talked continually to my gatekeeper, gener- 
 ally a pile of blankets near the door, and explained how I should 
 have him shot at dawn. I would have a dagger concealed, and 
 it was generally a pie knife with a black walnut handle. I 
 imagined that this had been given me as I entered the prison 
 gate by a faithful slave of my husband, who was sitting in the 
 castle bemoaning the loss of his wife. 
 
 About this time (twelve years of age) I was studying Africa 
 in geography, and one morning I got up and told of a wonder- 
 ful dream I had had of a trip through that country. My father 
 thought it was so remarkable that he said it was worth printing. 
 I immediately began to plan my coming career as an authoress, 
 and wondered how soon I could get money enough saved to 
 start sending girls to school. My nurse had always tried to 
 make me sleep on my right side so I wouldn't dream, and 
 
 [95] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 whenever I wanted a good dream I would wait until she had 
 left the room at night and then lie on my back. I thought per- 
 haps I could sleep on my back at night and would dream more 
 and perhaps could then write a book about once a week. 
 
 Characteristics of imagination at different ages. From 
 a large number of papers describing the imaginative activi- 
 ties of children the following are taken almost at random 
 to give a bird's-eye view of the field of imagination at 
 various levels from two to sixteen. At two and three 
 there are imaginative imitations of making pies and candy, 
 bathing children, nursing sick dolls, acting as huckster, 
 groceryman, and jitney driver, telephoning, and playing 
 on the piano. There are also many instances of imaginary 
 companions. 
 
 At ages four, five, and six, besides many of the above 
 activities, there are tea parties ; acting out the stories of 
 Uncle Remus, "Three Bears," etc.; planting candy and 
 money, hoping for an increase ; playing conductor of a 
 car ; playing church and Sunday school ; making calls ; 
 seeing angels in the clouds, goblins, giants, and all sorts 
 of wild animals in the dark, and shooting bears and lions 
 in the daytime ; making up little stories and, in several 
 instances, playing with imaginary relatives. 
 
 For the ages from seven to eleven there are instances 
 of impersonating tree dwellers, an Indian, a fairy prin- 
 cess and various characters in books; of having tea par- 
 ties in proper form ; teaching school and using school 
 materials ; telling fairy stories ; dramatizing a funeral ; 
 thinking of self as adopted child ; going on various 
 voyages as captain ; making a trip to Alaska ; enacting 
 the battle of Manila ; dressing and acting the part of 
 grown-ups ; telling bigger stories than others have told ; 
 
 [96] 
 
LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 
 
 being afraid of bears in the woods and of ghosts at 
 night ; playing house with an imaginary husband. 
 
 In the next period, twelve to sixteen, we have fear of 
 dropping baby ; fear of white slavers ; daydreams of life 
 in England with real and imaginary family and friends, 
 also as a school teacher ; imagining stories like those 
 read ; writing poetry ; daydreams of a magic typewriter 
 that could be made to give information or anything else 
 desired ; making up continued stories ; imitation of sleight 
 of hand and imaginary taking part in a game of football ; 
 visions of life in a new place, induced by letters of a 
 former teacher ; imaginary experiences as a sailor ; dream- 
 ing of self as a fine lady, later with many lovers ; pictur- 
 ing self as nurse taking full charge of injured persons 
 in an imaginary auto accident. 
 
 From such a view of the imagination at various ages 
 we conclude that in the early years it is imitative and play- 
 ful. The influence of the immediate environment is also 
 very marked in the imitation of persons, processes, and 
 occupations. Children are continually playing that things 
 and persons are different from what they are and striving 
 to give reality to their mental representations by appro- 
 priate movements either with or without objects to repre- 
 sent the things or people involved. They delight also in 
 taking the character of another person or animal, and 
 imaginary companions are especially common. At the 
 same time they ascribe personality to flowers, trees, and 
 even to stones. Food and fear instincts are prominent 
 stimuli to the imagination. 
 
 In the period from six to twelve, imitations of social 
 forms are numerous. The chief stimulus to the imagina- 
 tion is not provided by the surroundings but by what is 
 
 [97] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 heard of distant places and by stories ; yet environing ma- 
 terials are utilized in making the representations. Objects 
 and imitative acting are still used to give reality, but not 
 so much as formerly, while expression through language 
 is much more prominent. Fear still has a considerable 
 place, while curiosity stimulated by the distant and the 
 mysterious often leads to the filling in of details by the 
 imagination. Much playful imitation of adult activities 
 is shown. 
 
 After twelve, objects are used hardly at all as assistants 
 to the imagination, and dramatic action is less common. 
 There is more serious imitation of adults and adult activi- 
 ties. Fear is now of burglars rather than of bears, and 
 frequently takes the form of social fear, or bashfulness. 
 The future rather than the present is at this time the 
 basis of imaginative construction, and the scenes are often 
 laid in distant places. The sex instinct and the aesthetic 
 impulse, either one or both, now have a prominent place 
 in the imagination. 
 
 Periods of imaginative development. There is no sharp 
 break in the development of the imagination, and the 
 changes already indicated are more or less on the surface. 
 There are deeper processes of adjustment of the mind to 
 the universe in which it dwells. The prominent phases 
 of these integrations and readjustments are indicated in 
 what follows and serve as a means of distinguishing the 
 stages of development of the imagination. 
 
 After children have gained the power to produce and 
 combine images they frequently revel in a playful use of 
 the imagination, in which things are given whatever quali- 
 ties are most pleasing and brought into whatever relation 
 is most agreeable. The child thus makes the world into 
 
 [98] 
 
LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 
 
 what he wishes it to be at the moment, but during all his 
 active dealing with things he is himself becoming im- 
 pressed with the permanent character of the objects with 
 which he deals. He learns something of the laws of the 
 world in which he lives, and which he cannot change, in 
 contrast with the imaginary kingdom over which he has 
 almost complete control. Only as he gains knowledge of 
 things as they are can he direct his imaginative activity in 
 representing desirable conditions as brought about through 
 possible means. 
 
 At this stage he is generally introduced through stories 
 and the reminiscences of elders to a distant world differ- 
 ing from that immediately surrounding him. He learns 
 of strange objects and unfamiliar events governed by laws 
 new to him. At about the same time he is also made 
 acquainted with the realm of fairy stories, in which wishes 
 have much the same place as in his earlier playful fancies. 
 For a time the world revealed by accounts of distant 
 places and times and the one presented by the fairy story 
 are enjoyed as a pleasing contrast to the prosaic present 
 and are not clearly differentiated from each other. Later 
 the child distinguishes between these two realms, just as 
 he earlier did between the realities of sense and his play 
 fancies. He wants to know whether stories are true, that 
 is, in accordance with the laws of the universe, or are 
 merely creations of fancy and fairyland. 
 
 Interest is then usually centered for several years upon 
 history and geography, and the child learns much regard- 
 ing the different parts of the earth and the succession of 
 events leading to present-day civilization. The wish and 
 the play elements at this time demand stories of adven- 
 ture which depict a more rapid succession of exciting inci- 
 
 [99] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 dents than is supplied by daily life or ordinary geography 
 and history study. 
 
 With the dawning of adolescence, and the emergence 
 of fresh instincts, and new social, aesthetic, and moral 
 interests the imagination is stimulated to greater activity. 
 At this time the wish of the fairy story has almost no 
 place, but the most desirable of all that is possible in the 
 real world is chosen for attainment, and the imagination, 
 directed by what is known of the laws of reality, is exer- 
 cised in representing the means of gaining such ends. In 
 this period of idealism the wish predominates over the 
 probable, but is not directly opposed to what is conceived 
 as possible. The problem for the youth and the man is 
 that of finding means of harmonizing his desires with the 
 actual possibilities of life as presented to him, taking into 
 account his individual capacities and opportunities. The 
 imagination is continually exploring the future, while the 
 reason decides as to ends and directs in the choice of 
 means of attaining them. 
 
 The period from three to six is preeminently the time 
 in which free play of the imagination is contrasted with 
 fixed sensory experiences of the immediate environment. 
 From six to twelve the imagination is occupied with con- 
 structing the distant world of reality and perhaps reveling 
 in a fairyland where wishes and fancy play a large part. 
 From twelve to maturity is the period of adventure, 
 romance, and idealism in which the real world is the 
 theater of the imagination, but the desirable is selected 
 and action is speeded up and intensified. 
 
 The chapters that follow discuss and illustrate some of 
 the chief features of the imaginative activities of these 
 periods. 
 
 [100] 
 
LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMAGINATION 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Illustrate the influence of environment on both constructive 
 and creative imagination. 
 
 2. Describe the characteristics of your own imagination at differ- 
 ent periods. 
 
 3. What characteristics of your imagination have been constantly 
 present at all ages ? 
 
 4. To what extent have your images been replaced by word sym- 
 bols and your plans made entirely in accord with facts and reason 
 uninfluenced by fancies and desires? 
 
 [K»] 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 
 
 Playing with images. When a child gains the power 
 to form vivid images and realizes that they may be modi- 
 fied and combined in various ways, a new world of enjoy- 
 ment is open to him. He plays with images as he plays 
 with toys. The world of reality is not always to his taste 
 and he cannot do much in the way of changing it, but 
 he may choose from his stock of mental pictures those 
 that are agreeable and change and combine them at pleas- 
 ure. They do not maintain a fixed form like real objects, 
 nor do they refuse to obey his wishes as people often do. 
 This activity of the creative imagination usually becomes 
 prominent between three and five and continues in vary- 
 ing degrees, according to individuality and the character 
 of the social environment, even into adult life. 
 
 This play of the imagination begins in dramatic imita- 
 tion, in which things are supposed to be different from 
 what they really are and where the child modifies the 
 original experience to suit his own pleasure. It is shown 
 in his noting of fancied resemblances and in his tendency 
 to animism. He pictures objects different from any that 
 he has known and often tells of little experiences that are 
 imaginary. Sometimes he seizes upon poetical and musi- 
 cal phrases and combines them into a little song which 
 he enjoys repeating. Usually he is more interested in the 
 character of the sounds than in the meanings associated 
 with the words. 
 
 [102] 
 
THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 
 
 The freedom with which he invents imaginary experi- 
 ences and describes them depends upon his social environ- 
 ment. If there is someone who is interested and amused 
 he is stimulated to go on weaving new fancies. If he is 
 rudely laughed at or harshly reproved he may give little 
 intimation of his imaginative life, but in a large propor- 
 tion of cases he will continue to create for himself experi- 
 ences more enjoyable than those supplied by the real world 
 in which he lives. 
 
 The following incident told of a four-year-old boy is a 
 good illustration of playing with images and giving reality 
 to the performance by means of appropriate movements: 
 
 One morning my sister softly called me and tiptoed out on 
 the porch, which is five or six feet higher than the yard. With 
 a motion for silence she pointed out Donald. He was going 
 through apparently aimless motions. But as I watched I saw 
 that he was tying something around a post, saying as he did 
 so, " Now pony, don't you pull and break that rope." Then 
 swinging his arms and with an important air he marched up 
 to the corner of a large box and asked for his mail, meanwhile 
 keeping careful watch of his impatient steed. Putting his mail 
 into his pocket and remarking on the weather to an imaginary 
 postmaster, he strode to his horse, went through all the neces- 
 sary motions of untying and throwing rein over his horse's 
 head, jumped into his saddle, and was off, galloping through 
 the gate and down the road, all of this without even the custom- 
 ary stick or string with which most children play horse. A day 
 or two later a friend called, bringing a little boy of six. The 
 other children had gone to the store with their father and 
 Donald was playing outside ; so we sent George to find him. 
 We presently heard voices under the window and, lifting the 
 sash a little way, I listened. Don was telling George to go in 
 the house and get his harness which was hanging on a certain 
 
 [ I03] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 doorknob. George came in fully expecting to find a harness of 
 some kind, but not even a string was to be seen. He went 
 back, saying that it was n't there. Don came in and, in a very 
 businesslike manner, walked up to the doorknob, lifted the 
 harness off, and walked out, George following. Of course 
 George couldn't understand what Don was doing, but Don 
 didn't know that. He began to harness his team of mules, 
 talking to them, calling them by name, — Liz and Sue, Pete 
 and Punch, etc., — telling George to look out or he would get 
 his head kicked off. Finally he threw the lines to George, tell- 
 ing him to hold the team while he opened the gate. It was too 
 much for George, who disgustedly turned away, telling Don he 
 was crazy, and came into the house. Donald merely looked 
 after him in surprise, glanced up and saw me, smiled in a shy 
 way he had, picked up his lines, and drove his team through 
 the gate and away. 
 
 Influences affecting creative activity. The pleasure that 
 the child derives from dramatic imitations, in which inci- 
 dents are reproduced at will in entirely new settings, to- 
 gether with his experience in ascribing to objects, animate 
 and inanimate, characteristics and feelings which he has 
 observed in persons, prepares the way for the creative 
 imagination and stimulates it to activity. In dramatizing an 
 event the child reproduces only the parts which are most 
 interesting to him, and presently he may add or substitute 
 objects or incidents not in the original which give a more 
 pleasing effect. Thus does the creative imagination become 
 active, and many children derive more pleasure from its 
 exercise than from most of their real experiences. 
 
 The child's desires are strong, and at first he knows 
 little of the fixed character of things and the laws gov- 
 erning them, so he often modifies them in fancy according 
 to his pleasure. A boy of six planted some melon seeds 
 
 [104] 
 
THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 
 
 which never came up. Often, when going to visit the 
 spot, he pictured so vividly the vine as grown and with 
 large melons that he actually had some expectation of 
 finding it true and was disappointed to see only the 
 bare ground. When a child imagines things and persons 
 as being and doing what he wishes, but without having 
 any actual experience with them, there is no check upon 
 the imagination and he may create a world of his own 
 which is to him a vivid reality. One young woman writes : 
 
 Once I remember looking up into the clouds and seeing 
 a towered city there shining in the sun. I imagined that it was 
 real and sometimes looked for it afterward. Another time I 
 imagined that I was an angel, and ran about flapping my hands 
 and feeling very ethereal. Remembering that angels conducted 
 souls to heaven, I ran to my mother and inquired, "Are you 
 dead ? " She did not understand my play and began to talk 
 seriously to me, whereupon I dropped my celestial role and ran 
 away to hide behind the clothes basket in the laundry. 
 
 Even in the period of playful imagining, when desire 
 and fancy have most influence, there is a strong tendency 
 to complete and make vivid every idea suggested, whether 
 the result is agreeable or not. Only the child with initia- 
 tive and will power invents a world according to his de- 
 sires. Others merely construct a more definite world of 
 whatever type is suggested to them. In response to this 
 tendency every person mentioned is imaged in greater or 
 less detail. For example, one young lady reports that 
 she even imaged in detail the "farmer" when playing 
 " Farmer in the Dell." Imaginary beings such as the 
 sandman, fairies, Santa Claus, are definitely imaged even 
 when pictures of them have not been seen. One child 
 imaged the sandman thus : "I thought that every night 
 
 [105] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 after I had gone to bed a very large man with a bag of 
 sand on his shoulder flew into my room and sprinkled 
 sand over my head, which put me to sleep." 
 
 Another says : " I imagined the sandman going along 
 the beach filling his bag with sand and then about dusk 
 coming around to all the houses and sprinkling sand over 
 us." Doubtless the writer was familiar with the beach 
 and the habits of hucksters, and this knowledge was re- 
 flected in the imagery produced by talk of the sandman. 
 One child imagined a picture so vividly that she could 
 scarcely realize that it had not been a reality, and many 
 children of four to seven tell wonderful imaginary tales 
 which they sometimes actually believe. This should not 
 be regarded as lying, but children should be led to dis- 
 tinguish clearly between the imaginary and the real. 
 
 The fact that many children do construct a literal 
 Santa Claus or sandman emphasizes the importance of 
 the caution that such personages should be presented to 
 children in a playful manner. This helps to prevent a 
 mythical personage from becoming too real in the child's 
 mind. Thus he may pass insensibly from the first con- 
 crete representations into an appreciation of the more 
 abstract spirit or force symbolized. That children are 
 sometimes severely shocked when they find Santa Claus 
 is not real is not due so much to the fact they have been 
 told stories about him as it is to the literal and serious 
 manner in which he has been described. 
 
 Present objects and events as well as past experiences 
 are often woven into imagery, as when a little girl thought 
 that a large house near her home was a fairy palace, and 
 another thought she saw Heaven through the clouds. This 
 is also shown in the case of the little girl who said that 
 
 [106] 
 
THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 
 
 thunder was God knocking on the floor of Heaven, and 
 of another who thought that the Sunday-school superin- 
 tendent was God, since he was to her the principal 
 personage in " God's house." 
 
 Besides this general tendency to weave into fancy what- 
 ever knowledge or experience one possesses, there are 
 two important factors involved in imagination, namely, a 
 lack of definiteness in the stimulating object or idea and 
 an emotional interest of some kind impelling one to 
 mental activity along the line suggested. Cloud forms 
 and the flames of an open fire have always inspired the 
 imagination. We see " castles in Spain," characters in 
 song and story, visions of the past and future, according 
 to our surroundings, previous experience, and mood. 
 Mysterious actions and words are effective stimuli to the 
 imagination of many persons. Music and works of art, 
 especially pictures which are vague in detail, poems or 
 stories which suggest rather than express situations and 
 emotions, may appeal strongly to the imaginative faculty. 
 
 In no case will any of these stimuli produce much 
 activity of the imagination unless they arouse some feel- 
 ing. On the other hand, if emotion of any kind has 
 already been stirred, almost any indefinite stimulus may 
 result in great activity of the imagination along the lines 
 suggested by that emotion. Indefinite shapes or unrecog- 
 nized sounds may fill the mind of a timid child with pic- 
 tures of bears and wolves ready to attack him or of a 
 "black man," "rag pickers," or " gypsies " waiting to 
 carry him off. 
 
 In all such cases the child has little or no control of 
 his imagination and lacks knowledge with which to com- 
 bat his fears. The images come without his volition, and 
 
 [107] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 the distressing scene proceeds in spite of any effort he 
 may make to end it. The child lying helpless in the dark, 
 with fear-inspiring images aroused by indefinite stimuli, 
 is in quite a different situation from the boy in daylight, 
 shouldering his gun to shoot lions that his eyes tell him 
 are not there. Older children and adults may gain a con- 
 trol of imagery somewhat independent of physical circum- 
 stances, but to the small child this is impossible ; rather, 
 in his case, imagination possesses and controls him. 
 
 Imaginary companions. From earliest infancy people are 
 the most interesting things in a child's environment. It 
 is not strange, therefore, that they should occupy a promi- 
 nent place in his mental operations and creations. Not 
 only may he endow all the objects of nature with the 
 characteristics of human beings, and imagine the per- 
 sonalities of people, including his own, as changed, but 
 he creates new characters to serve his purposes. In his 
 dramatic play he takes great pleasure in acting as if he 
 were a dog, a bird, a horse, an Indian, a policeman, a 
 circus man, or a general. When he assumes another per- 
 sonality than his own he not only acts in the way that 
 seems to him appropriate but he desires other people to 
 treat him in a manner befitting the character. He fre- 
 quently has very definite ideas of what is necessary to the 
 part and may go to a great deal of trouble in order that 
 everything may be carried out in just the right way. 
 
 This is often one of the peculiar features of creative 
 imagining even when it is supposed to have free play. 
 The child is dealing with things over which he has con- 
 trol, and yet he seems to feel bound by some law to which 
 his imaginative creations must conform. In children of 
 an artistic and poetic temperament beauty, as in the case 
 
 [108] 
 
THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 
 
 of adult artists, may be the controlling law, but in a large 
 proportion of cases the law to which their imagery must 
 conform is based upon some kind of similarity or analogy 
 to what obtains in the real world as they know it. 
 
 In playing with dolls the child often gives a definite 
 individuality to each one and then requires that it shall 
 maintain those characteristics. One little girl carried this 
 individualization so far that when one of the dolls with 
 which she was carrying on an imaginary conversation 
 replied just as she had planned for it to reply she was 
 displeased, because she wanted that one to be more 
 independent and original. 
 
 In playing with real things which he has endowed with 
 imaginary characteristics the child is rarely if ever deceived 
 into believing that they actually have these characteristics. 
 His senses contradict his images, so that the thing as it 
 is contrasts with what he imagines it to be ; but by acting 
 as if it were the thing he imagines it, and getting other 
 people to act in the same way, he is able to produce a 
 semblance of reality which is no less pleasing because he 
 is conscious of the fact that he himself has supplied the 
 characteristics which it does not really possess. 
 
 Many children, during the age of make-believe, not 
 only give personality to objects, and modify in imagina- 
 tion the characteristics of individuals, but they create new 
 personalities. To such creations the name " imaginary 
 companions " has been given. It was formerly thought 
 that only children who had few or no real playfellows 
 ever indulged in such fancies, but inquiry reveals the 
 fact that a great many adults remember having had such 
 companions in childhood, and since it has been demon- 
 strated that children who at three or four talk a great 
 
 [109] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 deal about their imaginary playmates may be utterly unable 
 to remember a few years later that they ever had any such 
 intimates, it would probably not be an overestimate to say 
 that at least three fourths of all children have had, at some 
 time, one or more imaginary companions. 
 
 Not always are these companions wholly imaginary ; 
 often the fictitious person is represented by some real 
 object and occasionally by an animal, such as a cat or a 
 pony. In other instances there is nothing to represent 
 the absent person who is not purely imaginary, but some 
 one known or heard of. Sometimes it is found that the 
 casual mention of some individual has led the child to 
 construct an ideal personality suggested by the remark 
 and to adopt him as a playfellow. 
 
 Again, he may be a character in the child's dramatic 
 representation, such as a pupil or a policeman, but not 
 endowed with individuality. Sometimes the imaginary 
 playmate is not a person but a pet, such as a dog or a 
 horse. Oftentimes the desire for a brother or sister leads 
 to the creation of an imaginary one. A little girl of four 
 who delighted in telling of the deeds of her imaginary 
 brother one day looked very sad as she told that her 
 brother was very, very sick. " We must take him to the 
 hospital. He has appendicitis." Later she had a little 
 party in celebration of his home-coming. The first of the 
 following accounts was given by a little girl ten years old : 
 
 I have had two imaginary friends. I was about eight years 
 old. I had them for my pupils when playing school, and my 
 children when playing house. One of my imaginary friends 
 was a little girl named Marion. The other was a boy named 
 George. I do not have make-believe friends now. I am too 
 old to have them. 
 
 [no] 
 
THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 
 
 M., a little boy of three years, had an imaginary friend, 
 Harbell. When M. had his bath he made believe Harbell was 
 with him, and he would splash water all over him. He greatly 
 enjoyed this friend and played with him until he was five years 
 old. No one knew where he heard the name " Harbell." 
 
 One day little E., aged three, came into her mother's sewing 
 room. Going up to her mother, she said, in a very shy way, 
 " Mother, I have a little new friend, Bessie, and here she is." 
 The mother greeted the little new friend, saying, " How do you 
 do, Bessie. I am very glad to see you." There was no little 
 girl present. E. played with this imaginary friend until she was 
 five years old. 
 
 A little girl of three has an imaginary friend, " Twinkles." 
 One day her grandfather came into the living room and went 
 to sit down in the comfortable chair, when the little girl cried, 
 " O, grandfather ! don't sit there, Twinkles is sitting there." 
 
 Although children who are alone a great deal may feel 
 the need of such companions more than others, yet chil- 
 dren with many playmates may get much pleasure from 
 them. The imaginary companion is much more tractable 
 than real playmates and is especially appreciated after 
 a real companion has proved uncongenial or contrary. 
 Sometimes two or more children may join in playing with 
 an imaginary companion. Often, however, if they are of 
 about the same age, and almost equally imaginative, they 
 cannot agree upon the characteristics and details of be- 
 havior of the unseen playmate. In such cases if they 
 can take some real object and give it a personality which 
 it is supposed to maintain day after day, then this imag- 
 inary companion may be accepted and enjoyed by both. 
 Where one child has an imaginary companion, and an- 
 other child manifests interest in it and does not attempt 
 
 [mi 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 to modify its characteristics, then they may play with it 
 quite successfully for some time. 
 
 In connection with imaginary companions there is not 
 only a good deal of dramatic play but also the construct- 
 ing of imaginary experiences. 
 
 When a child I used my imagination most in playing house 
 and school. My sister and I played together. She lived in one 
 room and I in another. Another room was used for stores and 
 a post office. We went to imaginary stores and bought imagi- 
 nary goods. On our way to a store or the post office we often 
 met imaginary people to whom we said " good morning." Our 
 imaginary butcher and baker called for orders. Sometimes I 
 expected company from Boston and went to the station to meet 
 the visitor. All the way home we chatted. Sometimes I talked 
 for myself and sometimes for her. I brought her home with 
 me, gave her tea, and took her to see my sister. Then we both 
 entertained her as we saw our mother entertain her guests. At 
 other times we got into the hammock and swung and swung 
 until we got to Boston. Then we got out and met imaginary 
 friends who took us home with them. Next we went shopping. 
 When our shopping expedition was over we told our friends we 
 were so sorry we must go home. Then we hurried to catch 
 our train which was the hammock. 
 
 In playing school we arranged chairs just as the desks are 
 arranged in school. In these chairs we had make-believe 
 scholars, as we used to call them. We whipped imaginary chil- 
 dren and reported them to an imaginary superintendent. Thus, 
 in everything we played we used our imagination. 
 
 Sometimes these invisible personages furnish a con- 
 venient means of shifting responsibility for behavior. 
 
 M. and L., two sisters ten and eight years old, played with 
 some brownies made of paper. Every night, before the girls 
 went to tea, they turned everything upside down in their doll 
 
 [112] 
 
THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 
 
 house and in their own pretty room. When their mother asked 
 the reason for all the disorder, the girls said, " Oh, the brownies 
 did it." They played this so much, and their play seemed so 
 real, that at last all their errors and misdeeds were blamed upon 
 the brownies. 
 
 Another child has two imaginary playmates, one of whom is 
 responsible for all his bad behavior, the other for his good 
 conduct. 
 
 The little girl whose companion is told of in the fol- 
 lowing instance had a strong love of caricature. 
 
 Mr. Bauban seemed from the first to be a grotesque. He 
 lived in the ground, was wholly deformed, had but one eye, was 
 an amusing companion rather than a lovable one, and could be 
 called forth at will by stamping upon the ground. He origi- 
 nated, I have thought, from a desire for ready reference in case 
 of quandary. For instance, in reply to " Why did you do so ? " 
 M Mr. Bauban told me to do it." " I knew it, because Mr. Bauban 
 said it was so," etc. ; this while she yet lisped the words. He 
 was, in a way, a defense in which she fondly hoped we would 
 believe. She always seemed amused at this gnome she had 
 herself called into being; it pleased her to see us puzzled by 
 his impish and unaccountable ways. She would describe at 
 length his menage underground, his cook, his winding passages, 
 his essaying forth to market or to visit. He did not come forth 
 at night. This did not occur to her, as she could not grasp the 
 fact that anything went on at night. She put him safely under- 
 ground herself before she went into the house for bed. 
 
 A delightful bon mot seemed to end the existence of 
 Mr. Bauban. When we went into the Boston subway, with a 
 sigh of satisfaction she said, " This is where Mr. Bauban lives." 
 
 The child enjoys, in imagination, experiences different 
 from any that he has ever had, and in many cases persons 
 whom he knows, perhaps more or less transformed, as well 
 
 [>'3] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 as purely imaginary people, play a considerable part in these 
 incidents. The following illustrates the peculiar fancies of 
 children, especially those deprived of ordinary pleasures: 
 
 Little E., who was a delicate child and unable to run and 
 play with the other children, used to go into the living room, 
 shut the door, take her kitty by the tail, and spin it round and 
 round. She would make believe that the motion was a part of 
 herself. It would seem so real that the motion became a part 
 of her very being, and she would make her " motion self " do 
 all sorts of interesting things. 
 
 In another of her motion plays she made believe she could 
 fly. She would make the " motion self " become a bird form 
 which she called her " bird self," and when she could n't run 
 and play with the other children, she would make believe she was 
 a bird and play that the bird was active, just as the children were. 
 
 She played with flowers, made believe they were actors and 
 actresses, and had plays lasting several weeks. Sometimes she 
 made believe the flower actors were people, at other times she 
 kept them flower actors. This same little girl made companions 
 of the trees ; sometimes they were silent friends, sometimes 
 Indians, ghosts, or fairies. 
 
 Frequently the same people appear in a series of events, 
 and the result is a sort of continued story. Inquiry re- 
 veals the fact that a good many people have at some time 
 in their lives created such tales, and many of them con- 
 tinue the practice in adult life. Doubtless some novels 
 are the outcome of such imaginative early fiction, origi- 
 nated without any intention of writing a story. This, 
 however, is more common in the next period. 
 
 A young woman writes : 
 
 I often took pansies for dolls because of their human faces ; 
 the rose I revered too much to play with. It was like my best 
 
 [114] 
 
THE PERIOD OF IMAGINATIVE PLAY 
 
 wax doll, dressed in her prettiest, but always sitting in state in 
 a big chair, in some secluded corner where little visitors would 
 not spy her out. I loved these nature dolls far better than the 
 prettiest store dolls, and ascribed special psychic qualities to 
 them. Violets were sturdy little ones, who enjoyed a frolic and 
 could be played with. The pansy was a quick, bright flower 
 child ; the rose, her grown-up sister, pretty always, charmingly 
 dressed, but a quiet and sedate spectator. The hepaticas were 
 delicate children, invalids and cripples to be tenderly cared for. 
 They watched their livelier brothers and sisters and were enter- 
 tained by stiff maiden aunts, marigolds, with long curls. The 
 dahlias were colored servants ; yellow violets were mischievous, 
 fun-loving boys ; sweet peas were the nurses, with cap and 
 kerchief ; the morning-glories were governesses and teachers. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Give illustrations of the playful imaging of children in connec- 
 tion with objects. 
 
 2. Describe in detail an instance of imaginary companionship. 
 
 3. Give various illustrations showing what stimulates the imagina- 
 tion of children of three to six and of the way in which they express 
 or accompany their mental picturing. 
 
 4. If an older person definitely asks children to imagine certain 
 things and tells them what to do in connection with this mental 
 picturing, are the children getting training in constructive or in 
 creative imagination? 
 
 5. If the teacher merely suggests by words or acts and encourages 
 the children to represent the details, what kind of imaginative 
 activity is being encouraged? 
 
 6. Report some kindergarten exercise and discuss its value from 
 the standpoint of the preceding questions. 
 
 ['■5] 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 
 
 The period of constructive imagination. Although 
 there is more or less use of the constructive imagination 
 in early childhood and thenceforth into adult life, its em- 
 ployment in mentally representing the real world is most 
 prominent in the period from seven or eight to twelve. 
 Earlier than this the imagination is more fanciful and 
 playful, while later it is replaced in part by symbolic 
 thinking. That constructive imagination is prominent at 
 this time is due as much to social and school influences 
 as to any fundamental change in the child's natural tend- 
 encies. He still inclines to represent things according 
 to his desires or as his emotions impel him, but experi- 
 ence teaches him that it usually pays to picture things as 
 they are, and nearly all his school training is in the direc- 
 tion of requiring him to image in accordance with the 
 teaching of adults. There is probably also a natural tend- 
 ency at this time to classify and correlate his mental 
 pictures. 
 
 Comparing and constructing. A child often hears of 
 persons, places, and incidents through the conversation 
 of those around him and is stimulated to picture them. 
 Later he perhaps has the opportunity of seeing the per- 
 sons or places mentioned or of witnessing events such 
 as he has heard described, and he naturally compares 
 his memory images with the realities. This process is 
 
 [116] 
 
CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 
 
 continued into adult life, and imagination in this way is 
 influenced more and more by the real world. 
 
 The following is a good example of the way in which 
 the distant in time and place may stimulate to the forma- 
 tion of definite images : 
 
 When I was ten years of age we planned and undertook a 
 trip east to New York State. The planning was the part we 
 youngsters enjoyed, as we settled in our minds just what we 
 would take to eat and wear and how every part of the country 
 would look, as we traced our journey on a railroad map. We 
 imagined just how it would seem at grandpa's, in the little vil- 
 lage, and at grandma's, on the farm. All our greetings and 
 actions, we agreed, should carry out the "wild and woolly West" 
 idea, so that our Eastern cousins (three and five years old) 
 should know we were from a very different sort of country. We 
 laid plans for horseback rides on the farm in such detailed fashion 
 and with such enthusiasm that we experienced more delight 
 than we could ever realize. Our greeting for old and feeble 
 grandma was all planned exactly as we expected to execute it 
 We even drilled on it, as we sat on the front steps talking it over. 
 
 In listening to stories and descriptions the child under- 
 stands what he hears only by comparing the objects and 
 incidents mentioned with those in his own experience. 
 At first the images derived from familiar surroundings 
 dominate his mental construction of the objects and events 
 described, and reminiscences of his own past experiences 
 contribute largely to his enjoyment of stories. The child 
 insists upon certain tales being repeated over and over 
 until they take a form of reality in his mental life and 
 become a basis for understanding other stories. 
 
 Later the child's constructive and creative imagination 
 is greatly stimulated by descriptions of objects and events 
 
 [•17] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 which contrast sharply with those that he has experi- 
 enced. This is one reason why stories of giants and 
 dwarfs are so enjoyable and why fairy stories, in which 
 things happen so quickly and in such marvelous ways, 
 are sources of pleasure. Such stories may for a time sup- 
 plant the child's interest in real life. Usually, however, 
 he compares the world of every day with this imaginary 
 world and, through contrast, gets a better idea of realities. 
 
 It is not necessary, however, that stories and descrip- 
 tions shall be of giants, dwarfs, and fairies in order that 
 the imagination may be stimulated and impressive com- 
 parisons made. The child may be told stories of his 
 parents' youth amid surroundings quite different from his 
 own, or he may have descriptions of foreign countries with 
 their strange animals and plants, where the dress and 
 customs of the people vary greatly from those familiar 
 to him. Stories of history and biography also give valu- 
 able material. In all these cases the child compares his 
 own personal experiences with the realities of other times 
 and places and constructs a picture of the real world which 
 is much broader and more varied than had he depended 
 on his experiences alone. In proportion as his imagina- 
 tion is vivid and his constructions in accordance with de- 
 scriptions does he acquire knowledge similar to that which 
 may be obtained by years of travel and observation. 
 
 Truth and fancy. Tales of giants and fairies, historical 
 and geographical stories, alike open the door to a new 
 realm of imagination which is contrasted with the world 
 of his personal experiences. The principal difference be- 
 tween these stories lies in the greater freedom of the fairy 
 tale as compared with stories of real life in which events 
 are governed by fixed laws. Children usually recognize 
 
 [US] 
 
CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 
 
 this difference and frequently ask whether a story is true. 
 This tendency should be encouraged, and rather a sharp 
 distinction should be drawn between fairy stories and those 
 concerned with real things and events. One should feel 
 in listening to a fairy story that he is living in a different 
 world, a world of playful and enjoyable fancy. For this 
 reason literal descriptions of things as they are, if used 
 at all, should be chiefly by way of contrast. Thus the 
 child may enjoy to the full this realm of fantasy (which 
 has no laws except those of pleasure and beauty) and, at 
 the same time, gain a knowledge of the world of reality 
 in which there is less freedom and where natural laws 
 determine the course of events. 
 
 Myths and legends introduce the child to the story land 
 of ancient peoples, and although stimulating and interest- 
 ing they are sometimes confusing. Some of them are the 
 fancies of those who lived in the dawn of time, while 
 others represent their imperfect conceptions of the world 
 about them. Such stories do, however, reveal to a more 
 mature mind the world of which the ancients conceived 
 as distinctly different from the well-ordered universe of 
 present-day scientific thought. 
 
 The imaginary made real. If the child pictures vividly 
 and accurately the world beyond his limited horizon, as 
 it is and has been, he has acquired new and more varied 
 material with which his imagination may work. His 
 broader knowledge of things, of people, and of the forces 
 and influences back of natural phenomena and historical 
 events stimulates his imagination to new activity and 
 directs its constructions in harmony with the possible and 
 probable. Through the medium of language and pictures 
 the child's environment is immensely enlarged, and this 
 
 [no] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 wider domain may become almost as real to him as the 
 narrower one in which he has his physical being. He 
 may compare his mental images of places, industries, and 
 events with pictures and descriptions in much the same 
 way as he formerly compared his anticipations of the sea- 
 shore or of the mountains with the real experiences. With 
 the knowledge that he has, he may form mental pictures 
 of probable events, while the daily news reports help him 
 to verify and correct the anticipatory constructions. He is 
 thus enabled to participate not only in the real experi- 
 ences of the immediate neighborhood but also in the 
 broader life of the world as revealed in newspapers and 
 magazines and in geography and history. The follow- 
 ing are good examples of anticipatory constructions of 
 possible events : 
 
 I used to plan long journeys and imagine our getting ready, 
 what we should do while on the journey, and what we should 
 see and do after reaching our destination. I always liked to 
 imagine people whom I had never seen but of whom I had 
 often heard my mother tell. When I reached high school I 
 began to imagine myself as a teacher. I pictured the school 
 I should teach, and this varied from a consolidated school in 
 the country to a small log cabin out in the Rocky Mountains. 
 I pictured my brother and little sisters growing up and planned 
 futures for them. I worked out beautiful plans for the house 
 and farm and introduced all sorts of labor-saving devices for my 
 mother. I think that all of my imaginative activity lately has 
 been along this line, continually picturing the future. 
 
 Once I was disappointed because rain prevented my going 
 to R, eight miles away from my home. I had been planning to 
 see a moving picture, " Desert Gold," and as a substitute I 
 made up an imaginary story, in moving-picture form, about the 
 
 [I20] 
 
CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 
 
 Arizona desert. While my physical being was washing dishes 
 and ironing, my mind was far away among sagebrush and 
 cactus, working out my imaginary picture. I still tell stories to 
 myself, especially at night, for I can think better in the dark. 
 My imagination has made life much more interesting to me, 
 and I hope that it will continue to do so. 
 
 Individual construction. Although constructive imag- 
 ination is directed mental activity, and a writer, speaker, 
 or teacher seeks to produce the same mental pictures in 
 all minds, yet such a result never follows. Descriptions 
 are frequently incomplete, hence there is always an oppor- 
 tunity for the reader or listener to fill out the details from 
 his experience or according to his fancies. Not only do 
 individual images differ but also the manner in which 
 they are classified and correlated. For these reasons chil- 
 dren in the same environment construct quite different 
 worlds. 
 
 This is especially marked in those who have independ- 
 ence and originality. Such children, though often seem- 
 ingly realistic, are intensely imaginative. They are eager 
 to gain material with which their imagination may occupy 
 itself and to learn the truth about things, but they wish 
 to represent them in their own way. They do not want 
 fanciful accounts, but desire to work out their own 
 fancies in connection with the truths they have acquired. 
 An extreme example of this tendency is described by 
 J. K. Folsom. 1 After the period of playful imagination, 
 in which spools and other objects were used to represent 
 individuals, real and imaginary, he began at about eight 
 years of age to make more rigid scientific classifications. 
 For several years he was intensely interested in the abstract 
 
 1 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. XXII, pp. 161-182. 
 
 [121] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 truths of science, to which he gave reality by associating 
 them with objects of his play world, now carefully classi- 
 fied and interrelated in a logical way. Truth and logical 
 reasons as he conceived them, rather than desire, fancy, 
 or sentiment, controlled all his mental constructions. For 
 several years he lived in this imaginary world, which 
 was, however, constructed in accordance with the laws 
 governing the real world in somewhat the same manner as 
 a parable or allegory resembles reality. 
 
 In the case of L. C. Day, 1 similar independence was 
 shown. He gave expression to his imaginary experiences 
 in a little paper which he published. He made much use 
 of real things and events, but instead of merely picturing 
 what he heard he invented incidents and thus was a sort of 
 god who determined what should happen in his universe. 
 
 " Una Mary " 2 also had a self-made world, but the 
 controlling principle in her constructions was not scien- 
 tific truth or personal power, but sentiment and artistic 
 fancy. She invented many words to express feelings and 
 situations not recognized in ordinary language. 
 
 All children show in a greater or less degree this tend- 
 ency to construct a world different from that presented 
 to them by books and people. Only a few do this com- 
 pletely, intentionally varying from realities. The majority 
 accept the world in the main as they find it and as it is 
 represented to them by others, but fill in the unsupplied 
 details in their own way. The following is an instance 
 of definite construction : 
 
 When I was eleven years old I moved to the country and 
 here I delighted in nature. I used to watch the birds and think 
 
 1 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. XXI, pp. 310-320. 
 
 2 Scribner's Magazine, 191 4. 
 
 [122] 
 
CONSTRUCTING THE REAL WORLD 
 
 how it would seem to be a bird. I could imagine a person 
 changed to a bird. 
 
 When I became older I used to imagine how the surround- 
 ings about my house looked before there were any houses. I 
 can see now the pine woods, and the long stretch of land with 
 the apple orchard on it, and the hills in the distance. 
 
 I have always wished to go abroad, and I used to imagine 
 myself on a large steamer, sailing across the waters and visiting 
 the different countries. 
 
 Some picture in general what is described, but in the 
 way that is the easiest and most pleasing to them. For 
 example, one girl represented the Southern states as cov- 
 ered with fruit trees, and she pictured oranges rolling on 
 the streets to be picked up by anyone who wanted them. 
 In other cases the imagination is more passive and pic- 
 tures only in accordance with descriptions, and that per- 
 haps with no great vividness. Such persons need objects, 
 models, diagrams, illustrations, and dramatic representa- 
 tions in order that they may vividly and completely 
 construct what is described. 
 
 This more passive use of the constructive imagination 
 is favored by the extensive use of pictures in teaching 
 and by stories of all kinds which give details instead of 
 stimulating their independent representation. 
 
 Definite types of images as well as forms of construc- 
 tion often develop. Numbers, days of the week, or 
 months of the year may be thought of as always arranged 
 in certain ways. 
 
 One child of eight personified all the numbers and 
 kept that imaginative arrangement until fifteen years old. 
 She had them act out dramas, a sample of which is given 
 on the following page. 
 
 [123] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 i, 2, and 3 were children; 4 was a woman, good and self- 
 sacrificing; 5, a mischievous young scamp; 6, an amiable 
 prince; 7, an arrant rogue; 8, a high-born, haughty lady. 
 5 coaxes an innocent child to run away from home. He runs 
 until he reaches 10. He stops on the way to help 6, but cannot 
 get him into 12, where he wanted to go, so he drops him next 
 door to 12. The designing 7 persuades 5 to help him instead 
 of 6 into 12, etc. — Pedogogical Seminary, Vol. II, p. 107 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. To what extent do you construct in detail that which is men- 
 tioned either with or without complete description ? Is this tendency 
 decreased with experience or is it merely regulated more completely 
 in accordance with real events ? 
 
 2. If children are asked to illustrate or dramatize a story which 
 they have read, interesting examples of the way in which they con- 
 struct in response to more or less complete descriptions will probably 
 be obtained. 
 
 3. If it be admitted that fanciful stories of beauty or those con- 
 veying social or moral truths are valuable in training the imagination 
 of children, does it follow that nature myths and others which indi- 
 cate the scientific and religious ideas of the ancients are better for 
 them than modern nature-study stories which are in accordance with 
 present-day scientific conceptions ? Should the ancient myths be given 
 at all except incidentally in contrast with present-day conceptions? 
 
 4. Reports should be given of imaginative constructions in con- 
 nection with various subjects studied. Are mistaken constructions 
 due to any extent to methods of teaching? 
 
 [124] 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 
 
 The imagination of the adolescent. The imaginative 
 activity of the adolescent differs considerably from that 
 of the two earlier periods. It is less playful, less asso- 
 ciated with physical action than in early childhood, richer 
 in material derived from experience and reading, but with 
 images generally less vivid than those formed during the 
 preceding period, when the world was being constructed 
 in imagination partly as it is and partly in accordance 
 with individual fancy. The wish to actually experience 
 what is imagined is now much stronger. To dream of 
 other lands and far-away scenes and people is not enough, 
 but there is a keen desire to really see them. Most young 
 people long to travel and frequently spend many hours 
 in imagining themselves going from place to place, hav- 
 ing thrilling experiences in the countries of which they 
 have heard. They are also no longer satisfied to merely 
 learn of what has been and is being done, but they desire 
 a share in the world's work, and this gives rise to dreams 
 of social, philanthropic, or scientific achievements. His 
 more subjective condition of mind leads the youth to pro- 
 ject himself into the world of reality which he created in 
 the preceding period and keeps him from revealing his 
 imaginative activity by outward actions as he formerly did. 
 
 This development of a more distinct inner life is partly 
 the result of new instincts and feelings that come into 
 
 [125] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 prominence at this age. These make the youth sensitive 
 to a greater degree and in different ways, and as a result 
 his imagination is largely controlled by new desires. 
 
 One who has little to occupy or interest him may have 
 his character weakened by excessive indulgence in imag- 
 inative fancies unchecked by real experience or increasing 
 knowledge of realities and unassociated with any plans 
 for definite action. On the other hand, one who is over- 
 worked and has no energy left for new interests may lack 
 the opportunity for that imaginative picturing of what 
 may be done and gained which is the chief stimulus to 
 ambition. Fortunate is the youth who has plenty of work 
 and something to be interested in every day of the week, 
 but who has some leisure in which to do as he likes, and 
 indulge in daydreams of a golden future. 
 
 In imagination the young person may compete with 
 others on the athletic field, in the classroom, and in the 
 world of industry, science, art, or literature, but the imag- 
 inative anticipation of what is to be done or enjoyed in 
 the immediate future is checked and controlled more and 
 more by new experiences. In a similar way more remote 
 ambitions are modified and directed by increasing knowl- 
 edge of how success has been attained by others in various 
 lines of endeavor. By means of the imagination prelimi- 
 nary explorations are made into the unknown, and in the 
 light of present conditions, and a knowledge of what others 
 have done, plans are made which, even if not carried out 
 in detail at once or later, yet influence future life and 
 character. The changes in objective action and the still 
 greater changes in mental life which take place during 
 the adolescent period are frequently very marked, and all 
 the imaginative activity of this period doubtless modifies 
 
 [126] 
 
THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 
 
 the future either positively or negatively, although some 
 of it seems to reflect only passing whims. The following 
 reminiscences are typically adolescent : 
 
 When I was about fifteen years old I began to be very self- 
 conscious and to be very particular about my personal appear- 
 ance. Before this time I do not remember of ever having paid 
 much attention to my looks. I also grew very sensitive and 
 thought that I had a " temperament " of finer grain than that 
 of other people. I wanted to be alone, where I could imagine 
 how some ideal person would pity me for the lack of sympathy 
 from other people, and I could not understand why my parents 
 insisted on my being so much in the company of others. I very 
 frequently had " crushes " on older women, my mother included. 
 All the others did not last long, but the deep feeling I had so 
 suddenly for my mother developed into a love and friendship 
 which has never grown less. 
 
 I was deeply interested in religion, loved to attend revival 
 meetings, and was indignant when my parents refused to allow 
 me to take certain pledges. 
 
 My moods were constantly changing from the greatest hilarity 
 to the deepest gloom. I was ashamed of myself for this when 
 I saw how even tempered older people were, as a rule, but I was 
 powerless to restrain my own impulses. At times I would feel 
 so ashamed of myself for being so sensitive that I would put 
 myself as much as possible with other people, and even open 
 up opportunities for them to say things which would be apt to 
 hurt my feelings, that I might prove to myself and them that 
 I had outgrown my sensitiveness. Then a time was always sure 
 to come which found me so hurt that I would literally have to 
 be forced to go and meet people again. I remember also that, 
 at about this age, three or four times it happened that when 
 dressed to go to church with the rest of the family, for no reason 
 I knew of, I would positively refuse to go to church, and would 
 feel like crying instead. 
 
 [127] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 During all this time of about three years, however, I realized 
 that my mental condition was not as it should be, and I con- 
 stantly strove to become more like my mother. 
 
 There was a girl I knew who up to her fourteenth year used 
 to be considered a quiet, shy little backward child, without 
 many interests, given much to crying, very sensitive, very stu- 
 dious. However, in about her fourteenth year she began to 
 develop an interest in athletics ; gradually basket ball, gymna- 
 sium work, tennis, and skating took their place in her sphere of 
 interests, and she changed wonderfully. Not only did her physi- 
 cal health improve but her disposition changed from a decidedly 
 disagreeable one to a happy, cheerful, healthy attitude. She has 
 continued to develop along this line and is now one of the most 
 charming girls I know. 
 
 The alteration which took place in my behavior during one 
 year of my life certainly was " sudden." One summer my be- 
 havior was characterized by a sort of nervous restlessness and 
 unwonted activity. It seemed that I had to be doing, doing, 
 doing things all the time. The least thing new aroused my 
 enthusiasm. I became almost a " faddist " in my zeal for cer- 
 tain things, was especially fond of flowers, and " raved " over 
 ordinary sunsets in spite of the teasing of my friends. I seemed 
 to be continually trying to create excitement and was usually 
 successful. I was classified as the "impulsive type," but during 
 the following winter and spring I seemed to "settle down" more 
 and almost approached the other extreme, became disinterested 
 in many of my former " fads," made fewer plans for doing 
 things, rested more, became less confident of myself, in contrast 
 with my former attitude that nothing was too big or impossible 
 to attempt. My friends noticed the change and instead of teas- 
 ing to restrain my exuberance, made efforts to arouse me to 
 my former self. Gradually, however, a normal condition set 
 in, and I enjoyed a happy medium between the two extremes. 
 
 [128] 
 
THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 
 
 I was very ambitious for honors at school in studies as well 
 as in social phases of the school life, wanted to be considered 
 popular, and was quite selfish in my views for a while. I began 
 to be less M afraid of boys," joined a dancing class and enjoyed 
 it, in spite of the fact that I used to think M boys were horrid " 
 before that. I was influenced by a young lady, a graduate of 
 Vassar College, who was interested in settlement work, and 
 taught in our school for a year, and desired to enter the same 
 field of work. I used to be very fond of children and longed 
 to be able to help the poor suffering mass of humanity in the 
 crowded parts of big cities. I read many stories of tenement 
 life, which developed a broad sympathy and altruistic ideals. 
 
 I was always writing something new in the story line. Many 
 a time I 've written a story when studying seemed to be out of 
 the question. Also my creative imagination found vent in my 
 music, which I began to study soon after the age of twelve. 
 Pieces and even the prettiest of my exercises had a picture 
 woven into their music. So it seems that the very simple 
 images which I formed when young helped to increase my 
 powers of imagination as I grew older. 
 
 I used to dream of being a wonderful violinist, piano-player, 
 singer, reader, and master of almost all the careers I had knowl- 
 edge of. I also dreamed of traveling all over the world. 
 
 Daydreams may be of great advantage if a young per- 
 son is led to live out some of the ideals they represent. If 
 a girl dreams of doing deeds of mercy, that attitude of 
 mind may become such a part of her that she will inevi- 
 tably perform such deeds. If a boy dreams of being a hero, 
 he is more than likely to become one. Daydreams are a 
 disadvantage, however, when they get so far away from 
 real life that they have no bearing upon it. When a young- 
 ster has the loftiest kind of daydreams but few ideals for 
 everyday life, he is not the easiest person to live with. 
 
 [129] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 Life idealized. There may be daydreaming in some 
 form at almost any time of life, but the typical period for 
 such dreams is from about fourteen to eighteen. Day- 
 dreams are less playful and fanciful than the creative 
 imaginings of earlier years. The world of daydreams is 
 not a fairy realm but the real world partly made over 
 according to one's desires. What is represented is not 
 absolutely impossible in the world as it exists, although 
 it may be extremely improbable. In a daydream self 
 always plays a prominent part. Not only his surround- 
 ings but the youth's personality is idealized, with some of 
 his powers increased to an extraordinary degree, and he 
 is the center of events which bring to him the greatest 
 pleasure and honor. Daydreams are usually anticipatory 
 rather than reminiscent and are nearly always, to a con- 
 siderable extent, directed by wishes or desires. Some- 
 times they have a backward look, as when one represents 
 the brilliant things he might have said or done until he 
 feels as if he had acquitted himself very creditably. The 
 following are typical : 
 
 In my daydreams I was either some favorite character in a 
 a book or some person whom I very much admired ; I was 
 always the center of attraction. Oftentimes I lived over again 
 experiences which were past and in which I had had an insig- 
 nificant part, but in the dream I was the chief actor. I was 
 always witty and an excellent talker in my dreams, while in 
 reality I was the opposite. 
 
 I used to dream about many things. Often it was about 
 characters in books, whose actions I would go over and often 
 revise to suit myself. Often I would dream of my friends and 
 what I would like them to do. But always I myself would have 
 some part in the actions of the others (and most often it was 
 
 t'3o] 
 
THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 
 
 the chief part) when I would imagine the others admiring me. 
 I used to dream of myself as a great actress, and I would go 
 over and over the picture of myself in great successes, singing 
 some wonderful song on the stage before an applauding house. 
 Very often after this I would dream I was a master, such as 
 Beethoven, giving a wonderful concert before people who fairly 
 worshiped me. This kind of dreaming was not wholly bad, for 
 it would spur me on to do my practicing regularly and thought- 
 fully. It was in this way connected with real life. The dreams 
 that did me harm were of the sentimental sort, which had no 
 connection with my real life, only made me extremely sensitive, 
 and made me think I was possessed of some fine temperament 
 above others. 
 
 Romantic imagination. Nearly all daydreams are in 
 a sense romantic in character. The most interesting and 
 remarkable things of which the individual knows are 
 represented as entering into his life in various forms. 
 There is much that is commonplace and monotonous in 
 the objects, persons, and events of everyday life, and he 
 finds much pleasure in representing himself as meeting 
 new people, manifesting extraordinary powers, and enjoy- 
 ing all sorts of delightful experiences or the most thrill- 
 ing adventures. Many of these imaginings are associated 
 with idealized individuals of the opposite sex. Material 
 gained from history and from fiction is drawn upon in 
 creating the ideal life of romance, but the self is nearly 
 always prominent. Novels do not produce these romantic 
 tendencies but minister to them and determine in some 
 degree the form which they take. 
 
 Ambition. Daydreams are to some extent prophecies 
 as to the individual's future. This is not necessarily true 
 of the objective events which occur, but it is, to a greater 
 
 [131] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 or less extent, as regards the characteristics ascribed to 
 himself. This is especially true when the youth in his 
 daydreams represents himself as putting forth extreme 
 effort and persevering until success is reached. The kind 
 of success attained in the future may vary considerably 
 from that which is pictured in daydreams, but the effort 
 that one imagines himself to put forth is likely to be real- 
 ized if at the time of such imaginings the youth is actively 
 engaged in achieving athletic, scholastic, or other successes. 
 This is the time when it is of most importance that he 
 shall become acquainted, either in real life or through 
 history, literature, or science, with great personalities. 
 
 The following will serve as a typical example of a girl's 
 daydreams : 
 
 During this period of daydreams, I was self-conscious to the 
 extent that I always knew, or at least thought I knew, when 
 people were talking about me, and I was never satisfied until 
 I knew what was said and was eager for compliments. If I had 
 a gown, suit, or hat which I thought was becoming to me, I 
 looked for admiration and was disappointed if I did not get it. 
 
 I always recited and took part in amateur performances a 
 great deal, and expected compliments afterward. As a matter 
 of fact, performing before people and receiving so many com- 
 pliments helped to increase my self-consciousness. I used to sit 
 and dream of a day when I would be world-renowned as a 
 poetess. At other times I would picture myself an actress with 
 large audiences before me. 
 
 When thirteen years old I had an idea that I could write a 
 book. I wrote two notebooks full of a story entitled M The 
 Peacemakers." I brought my very best friends into a room 
 (after the completion of the book) and told them that they had 
 an authoress for a friend. I read them the story, but somehow 
 or other did not feel great after I read it to them, and ever 
 
 [•32] 
 
THE PERIOD OF DAYDREAMS 
 
 after I lost ambition in that direction and no longer dreamed 
 of being an authoress. I used to walk around and think of how 
 I might have done things differently. My greatest dream was 
 of how I could get rich and help the poor. The plans I laid 
 were manifold. 
 
 Even to this day I dream. In fact, my mind wanders to 
 such an extent that often when mother asks me for something 
 I have only a vague idea of what she asked and thus bring her 
 something else. 
 
 These dreams are advantageous to the extent that they often 
 spur one on to realize them. I am not an actress, for I have 
 higher ambitions ; however, I still enjoy being in amateur plays. 
 I am not a poetess, for I have never devoted much time to 
 writing poetry for publication ; however, I have written much 
 verse for my own amusement, some sorority poems and songs, 
 papers, and many letters in verse. I am not a great philan- 
 thropist yet, but I hope to be some day. Thus I feel that my 
 dreams were not all futile. 
 
 There is a possibility of becoming erratic, absent-minded, and 
 sentimental if one dreams too much. For instance, if I had 
 dreamed too much of what I am about to relate I don't sup- 
 pose it would have produced the best effect. I used to dream 
 of my home, and little ones sitting around after supper, and of 
 how I would play with them and then send them off to bed, 
 and discuss matters for the rest of the evening with my " dear 
 husband." 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 The practical significance of the imaginative tendencies may per- 
 haps best be brought out by a debate as to the relative prominence 
 of good or bad results attending extreme activity of the imagination, 
 and a discussion of the best means of diminishing, increasing, or 
 directing imaginative activity through work, play, reading, dramatics, 
 or achievements such as planned by directors of corn clubs, tomato 
 clubs, etc., and by the regulations and activities of the Boy Scouts 
 and Camp Fire Girls. 
 
 [133] 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 EVILS AND DANGERS OF THE IMAGINATION 
 IN CHILDREN 
 
 Playful and pleasurable imagination. All good things 
 have possibilities of evil and danger. Misery as well as 
 pleasure may be produced by the imagination. It may 
 also be futile or destructive of mental power or detri- 
 mental to the moral nature. 
 
 In physical and mental health imagination contributes 
 to the fullness of life and is more concerned with pleasur- 
 able experiences and constructive effort than with dis- 
 agreeable images and vain imaginings. The same instinct 
 which impels one to diminish or avoid pain causes one 
 to cherish pleasurable rather than painful images. 
 
 This is especially true of the playful use of the imag- 
 ination, examples of which have already been given in 
 preceding chapters. This unrestrained play of the imag- 
 ination may, of course, have unfortunate results when it 
 is carried to excess. Not only may it take the place of 
 useful, well-directed effort, which would in some cases 
 be more valuable, but it may result in a state of mind 
 which makes it impossible to direct the imagination to 
 useful ends or to prevent imaginative activity from being 
 so confused with realities that discernment of truth is 
 difficult or impossible. 
 
 This playful activity may take peculiar forms and is 
 associated with the desire to seek a variety of emotional 
 
 [134] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 life by having in a more or less intense form many kinds 
 of experiences, painful as well as pleasurable. This tend- 
 ency makes tragedy as well as comedy interesting and 
 even enjoyable. Many things may more safely be experi- 
 enced in imagination than in reality, but there are dan- 
 gers. Imagination begun in a semiplayful way may become 
 serious, as when a little girl who had heard of the sick- 
 ness of an aunt began repeating in a rhythmic way to 
 her dolly as she rocked, " Auntie is sick and maybe she 
 will die," in a sadder and sadder tone until she burst 
 into tears and could not easily be pacified. 
 
 The sentimentalist is one who dwells in the world of 
 imaginative emotion without being stimulated to effective 
 action in dealing with realities. Some representation of 
 emotional states in childhood, not too intense or pro- 
 longed, may be advantageous rather than harmful, but 
 there is always the danger that it may be carried too far 
 and become a permanent condition, instead of a passing 
 phase of development in which this flowering of the emo- 
 tional life is followed by the fruits of solid character 
 and well-directed effort. 
 
 Evils are almost sure to result from imaginative activity 
 when the self is made too prominent, especially in con- 
 nection with representations of the pathetic with oneself 
 as the subject. Sometimes children revel in imaginative 
 representations of their own suffering and death. This 
 more frequently occurs after punishment or reproof. Such 
 direction of imagination may arouse a good deal of self- 
 pity and become injurious, as in the following : 
 
 Between the years of eleven and twelve I grew rather morbid. 
 My thoughts dwelt a great deal on death. Everyone was mis- 
 treating me, and death would be a relief. Often I would have 
 
 [•35] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 an entire death scene. I imagined myself dying, then lying in 
 the coffin, but before I could imagine myself in the cold grave, 
 tears of self-pity would be streaming, and I would run to mother, 
 saying, "I don't want to die." 
 
 Evil results may also follow the half-playful exploration 
 by the imagination of the possible human emotions, when 
 any one kind of mental picturing is given too much 
 prominence and reality by association with some funda- 
 mental instinct. In childhood the danger of injury 
 through fear is much greater for the imaginative child 
 than for others. The pleasant thrill of fear produced by 
 playful use of the imagination may be gradually trans- 
 formed into a paralyzing horror or morbid picturing of 
 dangers that are not imminent and that would have little 
 influence upon a less imaginative child. One girl often 
 suffered at night from fear of bears, though she greatly 
 enjoyed in the daytime a modified game of hide and seek 
 in which the bear was "It," and great ingenuity was exer- 
 cised in escaping him. On the other hand, playful imag- 
 ination may counteract fear, as in the case of a little girl 
 who employed her playful imagination in making up 
 stories to such an extent that she could go on errands 
 in the dark without fear. 
 
 In adolescence the sex instinct is a serious source of 
 danger to the imaginative child if his imagination gets 
 started along wrong lines. On the other hand, the same 
 instinct may be a powerful stimulus to the founding of 
 moral and religious ideals, to artistic and intellectual 
 productions, and to ambition in various forms. 
 
 Serious or purposeful imagination. When engaging in 
 any new form of motor process, such as gymnastic move- 
 ments or in manual work, the motions are often rehearsed 
 
 [136] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 in imagination before they are made. In solving puzzles 
 or working out plans or problems the imagination is often 
 occupied with preliminary representations of what the 
 process is to be. These preliminary sketches of proce- 
 dure are made quickly and with pleasure when they seem 
 to promise a satisfactory performance or solution. If, 
 however, no adequate representation of means and results 
 can be made, there is a baffled feeling which is decidedly 
 disagreeable. It may even become horrible if one is im- 
 pressed with the seriousness of a situation, as when danger 
 seems imminent enough to demand that something be done 
 at once. The most universal excitants of fear are sudden 
 strong stimuli and things that are strange, unusual, or 
 mysterious. The first demands instant action, but favors 
 wild imaging rather than the orderly working out of a 
 suitable plan ; the second projects one into a little-known 
 field, where dangers continue to threaten, but no way out 
 is seen. Just as a pursued animal rushes hither and 
 thither, so the mind pictures one terror after another and 
 finds no means of gaining freedom. Indefiniteness is 
 stimulating to the imagination, and when mystery arouses 
 fear there is an almost irresistible tendency to go on pic- 
 turing the desperate situation from which there is no 
 apparent escape. 
 
 This is especially true when a child begins to think of 
 something disturbing when alone in the dark. One phan- 
 tom danger after another appears, with no way of meet- 
 ing it suggested and with no real objects visible to divert 
 the attention. This may continue until a scream of terror 
 brings someone, and a light shows what is really present 
 in the room. So vivid, however, have these mental crea- 
 tions become that they are scarcely dispelled by the sight 
 
 [ 137 1 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 of familiar objects and the sound of reassuring words. 
 In other instances there are no definite images of a par- 
 ticular form of danger, but a continued feeling of insecurity 
 which the individual has no means of combating. For 
 example, a child of four who had associated Germany 
 with the terrors of war, when there was talk of a possible 
 war with that country, wanted to sleep with her mother 
 lest Germany come and get her in the night. 
 
 The first time that a certain kind of fear is felt, it is 
 often possible to give relief by showing that there is no 
 real danger. In nearly all instances, however, in which 
 fear has been intense or has persisted for some time it 
 is not usually possible to relieve the mental tension by 
 showing that there is nothing to be afraid of. Even 
 though the reason is convinced, the imagination will con- 
 tinue to produce disturbing images and the muscles to 
 give the fear reactions whenever the circumstance recurs. 
 It is usually much more effective to suggest a way of 
 meeting the danger than to continue to dwell on the fact 
 that there is no occasion for fear. The assurance that an 
 older person will protect a child is often sufficient. In 
 one case a child who was afraid to go on an errand in 
 the dark was told to think of her father as being with 
 her as she walked along, and by keeping his image in 
 mind she went without being frightened. This idea of a 
 companion as a means of safety may be effective, even 
 when the companion is younger and more helpless than 
 oneself. For example, a girl of ten was not afraid to go 
 into a dark room if a two-year-old brother went with her. 
 
 Sometimes terror is transformed into pleasure by an 
 imaginary solution of the difficulty, as when a boy pic- 
 tures the woods as filled with bears, lions, Indians, etc., 
 
 [138] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 which he is able to slay by pointing his stick gun at 
 them. Many superstitions represent imaginative means of 
 meeting or avoiding dangers which have come to be 
 accepted as reliable. If believed in, these are just as 
 effective in quieting unpleasant activity of the imagination 
 as are scientifically formulated rules of safety. 
 
 Indeed, scientific directions for avoiding danger which 
 are not surely effective may prove of little or no value in 
 allaying fear. For example, a teacher who explained some 
 of the ways of decreasing the probability of being struck 
 by lightning succeeded only in exciting a terror of it that 
 had never before been experienced. One girl of ten suf- 
 fered for more than a year from such fears, although tak- 
 ing the precautions suggested by keeping her head- at 
 night as far as possible from the head of the bed, which 
 was of iron. She had in some way got the idea that 
 lightning entered the ears, so it did not matter that her 
 feet were near the iron footboard. The precautions were, 
 however, of small service in allaying her fears, because 
 the remedy was not believed to be infallible. 
 
 There are many instances showing that " a little knowl- 
 edge is a dangerous thing " as far as peace of mind is 
 concerned. Acquaintance with the dangers due to germs 
 produces in some people more imaginative terror of disease 
 than is allayed by many well-founded directions as to how 
 to avoid infection. The danger seems imminent, and the 
 safeguards not sure ; hence many persons are in deadly 
 terror of germs though continually taking precautions 
 against them. 
 
 Some minds are filled with forebodings, and trivial 
 incidents, as in the following case, may be woefully ex- 
 aggerated or distorted. 
 
 [ 1 39 ] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 Once at the age of sixteen, when in poor health, I kissed my 
 mother good night ; she allowed me to kiss her, but did not 
 return the kiss. I went upstairs and thought about it. The 
 more I thought of it the worse pranks my imagination played 
 on me. I saw myself a good-for-nothing, unable to accomplish 
 a single thing well. I saw myself in later life in ragged clothes, 
 with wrinkled face, worth nothing to myself or the world. When 
 father and mother came upstairs a little after midnight they 
 found me crying, and for a couple of hours they stayed with me, 
 trying to comfort me. 
 
 The accumulating results of imaginative terrors are well 
 illustrated by the following : 
 
 When I was a child about five years of age I was sent to 
 bed unusually early one evening, and because it was not my 
 regular bedtime I was not sleepy. I lay several hours with eyes 
 wide open. At first there was no thought of fear, then, slowly, 
 strange, fearful objects took shape in the room. Too frightened 
 to call I lay there in nervous terror till late at night and was 
 still awake when my older sister came into the room. The next 
 night I was sent to bed at the regular hour, but could not sleep 
 and again became frightened. This continued for several nights, 
 until finally I refused to go to bed alone unless some one of the 
 family promised to sleep with me. No one could understand it, 
 because I had never been afraid and had never been willfully 
 frightened by anyone. I cannot remember that I was afraid of 
 any particular thing, such as "bears" or "bogy men"; indeed, 
 it was not long till there was no actual physical fear, yet I had 
 a horror of being in the room alone or sleeping with anyone 
 who was not of our own family. During the day I would 
 promise myself and my mother I would be brave, but when 
 evening came would become almost ill with nervous dread, and 
 often could not eat the evening meal. I cannot remember ex- 
 actly how the trouble was overcome. However, the memory of 
 it is very vivid, for my childish suffering was intense. 
 
 [140] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 A year or so later I went through much the same thing, be- 
 ginning to imagine things at night, because I did not have the 
 courage to tell my mother of something wrong I had done, and 
 it did not leave me until I finally told her. 
 
 When I was about eleven my mother was very ill, and I 
 overheard someone saying she might not live. That chance 
 remark set my imagination to working overtime again. I be- 
 came nervous and frightened, could not sleep that night, and 
 for a long time, when evening came on, I would often be almost 
 ill with dread of a something I could not explain. I could hardly 
 be persuaded to be out of sight of my mother, after coming 
 home from school. 
 
 The last trouble I had with this peculiar fear and nervous- 
 ness was at about the age of twelve, when I was away from 
 home and homesick. During the day I was happy, but at night 
 the old trouble came back ; and even now, if anything disturbs 
 me, I am inclined to become panicky at night. 
 
 Imagination in relation to lying. In early childhood 
 the imaginative life rivals the real, in its vividness and 
 interest, and the child often feels no need to distinguish 
 between the two. An imaginative child often relates the 
 events of his mental life as if they were real. This is in 
 no way abnormal or objectionable in its beginning, but if 
 the desirability of distinguishing between the two kinds 
 of events is not brought home to the child, and he con- 
 tinues to confuse and substitute one for the other, the 
 conditions become abnormal in that the power of the 
 mind to know the truth, so as to deal successfully with 
 realities, is lessened. This danger is not so great when 
 the imagination is used playfully and for the immediate 
 pleasure of the moment. If such imagination is associated 
 with action, the power to discern the truth is strengthened 
 rather than weakened. The child who sometimes deals 
 
 [mm 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 with real objects and persons and sometimes with imagi- 
 nary can scarcely avoid being impressed with the difference 
 between them. The imaginary are under his control, as 
 the real are not, and this alone impresses him with the 
 difference between the two and makes it almost certain 
 that he will not be easily deluded, in more serious situa- 
 tions, into believing what he wants to believe rather than 
 facing facts as they are. 
 
 The most serious danger from accepting as true only 
 what is pleasing is in the case of children who have not 
 engaged in imaginative play at all or, having done so, 
 have not had much to do with real things and persons. 
 They are much more likely to accept as true the repre- 
 sentations that please them. 
 
 The strength of this tendency is shown not only in 
 playful imaging but also in all testimony of children and 
 adults regarding exciting events in which they have had 
 a part, especially if it be a quarrel. Few persons can en- 
 tirely resist this tendency. Each presents the facts that 
 are most favorable to himself, with some additions, and 
 deceives himself as well as others as to the exact circum- 
 stances involved. Vivid images as to what might have 
 been done may also deceive one into believing that what 
 was imaged really occurred. 
 
 If there is a definite reason for wishing to deceive, 
 the telling of what has been imaged as if it were real 
 may tend to confirm the individual in his half belief that 
 his images do represent realities. The selfish and self- 
 righteous individual is thus notoriously inclined not only 
 to deceive others but also to become self-deceived. 
 
 In the case of able and imaginative persons the selfish 
 lie may, on the other hand, be clearly distinguished as 
 
 [142] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 false, and much dramatic and imaginative ability may be 
 shown in deceiving others, but with full consciousness 
 that the truth is otherwise. Such lying, however objec- 
 tionable morally, is not psychologically abnormal. On the 
 contrary, it quickens the intelligence to invent something 
 that will seem plausible and the falsity of which will not 
 be easily detected. It also involves care in remembering 
 what has been previously told, so as to avoid contradiction 
 and discovery. If such an individual keeps his fabrica- 
 tions within bounds and remembers them so as to keep 
 them consistent, he may succeed for a long time in de- 
 ceiving others to his own advantage without in any way 
 weakening his mental powers. If, however, he so delights 
 in his clever inventions that he lies when the truth would 
 better serve his purposes, and cannot remember what he 
 has previously told, his mental powers are likely to be 
 somewhat decreased, and thus his imagination becomes 
 abnormal, since it acts in opposition to his self-interest 
 and to the efficiency of his intellectual processes. 
 
 Children frequently become adepts in manufacturing 
 stories explaining why they have not done what was expected 
 of them. If they can thus retain favor, this method of 
 meeting situations by excuses and lies, instead of by honest 
 effort in doing the thing required, is continued and im- 
 proved upon. Sooner or later, however, they fail to con- 
 vince and are driven to excessive and often abnormal lying. 
 
 Lying is the almost universal means of protection and 
 safety resorted to by those who are weak and helpless 
 and by those who by negligence, dishonesty, or other 
 wrongdoing have got themselves into difficulties. Lying, 
 to the imaginative individual, is the easiest way of tem- 
 porarily meeting the situation. Individuals out of harmony 
 
 [143] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 with their environment and in a state of mental conflict 
 may lie when confronted by each new situation, just as 
 spontaneously and with as little discrimination as one 
 person jumps or screams when frightened, or another, 
 when angered, flies into a tantrum or scolds vociferously. 
 The fabrications may do no more good than the emotional 
 expressions. They are merely an active but ineffective 
 response to a disturbing situation. Such an individual 
 often lies glibly and voluminously, although he knows 
 that he will be detected and his interests will be harmed 
 rather than helped by his stories. 
 
 In some individuals the tendency to this abnormal use 
 of the imagination is greatly increased by desire for notice 
 and notoriety. This is often shown by persons who make 
 false charges of assault against prominent persons, or re- 
 port that they have witnessed a murder, or, in some cases, 
 accuse themselves of murder or other crimes. In this way 
 they secure the public notice that more efficient individuals 
 get through notable achievements. When such a course is 
 continued, though it is clear that it is against self-interest, 
 the lying is abnormal, yet is often practiced by persons 
 who do not seem to be really insane or feeble-minded. 
 
 Mental conflict as cause of wrongdoing. Sometimes 
 disturbing questions concerning instinctive tendencies are 
 the occasion of abnormal activity of the imagination ; as 
 when a girl relates a long story of her immoralities, 
 although she has really been strictly chaste in her con- 
 duct. In this case false imagings take the place of wrong 
 actions without any real solution of life's problems being 
 found. 
 
 In other cases mental conflict caused by conscious- 
 ness of wrongdoing associated with instinctive tendencies, 
 
 [144] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 of oneself or others, gives rise to wrong actions of an 
 entirely different type, in which images play a consider- 
 able part. Dr. Healey reports a case of this kind that 
 would usually be regarded as one of typical kleptomania. 
 A girl, who after careful observation and testing was 
 found to be intelligent and normal in other respects, stole 
 repeatedly, often things that were of no use to her. She 
 could give no reason why she did so. Inquiry, however, 
 revealed the fact that the impulse to steal was associated 
 with certain disturbing thoughts or images. It was found 
 that when eight or nine years old, during a summer vaca- 
 tion, she had formed the acquaintance of an older girl who 
 stole and who also talked of her relations with boys. The 
 little girl was stirred by these partially understood ideas 
 of wrongdoing. She was a modest child and showed no 
 tendency whatever to sex immorality, which she thought 
 must be very bad, but whenever she thought of the older 
 girl and what she did and said, she had the impulse to 
 the less serious form of wrongdoing, that of stealing. 
 When the mysteries of sex were explained to her the 
 disturbing thoughts ceased, and she no longer had the 
 previously unaccountable impulse to steal. 
 
 Dr. Healey gives several other instances of stealing 
 and irregularity of conduct growing out of mental con- 
 flicts connected with sex. A boy of nine was told of sex 
 matters by companions, thus producing a mental conflict 
 that resulted in stealing. In the case of an older boy 
 the sight of a young woman who had made love to him 
 caused him to become restless and dissatisfied. Presently 
 he left his delivery team and went off and spent thirty- 
 five dollars of his employers' money. He worked three 
 months to pay it back. He was not sexually immoral, 
 
 [145] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 but frequently stole when certain images came to his 
 mind. This may be contrasted with the many instances 
 when the thought of a lover stimulates to noble action 
 and high achievement. 
 
 Another boy of ten stole and told lies as a result of 
 mental conflict produced by images of bad words he had 
 heard. Any mental conflict, especially that between duty 
 and desire, if not harmonized may thus produce abnormal 
 activity of the imagination. 
 
 It seems from these and other cases that imaginative 
 activity associated with an instinctive impulse may remain 
 a disturbing mental influence as long as no satisfactory 
 way of acting or thinking in response to this impulse is 
 found. So long as such a mental conflict continues there 
 are likely to be imagery and action that are contrary to 
 self-interest, or, in other words, the condition is abnormal. 
 
 How to guard against the dangers of imagination. It 
 is not to be inferred that all mental conflicts are abnormal. 
 On the contrary, invention, discovery, philosophical theo- 
 ries, and religious beliefs are the healthy outcome of men- 
 tal conflicts. The abnormal mental conflict is that which 
 leads to hysterical or blind struggling, which only in- 
 creases the disturbance or diverts the imagination into 
 unnatural channels. 
 
 There are two natural correctives of abnormal imagina- 
 tive activities : one is a great deal of experience in deal- 
 ing with things, whereby their real nature and the limits 
 of one's power may be discovered ; and the other is 
 association with people who are continually demonstrating 
 by actions, and occasionally by words, how situations may 
 be met and problems solved. The child who has plenty of 
 opportunity for play and work and for observing, imitating, 
 
 [i 4 6] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 and questioning people is safeguarded against - most of 
 the dangers of excessive and perverted imagination, at 
 least so far as his immediate surroundings are concerned. 
 
 Injurious activity of the imagination comes from un- 
 usual and startling experiences or from objects, forces, 
 or events that have not come within the child's previous 
 experience and of which he can get no satisfactory 
 explanation by observation and questions. 
 
 Some of the special excitants of the imagination which 
 are not easily normalized by experience or observation are 
 concerned with death, birth, and religion. The explana- 
 tion given children by older people sometimes, instead of 
 solving the mystery and suggesting a rational course of 
 action, only increases it and stimulates the imagination 
 to useless and unsatisfying activity. 
 
 If a child without preliminary experience and knowl- 
 edge of the death of plants, animals, and persons is sud- 
 denly confronted by a complete change of the family life 
 through the death of one of its members, the shock is 
 often profound. The child frequently suffers terribly and 
 sometimes for years is oppressed by the fear of his own 
 death or of that of some other member of the family. 
 The following is a good illustration : 
 
 One instance of imagination has worked to my detriment 
 even to this day. When I was ten years old I lost my brother 
 and, having seen but little sickness and no death, it left me with 
 such a horror that I was haunted by thoughts of it day and 
 night. Shortly after this a woman living near us, who, I now 
 know, was not quite sane, took a very great dislike to me and 
 did all in her power to make me unhappy. Knowing my great 
 fear of sickness and death, she one day told me that because 
 I was such a naughty little girl the Lord was going to take my 
 
 [147] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 mother away from me, as He had my brother, and that she 
 was going to be ill a long time first. When she told me this, 
 it seemed as though I could not bear it. I would not be away 
 from my mother one instant. I imagined she was getting 
 thinner and paler every day. I became morose and blue and 
 no one could do anything with me. I would dream of it by 
 night and wake up screaming with horror. I had to go to 
 school, but many times the teacher would have to send me 
 home because of my crying. Always I saw my mother sick and 
 dying. It took me many months to become convinced of my 
 foolishness, and the nerve strain which I suffered has its effect 
 on me even to-day. 
 
 The death of a playmate is often equally disturbing. 
 If the older people are disinclined to talk about the de- 
 ceased or about death, the child is further impressed and 
 disturbed by his own attempts to solve the mystery. If, 
 on the other hand, adult companions of the child speak 
 freely of the one who has died, just as of absent persons, 
 and death is explained as being similar to sleep, the 
 strangeness of death is minimized and thus loses its 
 horror. If the idea of permanent sleep in the cold 
 ground is disturbing to the child the assurance that there 
 is no feeling diminishes the terror, and the religious doc- 
 trine of a future resurrection is often comforting. The 
 statement that the body only is in the ground and the 
 spirit in heaven is often more confusing than satisfying. 
 One little girl thought of dead people as being still and 
 having their eyes closed, and could not understand how 
 they could play and be happy in that condition as she 
 had been told they were. 
 
 Stories of persons buried alive have caused many 
 people lifelong misery, leading sometimes to a decidedly 
 
 [i 4 8] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 morbid condition of mind. In the case of one girl of ten 
 the imagery was so vivid that she could almost feel herself 
 suffocating and would put out her hands to see if she 
 could feel the coffin sides. She would then begin to cry 
 and call for her mother. 
 
 The phenomena associated with birth are not in their 
 nature depressing and terrifying as are those of death, 
 yet they may become equally strong stimuli to useless and 
 injurious activity of the imagination. Adults have con- 
 spired to prevent children from having any true knowledge 
 of the phenomena and have misled and mystified them. 
 Such instances as the following are really pathetic though 
 usually regarded as amusing. A little girl who much de- 
 sired a baby brother, and had heard some remark leading 
 her to think that people had to get babies by going fish- 
 ing for them, went day after day to a small stream and 
 fished for a baby until she finally became discouraged. 
 When children who have been kept from knowing the 
 truth and have been intentionally deceived hear a vulgar 
 distortion of the facts from some companion, they are 
 shocked, and the knowledge that such talk is condemned 
 by elders increases the child's interest in such subjects 
 and makes them more fascinating, at the same time giving 
 evil associations to many things that are not naturally con- 
 nected with wrongdoing. To children whose sex instincts 
 have not awakened, the mere fact that there are mysteries 
 regarded as evil by adults is sufficient to stimulate the 
 imagination along those lines, to the detriment of future 
 morals, and to produce in some instances abnormal mental 
 conflicts. 
 
 After the sex instinct develops, the mind which might 
 have been filled with beautiful images, as the bird's throat 
 
 [ M9] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 with song at the mating season, is much more likely to 
 be occupied with the coarse and debasing images asso- 
 ciated with sex that were acquired earlier. When carried 
 to excess this not only results in immorality but directs the 
 mind from more healthful activity and not infrequently 
 results in mental and physical deterioration. In other 
 cases there is a conflict between the higher and the lower 
 ideals of conduct which is more or less abnormal. Com- 
 paratively few find a way of harmonizing desires, but 
 instead try to suppress one by the other. 
 
 Religious teaching may be a means of stimulating the 
 imagination in such a way as to excite abnormal terrors 
 or so as to solve difficulties and give peace and harmony. 
 The following is a result of a certain kind of so-called 
 religious teaching : 
 
 A boy of four had been told that he must not listen 
 to the devil when he whispered in his ear telling him to 
 do naughty things. The devil immediately became very 
 real to the child, and when reproved for doing something 
 naughty he would whirl around and stamp on the floor, 
 trying to crush the devil, who, however, always eluded 
 him and remained at his back. 
 
 The doctrine of future punishment has been a source of 
 intense mental suffering to many adults and, in a greater 
 degree, to children. Emphasis upon sin and the presen- 
 tation of God as a hater and punisher of sin, whose eyes 
 see all things, lead to all sorts of images of punishments 
 that may be inflicted at any time. 
 
 On the other hand, the idea of a God who is an all- 
 powerful friend and will protect His children solves most 
 of the problems of life so far as the imagination is 
 concerned. 
 
 [150] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 In order that imagination may be kept in healthful 
 lines the child must feel himself in harmony with the 
 physical world in which he lives, with the people with 
 whom he associates, and with whatever higher Power he 
 is taught exists. When he destroys objects or is bruised 
 or hurt by them, he is irritated and temporarily out of 
 proper relations with them. The feeling of harmony may 
 be restored by showing him how to deal with them so 
 that they are preserved and made to serve his purposes. 
 In a similar way wrongdoing sets him at variance with 
 people and with the higher Power. If he can be taught 
 and induced to act in ways that bring good to himself 
 and others, harmony is restored. The more the experi- 
 ences of life reveal to a person modes of action that are 
 suitable to the various situations met, the more does he 
 feel at one with the universe in which he lives and with 
 all that it contains. This is the essence of religion. One 
 who is in this attitude of mind has an imagination that 
 works along constructive lines in which abnormal activity 
 is impossible. 
 
 All modes of dealing with children which make them 
 continuously conscious of failure rather than of success 
 are unfavorable to a normal development of the imagina- 
 tion. Continual punishment and fear of evils to come 
 also produce undesirable developments. Punishment and 
 fear can bring about good results only when they quickly 
 modifiy conduct and reestablish harmonious relations. 
 
 Literature and imaginative activity. Stories of all 
 kinds are important stimuli to the imagination and may 
 direct it in ways that are invigorating, beautifying, and 
 ennobling in their influence, or they may have the oppo- 
 site effect. The latter part of the statement holds true 
 
 [151] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 not only for stories admittedly bad but for some that are 
 regarded as classics. The Erl-King in story and music is 
 one of the worst things that can be presented to a sensi- 
 tive child. The mystery is intense, the danger ever pur- 
 suing, and the end unexplained death, from which there 
 was no escape — all calculated to arouse fear and stir the 
 imagination. 
 
 The story of Red Riding Hood, if it makes prominent 
 the fate of the grandmother, sometimes causes distress 
 and terror, but if the story is properly told this feature 
 of it is scarcely noticed. To do away with death entirely 
 is absurd, hence there is no occasion to spoil the story by 
 having the wolf become good ; on the contrary, his exe- 
 cution is the proper and satisfactory outcome of the situa- 
 tion. Stories for children do not need to be freed from 
 accounts of danger, evil, and death. The essential thing 
 is that there shall be a logical and pleasing ending to the 
 drama. Such stories as the " Babes in the Wood " and, 
 in a less degree, " The Little Match Girl " are objec- 
 tionable because they present a distressing experience 
 from which there is no relief other than the death of the 
 persons in whom the child is interested. They excite only 
 to sentimentality and useless imagining. 
 
 Ghost stories are generally bad, especially when no 
 attempt is made to clear up the mysteries. The only 
 ghost stories that are ever suitable for children are those 
 in which the foolishness of unreasoning fear, as shown 
 by the incidents in the story, is made so evident and the 
 explanation so clear and simple that the whole affair is 
 regarded as an amusing joke. 
 
 Fairy stories may be good or bad according as they do 
 or do not furnish satisfactory explanations of the situations 
 
 [152] 
 
EVILS OF IMAGINATION IN CHILDREN 
 
 presented. If they emphasize mysterious powers of evil 
 and do not show how they may be overcome or avoided, 
 the child's world, which has enough terrors of its own, has 
 added to it the evils and mysteries of the imaginary. Even 
 the much-lauded lt Pilgrim's Progress " is of doubtful value 
 to most children and certainly injurious to a few. The 
 story has the merit of presenting, sooner or later, a satis- 
 factory method of dealing with the terrible situations por- 
 trayed, but the fear-inspiring power of the giants often 
 makes a much stronger impression upon the childish 
 mind than do the means of escape. As a fairy story it is 
 of questionable value for children, while the deeper truths 
 it was intended to teach are little understood by them. 
 The following shows the effect upon one child : 
 
 I fully believed in giants. To me they were immense crea- 
 tures much larger than a house. I never thought of them dur- 
 ing the day, but at night when I went to bed I was in constant 
 fear that a giant would come along and smash our house down 
 with his huge club. I was greatly relieved when I finally con- 
 fided in my mother, and she told me that there were no such 
 things as giants. The idea was given me through my father's 
 reading to me out of " Pilgrim's Progress," especially the part 
 where Christian was captured by the Giant Despair and thrown 
 into Doubting Castle. 
 
 Some of the writings of Poe and Hawthorne are not 
 suitable for children because of the disturbing and un- 
 solved mysteries that they suggest. 
 
 Sorrow and suffering should not be excluded from chil- 
 dren's stories ; on the contrary, literature is one of the 
 best ways of becoming acquainted with them. For moral 
 reasons, however, evil should not be represented as per- 
 manently triumphant, and for healthful mental life, baffling 
 
 ['53] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 mysteries should not be featured in children's stories. 
 Troubles may be portrayed, but there should also be re- 
 vealed a desirable mode of meeting them. In other words, 
 stories are a means of teaching the truths of life and 
 should not present to children evils, sorrows, and mys- 
 teries that are not overcome, alleviated, or solved. They 
 may be only helplessly grieved or puzzled, while adults of 
 vigorous mentality, by similar stories, may be stimulated to 
 find a solution of the deeper problems of existence. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Give illustrations of playful imagination becoming painfully 
 real and disagreeable. 
 
 2. Give illustrations of serious imaginative activity producing 
 discomfort increasing to terror, or of relief being found. 
 
 3. Illustrate how lying may be corrected or may develop and 
 become abnormal. 
 
 4. Give illustrations of mental conflicts leading to disturbance 
 of the imagination and to wrong action. 
 
 5. Show how imaginative activity associated with death, birth, 
 and religion may be directed into healthful channels. 
 
 6. Discuss the suitability of various stories to children from the 
 standpoint of the solutions they offer to the situations they present. 
 
 [154] 
 
PART III 
 SCHOOL SUBJECTS AND THE IMAGINATION 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 USE AND TRAINING OF IMAGINATION 
 IN SCHOOL 
 
 Disciplining the imagination. There has been much 
 less said in educational circles about training the imagina- 
 tion than about training the memory or the reasoning. 
 In truth, there probably is more reason for discussing 
 the training of the imagination than of any other power, 
 for it is the one most used in every form of school 
 work during the period of common-school education 
 and one of the most useful all through life. 
 
 Perhaps one reason why less has been said is because 
 teachers have felt the hopelessness of the task. Many of 
 them have found the imagination of children so active 
 and so disturbing to their carefully laid plans of teaching 
 and training that they have felt that they had all they 
 could do if they kept it in check while the formal school- 
 ing supposed to be necessary was given. On the other 
 hand, some teachers who are themselves imaginative have 
 attempted, often with slight results, to get children to 
 image as they themselves do. Comparatively few have 
 been able successfully to stimulate and direct children's 
 imagination in such a way as to give it effective training. 
 
 The effort to train memory and reasoning so that they 
 will function effectively in all lines has been so discourag- 
 ing that belief in general or formal discipline has rapidly 
 
 [157] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 disappeared. There is reason to think that formal disci- 
 pline, even if there should be some value in it, has very 
 little application in the training of the imagination. 
 
 The most general characteristic of imagination which 
 should be developed is that of increasing the power of 
 voluntarily making the imagined seem real without in any 
 way confusing it with what has been or is being experi- 
 enced. This and other less general characteristics of this 
 useful faculty may probably be best developed not by 
 special exercises with that end in view but by employing 
 the imagination in a variety of useful ways for pleasure 
 and for the accomplishment of definite tasks. If a per- 
 son's imagination is used so as to help him do a variety 
 of things more effectively and with greater enjoyment, it 
 will receive better training than by any scheme of formal 
 discipline. The general problem of the training of the 
 imagination, therefore, resolves itself into a number of 
 special problems regarding its practical uses, in all the 
 activities of life, including the enjoyment of physical and 
 mental play. 
 
 Stimuli to the imagination. No matter what the task 
 in hand, mental images are usually brought into mind and 
 grouped in such a way as to aid in its accomplishment. 
 A brief discussion of objective stimuli to the imagination 
 is therefore in order. 
 
 The stimulus most commonly used, especially in school, 
 is language. As has already been indicated, words play 
 an important part in the early development of the imagina- 
 tion by helping to free images from their associations of a 
 particular time and place so that such images may easily 
 be shifted to new settings. Words continue throughout 
 life to be very useful in bringing images into the mind, 
 
 [158] 
 
USE AND TRAINING IN SCHOOL 
 
 but there is a strong tendency for these images to assume 
 a single typical form and in many instances to become 
 vague, except under special conditions. 
 
 Single words do not, therefore, of themselves usually 
 call forth very vivid images. Other words and other in- 
 fluences are necessary, and these often combine to produce 
 a complex picture that may be quite vivid as a whole, 
 although the separate images involved in its construction 
 were not formed in response to single words. The gen- 
 eral state of mind, all the words of a sentence, and the 
 trend of thought produced by preceding words contribute 
 to make a vivid complex image. 
 
 Another way in which images are made vivid is by 
 uncommon uses of words or unusual arrangements of 
 them. This is why poetic and slang expressions are often 
 so effective in producing vivid images, while more prosy 
 language, where ordinary words are used in the ordinary 
 way, provides little or no stimulus to the imagination. 
 
 The art of description consists in using words in such 
 a way as to bring to the mind not only the objects named 
 but that with which they are associated, and in such an 
 order that images once formed do not need to be greatly 
 changed, while additional images, as they appear, har- 
 monize with and supplement them. The common form of 
 the English sentence, in which adjectives precede nouns, 
 arouses vague images of quality which become fused into 
 a more vivid picture when the object to which they are 
 applied is named, while the more usual form of the French 
 sentence favors the habit of imaging in an indefinite way 
 the thing named and then giving it the specific qualities 
 implied by the adjectives that follow. Opinions differ as 
 to which language is best psychologically. 
 
 [159] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 Individual writers in every language vary from the usual, 
 and most readers find it much easier to picture what is 
 described by some writers than by others with a different 
 style. Whatever manner of writing is used, some images 
 must be held in an indefinite form until others are sug- 
 gested so that the whole scene may be correctly imaged, 
 or there must be disconcerting changes in imagery. If 
 the mind is held in suspense too long before the picture 
 can be completed, the images which have been vaguely 
 formed will have disappeared, and a complete and vivid 
 picture will be impossible. 
 
 Children do not naturally hold images in suspense and 
 cannot keep many in mind at once, hence their imagina- 
 tion is best stimulated by short sentences and by the use 
 of only one or two descriptive words or phrases at a time. 
 A succession of short sentences presenting one aspect after 
 another of the object being described may arouse interest 
 and produce very vivid pictures, when a description in one 
 sentence containing several corresponding adjectives would 
 produce no definite imagery. 
 
 Another very effective stimulus of the imagination is 
 action. Appropriate movements made by the person giv- 
 ing a description may take the place of words or may 
 supplement and emphasize them, and in this way a much 
 more vivid idea of the scene is produced. 
 
 Not only are gestures thus effective in stimulating the 
 imagination but also the attitudes, expressions of face, and 
 tones of voice of the speaker which suggest physical move- 
 ments. Observing and imaging such physical action tends 
 to produce more or less actual movement of the same kind 
 in the listener and this lends reality to the imaginary 
 scene. This feeling of reality is greatly increased if the 
 
 [160] 
 
USE AND TRAINING IN SCHOOL 
 
 children are permitted to actually perform some of the 
 acts implied in the description. For this reason imagina- 
 tion is most effectively stimulated and directed by dramatic 
 action on the part of the speaker or the hearer or both. 
 
 Pictures may also be an effective stimulus, although in 
 many instances showing pictures to children results in a 
 substitution of perception for imagination. If the child 
 sees only what the picture represents, there is not much 
 imaginative stimulus. If, however, the picture is of some- 
 thing the like of which he has never seen, he may study 
 it and seek to imagine how the objects it depicts would 
 really look or act under various circumstances. To a child 
 who has never seen a tiger or an elephant the picture of 
 one may be a strong stimulus inciting him to image how 
 large it really is, what it may be able to do, and how it 
 looks when doing it. On the contrary, if a child is shown 
 pictures of mountains, lakes, houses, trees, and people 
 which do not differ greatly from any which he has previ- 
 ously seen or of which he has seen pictures, his imagina- 
 tion is only slightly stimulated. He may merely observe 
 what is shown and make no attempt to supplement it or 
 to modify it in any way. He may think little of the real 
 size of the objects and may accept the idea that their color 
 is always just as it is represented in the picture. Pic- 
 tures, therefore, often add to the variety of mental images 
 that may be produced, without increasing the power to 
 construct accurate mental pictures of things described. 
 
 Moving pictures showing objects from different points 
 of view or giving a perception of a series of movements 
 produce images much more vivid, more correct, and real ; 
 hence they supply valuable material to the mind, but the 
 power to construct complex scenes is not greatly increased, 
 
 [161] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 and probably the tendency to independent construction is 
 decreased by learning in this way rather than through 
 words. 
 
 Diagrams and crude models are often more effective 
 stimuli to the imagination than complete pictures. There 
 are no details shown, and the mind must supply them in 
 response to the suggestive lines and symbols of the dia- 
 gram. The diagram gives an opportunity for such mental 
 constructions, but will not of itself produce them. It 
 sometimes is studied and memorized simply as a diagram 
 with very little picturing of the actual things intended to 
 be suggested by it. This is often the case when maps 
 are extensively used in geography and charts in science 
 or history. 
 
 Objects may be a very effective stimulus of the imagina- 
 tion, provided they are used in connection with other means 
 of arousing pictures of things not present with which the 
 object shown has been associated. The scenes of a foreign 
 country may be made much more vivid by showing a single 
 specimen of a plant or an article of clothing which formed 
 a part of a scene being described. Pictures of single 
 objects, such as a tree or a person about whom something 
 is being told, may also stimulate the imagination, but not 
 quite to the same degree as a real object. 
 
 Directing the imagination. The factors which have 
 been mentioned so far are chiefly effective in stimulating 
 the formation of images, although with other things they 
 do determine the way in which images shall be combined 
 into unified and connected pictures. Unless, however, 
 there is some thought connected with the mental pictures 
 which arouses expectation as to the outcome, or a purpose 
 that certain results shall follow, the separate images have 
 
 [162] 
 
USE AND TRAINING IN SCHOOL 
 
 little meaning or interest. Even moving pictures which 
 combine several very effective stimuli are frequently mean- 
 ingless and uninteresting when one has not seen the title 
 and does not understand the progressive changes in the 
 situation. 
 
 One method which is very effective in stimulating the 
 imagination, and still more helpful in directing it in the 
 right channels, is to give a sufficient idea of what is com- 
 ing to excite expectation. Incipient images appropriate 
 to the situation are aroused and some idea of the gen- 
 eral setting is formed so that when the proper stimuli of 
 words, gestures, pictures, or diagrams are given, an out- 
 line of the desired kind is promptly filled in by appropriate 
 and vivid images. 
 
 Another mode of exciting and directing the imagina- 
 tion is to indicate an aim or a purpose to be accomplished ; 
 then, as the mind is stimulated by appropriate means to 
 form images of objects and acts involved in accomplishing 
 that purpose, these images arouse others consistent with 
 them, and all arrange themselves in such a way as to lead 
 toward the accomplishment of the purpose that has previ- 
 ously been represented. Successful lesson-planning is 
 that which thus sets clearly before the pupils some end 
 to be accomplished and stimulates their imagination so 
 that the right materials are brought to mind and significant 
 things selected and arranged so as to bring about the 
 results desired. 
 
 Mental conditions favoring imagination. The first 
 essential in using the imagination is the possession of the 
 necessary elementary images for constructing and creating 
 in the line desired. One of the chief reasons why chil- 
 dren should have varied and extensive sense experiences 
 
 [163] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 in early life is that their minds may be supplied with 
 images which may be used in constructing and creating 
 what is not actually present. For this reason the country 
 child, especially if he has had some nature study, is much 
 better prepared for the study of some of the sciences than 
 the one who has always lived in the city, while the city 
 child knows more about cars, electric lights, elevators, and 
 other modern devices. The teacher should always ask 
 herself before presenting a lesson, "What image material 
 do these children probably have to work with ? " She 
 should then plan to use such material as they have and 
 to supply what is lacking. In doing this she should re- 
 member that pictures are not in all cases a reliable sub- 
 stitute for the real things. For example, a child in Boston 
 who claimed to know what a cow was, when asked its size 
 said, "It is so long," holding his fingers about an inch 
 apart. 
 
 The second essential is that children shall be given 
 sufficient time to make their constructions, and a model 
 or suggestions must be given to direct their imagination. 
 To ask children to make a design or write a story of a 
 certain kind, even though they have the materials with 
 which to work, may not be effective unless they have had 
 or are given some model to direct their creations. To give 
 exercise to the creative imagination, directions must not 
 be complete or the model one that is to be followed liter- 
 ally. For example, the figures in a rug design may be 
 used for the construction of a wall-paper-border design ; 
 or an autobiography of a person may be given as a model 
 for writing an autobiography of a penny or a flower 
 about which the child has studied ; or a pupil may be 
 asked to write a humorous description of an animal, with 
 
 [i6 4 ] 
 
USE AND TRAINING IN SCHOOL 
 
 a description of some person as a model, such as is found 
 in Irving's " Ichabod Crane " or in his account of a 
 Dutch governor. 
 
 Skill embodied in more or less well-established habits 
 is another essential to the successful use and expression 
 of imaginative activity. A child who has had no experi- 
 ence in using paints and brush is poorly prepared to make 
 a design in color, and one who has not mastered the 
 mechanics of writing and spelling is not ready to write 
 an original story. To the above conditions must be added 
 another before any creative activity worth while will take 
 place ; namely, an interest or desire that can best be satis- 
 fied by such activity. This interest may be playful or seri- 
 ous, according to the age and individuality of the child 
 and the special circumstances of the case, and may em- 
 brace any line of useful human activity ; but to be most 
 effective it must be positive. Neither artists nor children 
 do their best work under compulsion, but when trying to 
 accomplish something in which they are deeply interested. 
 If the incentive is strong enough, the individual may 
 be induced to acquire the essentials previously named 
 (namely, a supply of elementary images and manual skill) 
 if he sees that he cannot succeed without them. The 
 older type of teacher sought to supply these essentials 
 for creative activity so that the child would be properly 
 equipped before actually beginning such work ; the newer 
 type seeks to arouse desires and stimulate the child to 
 acquire the essentials for realizing them. 
 
 The thing attempted should not require so much prepara- 
 tion that interest is lost before the work of creation can 
 begin. To attain success, the desire to be realized must 
 be represented by projects that are not too far in advance 
 
 [165] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 of the child's preparation for accomplishing them. Suc- 
 cess by the older method is also secured in a similar way. 
 Just as soon as a child has gained some creative material 
 and acquired some skill in dealing with it he should be 
 given a chance to make use of it. Failure, or, at least, 
 loss of time and energy, comes from too great a separa- 
 tion between learning and its application in the use of 
 the constructive and creative powers in satisfying some 
 desire or need. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Does practice in comparing images that one has constructed 
 with actual perceptions train the imagination? If so, in what way 
 and how much will power of imagery as applied to other things be 
 improved by such practice ? 
 
 2. Does practice in using the creative imagination in one line 
 increase originality in all lines? Give proofs. 
 
 3. Mention some of your successes or failures in trying to stimu- 
 late the imagination of children. 
 
 4. Prepare several lesson plans with special reference to the 
 imaginative activity involved. 
 
 5. Discuss the relative advantages of these two methods : (i) gain- 
 ing the essential knowledge and skill, then using them in a creative 
 way ; (2) undertaking interesting projects and gaining the necessary 
 knowledge while accomplishing what is desired. 
 
 [166] 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 
 
 Imagination involved in learning to read. As already 
 mentioned, words are an important means of developing 
 concrete images. On the other hand, learning to read 
 results in developing visual images of words. In learning 
 visual words and their correspondence with oral words 
 attention is necessarily directed toward imaging symbols 
 rather than things. This tendency is increased artificially 
 by phonic drill and naturally by the attempt to spell and 
 write words. The process of learning to read, write, and 
 spell is to a considerable extent one of learning to form 
 accurate verbal or word images both visual and auditory. 
 A good and rapid listener or reader passes at once from 
 the sensory stimulus of the sound or sight of the word 
 to a representation or interpretation of what it stands for, 
 but in reading aloud and in writing there must be an 
 association or translation from one kind of word symbol 
 to the other, and in this process the images formed usually 
 become dominantly verbal. 
 
 Before beginning to learn to read most children know 
 a large number of words, form more or less definite repre- 
 sentations of what they stand for, and image in some 
 degree the sounds of words. This is the material that 
 they have when they begin learning a visual language. 
 They must now learn to distinguish the visual forms of 
 words and to associate with them images of the sound of 
 
 lie?] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 the words and images of the things indicated. The process 
 of learning to read is therefore a process of learning to 
 form visual images of words and of recalling, in response 
 to this new stimulus, the auditory images and the images 
 of things which are already familiar. 
 
 For purposes of silent reading and thought-getting the 
 most important thing necessary is that the visual words 
 shall quickly suggest the images and ideas for which they 
 stand, grouped in accordance with the arrangement of the 
 words in sentences. In oral reading the essential thing 
 is that when the visual forms of words or parts of words 
 are observed, the corresponding sounds shall be quickly 
 imaged in the right order. To be able to read aloud and 
 at the same time get the thought requires that both of 
 these processes shall be carried on together in combina- 
 tion with the proper movements of the eye in seeing the 
 words and of the vocal organs in uttering them. This is 
 a complicated operation, in which several distinct but cor- 
 related habits must be formed which tend to supplant the 
 imaging process. One is the habit of moving the eyes 
 along the lines, pausing momentarily, from three to eight 
 times for each line, to recognize words or groups of words. 
 Another is that of moving the vocal organs so as to speak 
 the words that were looked at the instant before. Besides 
 these there are customs of sentence construction and of 
 mental classification that facilitate the reading process. 
 These habits differ considerably in silent and in oral 
 reading, and the methods of teaching may make promi- 
 nent either those favorable to word-calling or to rapid 
 thought-getting. 
 
 Some teachers regard the process of getting thought 
 as the most important, while others lay most emphasis 
 
 [168] 
 
LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 
 
 upon learning to utter the proper sounds at the sight of 
 the visual symbols. The methods of teaching vary in 
 accordance with these differing views. 
 
 The thought method. In the thought method the chief 
 purpose from the first is to gain the power of imaging 
 objects and thinking in response to the stimulus of visual 
 words, while a detailed knowledge of the sounds associated 
 with the visual symbols is presupposed or acquired inci- 
 dentally. This method when properly carried out makes 
 the child's previous knowledge of oral words and of what 
 they stand for, and of the usual arrangement of words in 
 sentences, the apperceptive basis for learning the visual 
 words and getting them properly associated with ideas and 
 verbal sounds. The process is somewhat analogous to that 
 involved in following the thought in a moving-picture 
 story. The title and a few words or sentences start the 
 thought in the right direction, and the pictures show part 
 of the story, while the rest is filled in by the constructive 
 imagination in accordance with what is known of the usual 
 accompaniments in such scenes. In a similar way a child 
 in learning to read may be given an idea of what the 
 sentence is about and told one or two words in the sentence 
 which suggest to him the oral words in which the incident 
 could be expressed, and this prepares him to guess what 
 oral words some of the visual symbols must represent. If 
 the child becomes thoroughly interested in the story and 
 if key words are given him and others added as necessary 
 (not too rapidly or too slowly, but just at the right time 
 after he has seen them, so that his guess as to what they 
 are is confirmed or corrected without breaking the flow 
 of thought and destroying the interest of what is coming), 
 the child will gain rapidly in the power of getting thought 
 
 [169] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 from the printed symbols and of uttering the words that 
 he already knows correspond to that thought. Of course 
 he often thinks of other words having the same meaning 
 instead of the ones in the book, but this is a mistake that 
 may easily be corrected. 
 
 Some children become so interested in guessing what 
 the thought is going to be and what the words are that 
 they do not observe closely the visual forms. It is there- 
 fore necessary occasionally to call their attention to the 
 likeness or difference of words which they have miscalled 
 as compared with words in previous sentences that they 
 have correctly named. Mistakes may also be guarded 
 against by having familiar words pointed out before the 
 child begins reading another lesson or section of the lesson. 
 It may be well also to give him the names of important 
 words that he is not likely to guess correctly. 
 
 When this method is followed, the child is continually 
 using his knowledge of things and incidents similar to 
 those described in the story, his acquaintance with oral 
 words and their arrangement, and his knowledge of visual 
 words which he has recently learned. As learning pro- 
 ceeds, the knowledge of visual words which he has acquired 
 becomes an important element in his apperception, and he 
 does not have to be told so much of the thought before 
 he begins reading nor so many of the words as he reads. 
 
 The process in learning to read from this time on is 
 very similar to that by which he had previously learned 
 to talk. After a child has learned a few oral words he 
 hears many sentences containing those words and guesses 
 at the meaning of the strange words with which they are 
 associated. These guesses are confirmed or corrected by 
 the way in which he hears the new words used in other 
 
 [170] 
 
LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 
 
 sentences. The meanings of words are learned in this 
 way in a large proportion of cases. 
 
 In the thought method of learning to read, the objects 
 and incidents described should be familiar but interesting, 
 and the words and their arrangement should be such as 
 the child has often heard and used. With such an apper- 
 ceptive background he will soon learn many visual words. 
 After a considerable vocabulary has been acquired, the 
 words which are familiar to him suggest the thought of 
 the sentence, and the combination of letters in a new word 
 is suggestive of its sound. Thus the child quickly adds 
 new words to both his oral and his visual vocabulary. 
 
 At this stage it may be necessary, however, to lead the 
 child to observe more closely the various combinations of 
 letters and to associate them more accurately with the 
 sounds for which they stand. This will help him to pro- 
 nounce correctly the new words that he meets and prepare 
 the way for learning to spell. 
 
 The symbol or phonic method. When word naming 
 is regarded as the important thing in the early processes 
 of learning to read, the attempt is made to get the child to 
 image not so much the thing for which the word stands as 
 the visual form of the word or the letters composing it and 
 the sounds corresponding to them. The child is frequently 
 shown words or letter combinations and given the corre- 
 sponding sounds. He also sounds words and then they are 
 written for him. The same process is repeated over and 
 over with letters and with common combinations of letters 
 until the child readily images one kind of symbol when he 
 sees or hears the other. Words rather than sentences are 
 studied, and words are separated into parts, and parts are 
 built up into complete words. 
 
 [171] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 After a considerable period of time the child has suffi- 
 cient apperceptive knowledge of the correspondence be- 
 tween the two kinds of symbols to be able to guess or 
 infer fairly well the sounds corresponding to the visual 
 symbols of new words, or, in other words, to read in the 
 sense of calling words. This knowledge enables him to 
 guess or infer what combinations of letters must be used 
 in a new word. This method, instead of using as an apper- 
 ceptive basis thought and symbol images already familiar 
 to the child when he enters school, seeks to build up a 
 new set of images of visual symbols and to get them asso- 
 ciated so closely with sounds that they will at once sug- 
 gest the words. By such a method the child may acquire 
 more or less facility in naming words, both familiar and 
 unfamiliar, which he sees and in spelling those that he 
 hears. Even with the best of teaching, however, he is 
 likely to make mistakes with new words, partly because 
 the English language is not a phonetic one, and the usual 
 is the correct in scarcely three fourths of the cases he 
 meets, and partly because there is no means of knowing 
 how new words are accented unless they are marked in 
 accordance with symbols with which he has been made 
 familiar. 
 
 After the child has attained some facility in recogniz- 
 ing words from his knowledge of letter combinations he 
 may be led to think of what the word stands for as well 
 as its sound and then to read in the sense of getting 
 thought from the printed page. If the drill upon symbols 
 has continued for some time there will be a certain amount 
 of difficulty in getting him to image objects and events 
 instead of symbols and in getting him to speak the 
 sentence which he sees instead of merely naming the 
 
 [172] 
 
LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 
 
 words of which it is composed. The phonic method 
 strictly carried out from the first makes no use of ap- 
 perceptive thought material or of knowledge of oral 
 symbols, but seeks to build up an apperceptive mass of 
 visual symbols to be associated with oral ones. Such a 
 method is wasteful of time and energy, and it also 
 forms the habit of giving attention to symbols which 
 later interferes with the more important thought processes 
 involved in reading. 
 
 In the methods of teaching reading now in most common 
 use the thought method and the phonic method are usu- 
 ally combined, with one or the other preceding and domi- 
 nating. In the best methods thought is chiefly prominent, 
 while symbol learning and imaging are incidental. 
 
 Learning to spell. It must be admitted that the phonic 
 method of learning to read, whatever its wastefulness and 
 disadvantages for that purpose, is a pretty good prepara- 
 tion for learning to spell. One who has been well trained 
 in phonics can guess or infer in a large percentage of 
 cases the letter combinations used in spelling new words, 
 but there will still remain a considerable number of words 
 whose spelling is contrary to all the teachings of phonics, 
 and to which any one of two or more rules regarding 
 letter combinations might apply with no clue as to the 
 correct one. All of the advantages which phonics can 
 give may be gained in a fairly short time after a child 
 has learned to read by giving him a comparatively small 
 amount of drill in phonics in connection with learning 
 to spell and in pronouncing new words. In learning to 
 read by the thought method he has incidentally associated 
 a great many letters and their combinations with the appro- 
 priate sounds, and it requires only a little detailed study 
 
 [173] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 to make this knowledge accurate enough to be of con- 
 siderable assistance to him in spelling and in the use of 
 the dictionary. 
 
 In addition to this it must be recognized that spelling 
 is not necessarily dependent in any degree upon a knowl- 
 edge of phonics. A child who has learned to read is able 
 to form more or less clear visual images of the words that 
 are familiar to him. If these images are made sufficiently 
 specific, he may spell correctly without any knowledge of 
 phonics. In the case of most people at the present time 
 visual images doubtless play a larger part in the process 
 of recalling the spelling of words than any other form of 
 imagery. This is especially true of those who do a great 
 deal of reading. They see many words so frequently that 
 they form images of them and can tell how they are 
 spelled without ever having made any effort to learn. 
 Sometimes this image is not perfect enough to enable a 
 person to spell a word with assurance, but after the word 
 is written he can compare it with his image and tell 
 whether it is correct or not. A large proportion of people 
 would doubtless become fairly good spellers without any 
 training other than that involved incidentally in reading 
 and writing. 
 
 There are some, however, who do not learn how to 
 spell in this way. They do not observe words in detail, 
 but note only the general form which suggests the thought. 
 Such persons must have their attention called to the exact 
 letters and their order in words to enable them to learn 
 to spell. If they have a natural tendency towards specific 
 auditory imagery, phonic drill may be of great assistance. 
 If, however, their imagery is dominantly visual, but lack- 
 ing in detail, they may be helped most by teaching them 
 
 [174] 
 
LEARNING TO READ AND SPELL 
 
 to give close attention to the parts of words and by giv- 
 ing them a great deal of practice in comparing their 
 perceptions of words with their visual images of them. 
 It is often of advantage to associate this exercise with 
 practice in writing the words. One or more words may 
 be placed before the child for observation, then they may 
 be covered or erased while he images how they looked 
 and then writes them. What he has written should then 
 be compared with the visual copy to see if it is correct. 
 For small children, whose attention is more or less taken 
 up by the process of writing, the words must be short or 
 their images cannot be held in mind until they are written. 
 In all copying that children do they should be encouraged 
 to look at what they are copying less and less often and 
 hence to carry in their minds images not only of longer 
 words but of several words at a time. Separate printed 
 letters that can be made into words by children who are 
 not able to handle a pencil may be helpful to them. No 
 device of this kind, however, is equal to a typewriter as 
 a means of learning to spell, but as yet it is not feasible 
 to have these machines for use by primary pupils. Learn- 
 ing to spell is distinctly a process of learning to form 
 auditory, visual, or kinesthetic images, although in the 
 latter case especially one may spell by habit without dis- 
 tinctly imaging the separate letters before writing or utter- 
 ing them. Each teacher should experiment with her pupils, 
 having them use different methods of studying their spell- 
 ing, employing sight, sound, or movement processes, and 
 helping them to discover which mode of studying and 
 imaging words is best for each one. 
 
 [175] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Cover the page from which a rapid reader is reading aloud and 
 notice how many words he can utter afterwards. This will show how 
 far his eyes are ahead of the movements of his vocal organs. 
 
 2. Observe the eyes of a reader, either directly or with the aid of 
 a hand mirror, as you sit beside him and count the number of pauses 
 per line. Do this for persons of varying age and rates of reading 
 and compare the number of pauses per line with the number of 
 words read per second or minute. 
 
 3. Study different individuals as to their reading rate and habits 
 of reading and their ability to get thought by silent or oral reading. 
 
 4. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of making phonics 
 prominent in teaching reading and of making thought prominent. 
 
 5. Discuss the various methods of learning to spell and their 
 relation to imagery in the case of special individuals. 
 
 [176] 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 IMAGINATION IN DRAWING AND CONSTRUCTING 
 
 Images a?id drawing. Without entering into details 
 regarding the various kinds of images which may or may 
 not be concerned in directing the movements of the hand 
 in drawing, it may be said that one usually holds in mind 
 some sort of image of how the model looks. A few per- 
 sons may draw very simple forms without having vivid 
 images, simply making the lines which are necessary with- 
 out picturing how they are to look. In the majority of 
 cases, however, the person who can draw well, especially 
 from memory, is able to image not only the general 
 appearance of objects but their details. 
 
 Experiments show that there are various ways in which 
 memory in connection with drawing is developed. A very 
 common plan is to look at the object and then glance 
 away, or close the eyes and try to picture its appearance 
 in detail. In drawing from a model this method is fol- 
 lowed to some extent, parts of the object being observed, 
 then imaged while they are being drawn. Another way 
 is to look at an object and make in imagination the move- 
 ments that will be necessary in order to draw it. A third 
 method is to observe the object, noting its resemblance 
 to some familiar or standard form and also some of its 
 special peculiarities or variations from the usual, drawing 
 it later from these memories or associations. For exam- 
 ple, the object as a whole looks like a tree, a house, a 
 
 1*77] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 hatchet, or a geometrical figure with a certain number of 
 angles or curves, and it is thus recalled and reproduced 
 chiefly by means of verbal associations. 
 
 The first two methods seem to be more effective if the 
 drawing is executed immediately, but the images are likely 
 to fade, and there is no means of making them vivid or 
 of recalling the necessary details, while the third method 
 makes recall more sure and certain. A combination of 
 all three methods may sometimes best be employed. 
 
 Models and images. Some persons in drawing observe 
 the model very frequently and reproduce its details with- 
 out variation. Others observe the general appearance of 
 what is to be drawn and then reproduce its essential 
 features, perhaps with intentional modifications. 
 
 When children first begin drawing they usually glance 
 at the object and quickly represent something of the same 
 type. If not required to do so, they do not observe the ob- 
 ject for any length of time, and they represent the species 
 or class to which it belongs rather than the individual 
 specimen before them. 
 
 This is also the method followed with some modifica- 
 tions by some skilled artists, especially the Japanese. 
 A Japanese artist who wishes to draw a bird, for exam- 
 ple, may spend many days in observing its form, attitude, 
 and movements and selecting the appearance that to him 
 is most satisfactory. Then, without any model before him, 
 he draws the picture with rapid, sure strokes. This method 
 of drawing results in free, graceful lines, unified and har- 
 monized, while the drawings from a model, though more 
 exact, are likely to be stiff and less artistic as a whole. 
 
 In teaching children to draw it is probably better from 
 the first to encourage drawing from the images in mind. 
 
 [178] 
 
IMAGINATION IN DRAWING AND CONSTRUCTING 
 
 They do need, however, a good deal of practice in seeing 
 essential details as well as general appearance. This may 
 be accomplished by having them observe one or more 
 features of an object until these are clearly imaged and 
 then having them draw those features before they again 
 look at the object. The number of things to be observed 
 may be gradually increased until objects that are not too 
 complex may be correctly drawn without reexamination. 
 
 In the case of complex objects, especially landscapes, 
 the constructive and creative imagination as well as the 
 reproductive may be used. Whatever serves as a model 
 is not copied in all its details, but parts of it are combined 
 with images derived from other sources so as to make a 
 more beautiful picture in which certain features of the 
 scene or object are so prominent that an observer of the 
 picture cannot fail to see them, although he might not 
 have noticed them in the original. 
 
 Constructing and imaging. In making boxes, portfolios, 
 toys, tools, and machines the imagination usually plays an 
 important part. It is not infrequently the case that per- 
 sons who are very deficient in understanding and express- 
 ing ideas by means of words are unusually skillful not 
 only in their movements but in understanding and plan- 
 ning constructions of various kinds. In some instances, 
 at least, this is due to a considerable extent to the fact 
 that they have a strong tendency to think not in words 
 but in images, especially those involving space relations. 
 
 Some individuals of this type are able to hold an image 
 of an object in mind and see it from any angle that they 
 choose and note just how each part is related to every 
 other part. They can mentally select and arrange the 
 materials for a box, a bird house, a trap, a dress, or a hat, 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 and the parts will fit just as they had anticipated. Other 
 persons gain a general idea from the drawing or descrip- 
 tion or from their own planning of how the objects will 
 appear, but the image is so lacking in detail that when 
 they attempt to put the parts together they do not get 
 the results they had anticipated. It is of great advantage 
 to be able to form clear and detailed images of what is 
 to be constructed, although that power is not absolutely 
 necessary to success. If the general image of the object 
 to be made is supplemented by the memorizing of sym- 
 bols describing the necessary details, the results may be 
 even more accurate than when images are relied upon. 
 
 Designing and inventing. Images are very convenient 
 in designing and inventing, although they are not abso- 
 lutely essential. Many persons do not attempt to image 
 a whole design in detail, but mentally represent and exe- 
 cute a part at a time, while holding in mind a general 
 idea of the whole. In a large proportion of cases not 
 even this much imaging is attempted, but trial arrange- 
 ments of real objects or lines are used instead of the cor- 
 responding mental representation. Those arrangements 
 which seem to harmonize best with the general image of 
 what is to be made are then chosen, and the design or 
 the mechanism is worked out far enough to show how 
 it is going to look or whether it will be successful. Many 
 trial constructions may be made before the design is 
 completed or the mechanism finished. 
 
 Very few people are able to image a whole new crea- 
 tion in detail before they construct any part of it. Instead, 
 they image to some extent, then construct enough to see 
 what the results are going to be, then image variations 
 or additions. 
 
 [iSo] 
 
IMAGINATION IN DRAWING AND CONSTRUCTING 
 
 Artistic designing requires much the same kind of 
 imagination as invention, except that ideals of the beauti- 
 ful play a larger part in designing, while a knowledge of 
 the nature of the materials to be employed and of the 
 forces involved is absolutely essential in inventing. In 
 both cases one must have had previous experience, giving 
 a knowledge of the use of materials and of plans that 
 may be followed ; and then there must be an ideal to be 
 realized or an end to be gained which directs the specific 
 arrangement of materials so that the new combination 
 will be beautiful or useful. 
 
 The successful designer or inventor must not follow 
 familiar methods too closely, but, on the other hand, if he 
 varies too much from all accepted models there are many 
 chances to one that he will produce the bizarre rather than 
 the beautiful or the useful. 
 
 Originality in designing is fostered by a limited amount 
 of exact copying from good models of various kinds and 
 by a good deal of practice in using the elements of such 
 designs modified and combined in a variety of ways for 
 different purposes, artistic and useful. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Have several children or older persons study some unfamiliar 
 figure before them in any way that they choose for two minutes 
 without drawing it. At the end of that time ask them to draw it 
 from memory. Observe and inquire as to the methods used by dif- 
 ferent individuals and their success. A week later ask them again to 
 draw the figure from memory and to tell whether they remembered 
 chiefly by an image of the figure or by words and associations. 
 
 2. Discuss the comparative advantage of teaching pupils to draw 
 from a model and from memory. When and to what extent should 
 each method be used ? 
 
 [•81] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 3. The ability to image constructively and in detail may be tested 
 by asking pupils to figure out how much material will be needed to 
 construct a paper or a wooden box of a certain size or to describe 
 the design that will result from certain cuts in a folded paper. 
 
 4. Get reports from various persons as to how far they are able 
 to plan constructions in the absence of the materials to be used ; or 
 ask several persons to plan a rug border, using rectangles of two 
 sizes and two colors without the rectangles or anything to represent 
 them. Then let them try it using written words, then drawings, then 
 the rectangles themselves. Note the rapidity and success attending 
 each method. 
 
 [ 182 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 From concrete things to symbols. The child's early- 
 ideas of number are based on perceptions and images of 
 objects. More or less of similar things may mean to the 
 child merely greater or less space covered by those things. 
 In the case of objects which are not exactly alike, the 
 child has an image of how each one looks and thus knows 
 whether all are present. When he is first being taught 
 to count objects, he is often inclined to regard the num- 
 ber names as the specific names of the objects. For 
 example, if the fingers are counted beginning with the 
 little finger, the child may be inclined to insist that the 
 little finger shall always be called one. 
 
 After numbers have been used a great deal in indicat- 
 ing the size of groups of objects, the child begins to think 
 of groups of different sizes, not wholly by means of images 
 of the objects but by means of the number symbol indi- 
 cating the size of the group. When he first notes the 
 result of combining groups or taking objects away from 
 groups (for instance, putting two and one together or tak- 
 ing one away from three), he is likely to image the objects 
 and the change produced by adding to or taking away 
 from the group. In counting a series of sounds there is 
 more or less imaging of the sounds, and in such counting, 
 as in counting visual objects, sensations and images of 
 movement play a large part. The child points to each 
 object when counting a visible group, and the result will 
 
 [183] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 be correct only when the pointing and the utterance of 
 the number symbol correspond with each other and with 
 the movements of the eyes as he fixates one object after 
 another. 
 
 The number symbols which the child uses and images 
 before going to school are auditory in character, and all 
 of his number thinking which is not in the form of con- 
 crete images involves auditory motor images of number 
 symbols. Two and one bring to his mind the image of 
 three as heard or spoken, because that has so often fol- 
 lowed the others. Before going to school the number 
 thinking of many children is largely in terms of auditory 
 motor images, and they are able to compute to some 
 extent with abstract numbers. 
 
 From auditory to visual images. Formerly all the 
 child's number training for several years of schooling was 
 carried on in auditory symbols, and only after becoming 
 familiar with a great many number combinations and all 
 the common operations of arithmetic, and having had con- 
 siderable practice in solving mentally problems involving 
 small numbers, was he expected to begin using visual 
 symbols. Then he worked problems similar to those he 
 had previously solved, except that the numbers were 
 larger and could more easily be handled by means of the 
 slightly differing processes of written arithmetic. 
 
 In modern schools written symbols are used almost as 
 soon as the child begins work in number. This makes 
 it necessary that he shall learn the visual mathematical 
 language at the same time that he is learning number 
 combinations and the processes by which calculations are 
 made. The process of learning the visual language of 
 arithmetic and that of learning the number facts and 
 
 [i8 4 ] 
 
IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 mathematical relations are often confused not only in the 
 child's mind but also in that of his teacher. The child 
 may know the facts and how to calculate the results, but 
 not be able to indicate the process accurately in visual 
 symbols. The teacher, in attempting to help the child, 
 frequently fails to realize where the difficulty lies and adds 
 to his perplexity by trying to explain to him what he 
 already knows, in just those terms which are the source 
 of his difficulty. 
 
 Recently the methods used in primary number work 
 have changed, so that to a great extent the child learns 
 the visual symbols of arithmetic from association with 
 concrete objects rather than by a direct translation from 
 auditory to visual symbols. Two groups of objects are 
 added to make a larger group, then the symbols 2 + 2 = 4 
 are written as the arithmetical way of indicating what has 
 been done. Such learning of the visual language of arith- 
 metic from direct experience with concrete objects gives 
 a much more complete knowledge of the significance of 
 the visual symbols. The child may at any time substitute 
 for the symbols an image of the objects and of what was 
 done with them. 
 
 Because of this the situation is now much better than 
 it was when written work was first introduced into the 
 primary grades, but there is still some ground for ques- 
 tioning whether the child's mathematical thinking would 
 not be clearer if it were carried on by means of the famil- 
 iar auditory motor symbols until he becomes acquainted 
 with all the fundamental facts and processes, before be- 
 ginning to use the visual language of arithmetic and the 
 written methods of calculating, which are of advantage 
 only in dealing with large numbers. 
 
 [•85] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 However this may be, inquiry reveals the fact that a 
 large proportion of those who have gone through the 
 grades make much use of visual symbols of numbers and 
 operations. If asked to perform an operation such as 
 " fifteen times twenty," nearly all will image the numbers 
 with the line drawn beneath and the results written below. 
 So fixed are these number forms that children often think 
 it would be impossible to perform the operation of sub- 
 traction with the smaller number at the top, or the opera- 
 tion of division with the position of the divisor and the 
 quotient interchanged. Some go farther than this and 
 visually image all numbers as arranged in a certain way, 
 such as in a line running up or down or sideways and 
 changing its direction at tens or hundreds, or they may 
 be arranged in circles or in very complex forms. With 
 some persons such number forms seem to be helpful in 
 making combinations, while with others they are of no use. 
 
 The tendency to carry on mathematical calculations in 
 terms of symbols often becomes so strong that the pupil 
 does not image the concrete even in situations when it is 
 really necessary to correct thinking. Children who have 
 been adding numbers, when asked, " What are three apples 
 and four oranges ? " are likely to say " Seven," without 
 thinking of the concrete reality but only of the symbol 
 relations. The practice of giving many concrete problems 
 to be solved rapidly naturally increases rather than de- 
 creases this tendency. The child who stops to image the 
 objects in their proper relation will be the last one to get 
 the answer, while the one who does no imaging, but thinks 
 only of the symbol relations suggested by the words, will 
 be the first. A slight change in the order of the words 
 in stating a problem will often lead rapid workers to 
 
 [186] 
 
IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 perform the wrong operation. Sometimes it is difficult for 
 children to image the concrete situation and correct the 
 error into which they had been led by thinking in sym- 
 bols only. To avoid this difficulty it is well to encourage 
 deliberate and accurate work when concrete problems are 
 given, leaving the rapid calculation for drill exercises with 
 abstract numbers. 
 
 Measurement and imaging. Problems involving meas- 
 urement are also a good corrective for the tendency to the 
 exclusive use of symbols in mathematical calculations. 
 When measurements were introduced late in the course, 
 as was formerly the case, children nearly always had a 
 great deal of difficulty because they had learned to think 
 in symbols only, whereas correct thinking in mensuration 
 is possible only when the concrete facts are considered. 
 
 At the present time a large proportion of high-school 
 graduates, when asked to tell how much lumber will be 
 required to make a box four feet square, will begin to 
 calculate with symbols, without imaging the concrete prob- 
 lem or asking whether the measurement given is outside 
 or inside measurement, and without inquiring the thick- 
 ness of the lumber. Even if they are told in the problem 
 that the measurement is for the outside dimensions and 
 that the lumber is two inches thick, many of them will 
 not allow for that thickness in computing the length of 
 boards required, according to the kind of joint that is to be 
 made. For similar reasons many of them will fail in com- 
 puting how many feet of picture molding will be required 
 to frame a picture on a mat that is twelve by eighteen 
 inches. They will perhaps not even realize at first that 
 it is necessary to know the width of the molding in order 
 to solve the problem. It is true that they may be taught 
 
 [187] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 a formula such as, " The number of inches of molding 
 required will be equal to the perimeter of the mat plus 
 eight times the width of the molding," and in accordance 
 with this formula may work problems involved in picture- 
 framing, but this will not help them in solving other 
 problems of mensuration. 
 
 If, however, in the study of mensuration they have 
 first solved the problem by manipulating objects, then by 
 imaging how the objects will be related to each other, 
 and finally have used a derived formula which will apply 
 to all such cases, they are likely to retain the ability to 
 use images whenever necessary. Hence, when a new 
 problem in mensuration is given for which they have no 
 formula, they will at once begin to image the concrete 
 situation or to represent it by objects or lines, and then 
 will work the problem correctly and perhaps be able to 
 derive a formula by which all such problems may be 
 quickly solved. For the above reasons it is of advantage 
 to have problems of mensuration early introduced into the 
 course as a natural corrective to the tendency to think 
 more or less vaguely in terms of symbols only and to use 
 formulas without retaining the ability to represent con- 
 cretely the situation and processes which they indicate. 
 
 It is probably because of the fact that so much of the 
 practice work in arithmetic is concerned with the manipu- 
 lation of symbols according to rule that children in schools 
 where a large amount of time is devoted to arithmetic do 
 no better than those who spend a much shorter time upon 
 that subject. This may also be the reason why some 
 graduates of the schools can do nothing without pencil 
 and paper and even with them may be unable to solve 
 little practical problems of a type new to them, which 
 
 [188] 
 
IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 may be readily solved mentally by persons who have 
 had a small amount of schooling. 
 
 Computing and imaging. Before the child knows the 
 exact significance of numbers he usually learns something 
 of their relative meaning. He knows that twenty is a great 
 deal more than three, and a hundred is more than twenty, 
 while a thousand or a million mean a very great many. The 
 person who has had little or no mathematical training con- 
 tinues to estimate rather than to calculate, and he may form 
 a fairly correct judgment as to what the right answer to a 
 problem must be, although he cannot figure it accurately. 
 
 The child trained in school arithmetic often loses en- 
 tirely this ability to judge approximately what the answer 
 should be. His mind is occupied with the details of cal- 
 culation in accordance with rules that he has previously 
 followed, and he fails to image the concrete situation and 
 cannot tell, if he has made a mistake, whether his error 
 is small or large. In trying to make the child an exact 
 calculator he is frequently rendered unable to use his 
 practical judgment, because he images only symbols and 
 processes instead of concrete facts. The remedy for this 
 is to treat arithmetic in the grades not as an exact science 
 but as a practical art. 
 
 Imagination and problem-solving. One reason why 
 the teaching of arithmetic has been so unsatisfactory to 
 men engaged in practical affairs is that children have had 
 so much drill work and have had so many problems whose 
 conditions they did not and could not image that they 
 follow rules blindly and do not know how to apply their 
 knowledge to new things. A large proportion of the 
 problems in the arithmetic are concerned with transac- 
 tions with which the child has had little or no experience. 
 
 [189] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 A complete change in arithmetical work is sometimes 
 produced by observing or taking part in laying a carpet, 
 making a box, constructing a sidewalk, or by dramatic 
 representations of business transactions. 
 
 A feeble-minded boy, who could not tell what three and 
 four were, could answer correctly the question, " If you 
 were to haul four loads of coal to-day and three to-morrow, 
 how many would that be ? " for he was used to hauling 
 coaL In a similar way a normal child who has been sell- 
 ing groceries, in reality or in imagination, may work prob- 
 lems involving such things when he would fail on those 
 concerned with the sale of cordwood, bricks, or bonds. 
 The ability to image the objects with which the problems 
 are concerned, and their relations in the transaction, not 
 only enables the child to use his common sense in judging 
 the correctness of his answer but it enables him to see 
 more clearly what rules will apply to the conditions of 
 the problem. 
 
 Some practice in formulating problems is also needed. 
 Children who have successfully used a cooking recipe 
 may fail in reckoning the cost, because, for example, they 
 do not reduce cups to pounds before multiplying by the 
 price. The practical results of arithmetic would be much 
 improved if clearer images of things and operations were 
 formed before rules or formulas were used. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Report observations of children's early experiences in counting 
 and computing. 
 
 2. The important part played by familiar symbols in arithmetical 
 processes is shown by giving values to letters, such as a = i, b — 2, 
 
 [I 9 0] 
 
IMAGINATION IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 c — 3, etc., and then, using letters as digits, working arithmetically 
 the following : c, b, d, e, 
 /_? 
 
 3. How many inch cubes will be required to make a row around 
 the inside of a box that is eight by ten inches, inside measurement ? 
 How many two-inch cubes? What is the difference between the cost 
 of six dozen pencils at thirty cents a dozen and a half-dozen pencils 
 at the same price ? 
 
 4. Show why the old custom of having a great deal of mental 
 arithmetic in the grades was or was not a good plan. This is of course 
 the same as discussing the advisability of keeping the language of 
 arithmetic auditory rather than visual, although concrete imaging and 
 judging of amounts is also usually more prominent in mental than in 
 written arithmetic. 
 
 [191] 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND THE IMAGINATION 
 
 Geography as a stimulus to the imagination. When 
 well taught, geography gives a better knowledge of one's 
 own environment and stimulates the mind to picture the 
 broader world as it really is. In no subject is the imagina- 
 tion more necessary and useful. Concerned as it is with 
 the earth as the home of man, geography furnishes a 
 natural and varied stimulus to the imagination, whether 
 one is interested in nature or in human beings. It con- 
 tinually presents to the mind natural features, plants, ani- 
 mals, and people different from those with which one is 
 familiar. The student must use images of things known, 
 but must greatly modify them in constructing what is 
 described. These constructive imaginings, which may be 
 entirely in accordance with fact, furnish rich material from 
 which the creative imagination may evolve a realm of 
 fancy, wherein one travels far and sees much that is strange 
 and beautiful. 
 
 Geographical language. Real objects, pictures, and 
 word descriptions are extensively used in the study of 
 geography as stimuli for the imagination, but the typical 
 geographical language is diagrammatic and is most used 
 in the form of maps. Various conventional symbols repre- 
 sent different forms of land and water, divisions between 
 countries, cities, rivers, mountains, and the elevations of 
 land, in their proper space relations to each other. A map, 
 
 [192] 
 
GEOGRAPHY AND THE IMAGINATION 
 
 to one who is able to read its language, tells more than 
 could hundreds of pictures, many pages of description, or 
 years of travel and observation. So serviceable are maps 
 that it is not strange that they have been extensively used 
 in teaching geography. 
 
 The advantages, however, have been offset somewhat 
 by the fact that so much time has been spent in getting 
 a knowledge of the names and space relations of the sym- 
 bols of the map that there is frequently little or no mental 
 picturing of the objects represented by those symbols. 
 Most people, when asked to tell what image first comes 
 to the mind when the name of a river, lake, mountain, 
 or city that they had never seen is mentioned, will say 
 that it is the symbol represented on the map. So much is 
 the mind occupied in geographical studies with memoriz- 
 ing symbols and their relations that many pupils do not 
 get even a sufficient knowledge of the language of geog- 
 raphy to be able to read maps with any degree of readi- 
 ness or accuracy. In other words, they cannot look at a 
 map of a country which they have never seen and form 
 a distinct mental picture of what they would see if they 
 visited it. 
 
 The method now rather extensively followed of study- 
 ing the immediate surroundings and expressing the results 
 of that study in the language of the map is helpful in 
 enabling pupils to interpret map language. It is un- 
 doubtedly true, however, that some pupils who begin 
 geography in this way later deal with map symbols so 
 much and with so little thought of what they represent 
 that they lose whatever power they had acquired in thai: 
 line and are unable to image quickly and accurately what 
 the map describes. To avoid this, emphasis should be 
 
 [193] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 placed upon gaining a knowledge of the real thing as 
 well as of the symbols. Extensive reading of travels in 
 other lands and the writing of imaginary journals are 
 helpful in making geography real and interesting and the 
 language of maps intelligible. 
 
 Constructive imagination and geography. In no sub- 
 ject is there more demand for the use of the constructive 
 imagination than in geography, and in no subject is its 
 quick and accurate working so helpful. Various tests of 
 school children, however, indicate that in a large propor- 
 tion of cases the mental constructions are indefinite and 
 inaccurate, although many of them have considerable vivid- 
 ness. High-school graduates were asked, "How long will 
 it take to walk across a bridge over the Mississippi River 
 at St. Louis ? " Answers ranged all the way from five 
 minutes up to three weeks. Answers as to how long it 
 would take to float down the river from St. Paul to 
 St. Louis or to climb Pikes Peak were almost equally varied. 
 
 Rather extensive questions indicate that the figures used 
 in geography have for most people very little significance, 
 and if they attempt to image what the figures mean, the 
 results are very inaccurate. Many of them are not even 
 able to compare with approximate correctness the heights 
 and distances of objects in their own neighborhood, nor 
 unless they have been told can they give anything like 
 an accurate estimate in common units of measure, such 
 as feet, miles, and hours. They evidently need more prac- 
 tice in comparing estimates of size and distance with 
 measurements as well as more practice in accurately imag- 
 ing what is described in figures or otherwise. 
 
 Geographical imaging and reasoning. Much of what 
 geography teaches may be imaged, and in many cases 
 
 [ J 94] 
 
GEOGRAPHY AND THE IMAGINATION 
 
 little besides vivid imaging is necessary in order to get 
 some of the advantages which come from that study, 
 especially in the way of accumulation of material with 
 which imagination and thought may work. Such image 
 material is helpful in reasoning, but many of the vivid 
 images formed are of little use unless they are associated 
 with knowledge of their meanings and relation. 
 
 If vivid images are properly related with general truths, 
 the mental constructions involved in reading a map and the 
 creations of the imagination in representing a journey to an 
 unvisited country will conform closely to reality. Icebergs 
 will not be forming in torrid seas, palms growing in the 
 frigid zone, rivers flowing across mountains, seas draining 
 into lakes, or savages engaged in the arts of civilization. 
 
 After a few fundamental truths of geography have been 
 learned, details regarding various parts of the earth may 
 be rapidly gained, because when a few facts are given 
 others may be inferred, and it is not necessary to spend 
 any time in memorizing them. The specific facts of 
 geography are almost infinite in number, but if one has 
 learned a few of them, has acquired the power to image 
 vividly, and knows some general truths regarding the 
 relations of things to each other, it is possible to gain in 
 a comparatively short time all the geographical information 
 one needs regarding any particular portion of the earth. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. The terms of geography according to which north is toward 
 the top of the map, south toward the bottom, east to the right, and 
 west to the left, are frequently not readily translated into reality, as 
 will be shown by asking children and others to point in the actual 
 direction of cities or islands with which they are familiar as repre- 
 sented on the map. 
 
 [•95] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 2. If asked to represent the St. Lawrence River as flowing down 
 into the lakes, many will do so without questioning the truth of the 
 representation. 
 
 3. If you ask which of the Great Lakes has the highest elevation, 
 an image of the map representation of them will be found helpful, 
 but the general truth as to the flow of water must be used in reason- 
 ing rather than the idea that " down " on the map means lower in 
 elevation. 
 
 4. If possible, try this experiment in two seventh-grade or eighth- 
 grade classes. Have one class study a new country and then write 
 an account of an imaginary trip through it ; let the other begin with 
 the purpose of writing such an account and seek for themselves the 
 necessary facts. Discuss the extent of the knowledge gained by the 
 two methods in the same length of time and also the training in 
 habits of study that is given by each method. 
 
 5. Discuss the comparative value of storing in memory geographi- 
 cal facts and of learning where to acquire quickly any that may be 
 needed. 
 
 ['96] 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 IMAGINATION IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE 
 
 Enlargement of the social environment through imag- 
 ination. Both history and literature are chiefly concerned 
 with people and with what they have done. Through his- 
 tory and literature one becomes acquainted with a great 
 variety of individuals and is made familiar with unusual 
 and striking events. The characters differ somewhat from 
 personal acquaintances and from those learned of in geog- 
 raphy. History for the most part presents to us unusual 
 people performing unusual acts ; literature introduces the 
 most interesting persons in the most interesting situations 
 of life ; while geography deals with ordinary individuals 
 engaged in their everyday occupations, but who are inter- 
 esting to us because they differ so much from the people 
 that we know. The value of both history and literature 
 depends to a considerable extent upon the imagination. 
 If the persons and events described are pictured so vividly 
 that they occupy as prominent a place in our thoughts as 
 memories of persons we have seen and events we have 
 observed, then history and literature have done for us in 
 part what a longer life and a wider social experience would 
 do. We meet in history and literature people who are 
 worth while. We enter into the greatest and the most 
 interesting experiences of their lives, but in all we find 
 the same fundamental characteristics of human beings 
 the world over. 
 
 [197] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 Historical and literary ideals. The importance of the 
 enlarged social environment gained through history and 
 literature is clearly indicated by various studies. People 
 who are known only in imagination often come to play 
 a larger part in our mental lives than real people. This 
 is shown to some extent in the dramatic plays of children, 
 in which characters from history and literature rather than 
 real persons are represented. It is shown still more strik- 
 ingly in various studies that have been made of children's 
 ideals. When children are asked whom they wish to be 
 like, a great majority of all but the younger ones mention 
 characters from history and literature rather than from 
 among their personal acquaintances. Historical and liter- 
 ary characters are especially suited for serving as ideals 
 because only their most striking and interesting charac- 
 teristics are shown in outline, and details may be filled in 
 to harmonize with them, while characters in real life are 
 at times commonplace or unattractive. Personal acquaint- 
 ances observed in various aspects cannot stimulate the 
 imagination as do the men and women of history or 
 literature, of whom we know only a few striking facts. 
 
 Dramatics in history and literature. The child's natural 
 method of becoming acquainted with people is to do as 
 they do and find out how it feels to perform such actions. 
 He also lives over again events which he has observed 
 through dramatic representations of them. Words, pic- 
 tures, and diagrams all have their place as stimuli to the 
 imagination in studying history and literature, but they 
 are not nearly so effective as dramatic action, especially 
 when the pupil takes part in the drama which he has him- 
 self planned in part in accordance with his interpretation 
 of events and characters. These dramatic representations 
 
 [i 9 8] 
 
IMAGINATION IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE 
 
 may be very simple and sketchy for younger pupils, 
 and more elaborate, accurate, and consistent in detail for 
 older ones. 
 
 Dramatics as an aid in studying history and literature 
 may be used not only in the more usual forms of costum- 
 ing and " acting of plays " but also by assuming the mental 
 characteristics of great men and performing similar deeds. 
 Probably no high-school pupils ever obtained a more com- 
 plete knowledge of men and events of the early days of 
 our national history than did a class which organized as 
 the First National Congress. Each pupil assumed the 
 character of some prominent statesman, introducing bills 
 and making arguments as his original had done. Such 
 dramatic representation stimulates the imagination but at 
 the same time brings it under the rigid control of facts 
 and probabilities. 
 
 Imitation may greatly help in literary expression of 
 imaginative activity. Pupils may be asked after reading 
 ^Esop's Fables to write similar ones showing that " Haste 
 makes waste," or that " Pride goeth before a fall," etc. 
 Again, pupils who have read R. H. Davis's "Van Bibber 
 Stories," Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn," or 
 other distinctive types of literature, may write stories simi- 
 lar in style but varying in content. 
 
 Not only may prose be imitated but also poetry. Songs 
 also may be written and the music for them composed, 
 or stories may be illustrated by drawings. Such construc- 
 tive and creative work is often done exceedingly well by 
 pupils who have previously shown little interest in litera- 
 ture. After successful effort of his own a child or youth 
 is nearly always more appreciative of what others have 
 done. 
 
 [*99] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 Illustrating and writing as a stimulus to the imagina- 
 tion. Another method of stimulating the imagination to 
 effective work in studying history and literature is to have 
 pupils illustrate by drawings the descriptions which they 
 have read or to have them write accounts of events, per- 
 sons, or organizations with which they are familiar. They 
 will thus get some practice in selecting historical and 
 literary material and in finding words which will properly 
 express the desired thought. This will greatly add to 
 their appreciation of what they read and stimulate them to 
 exercise their imagination in reading between the lines. 
 It is frequently of advantage for pupils to attempt to de- 
 scribe familiar incidents in imitation of model descriptions 
 of other events from history or literature. It is sometimes 
 well to have the same event described from a historical 
 and then from a literary standpoint ; the purpose in the 
 one case being to select important facts and state them 
 accurately, and in the other to select interesting charac- 
 ters and happenings and present them in a vivid and 
 entertaining way by adding appropriate details. 
 
 Literary expression a?id imagination. Literature, 
 especially poetry, abounds in figures of speech which are 
 always stimulating to the imagination and suited to the 
 production of vivid images and appropriate feeling. In 
 general, these figures of speech suggest similarities or 
 analogies connecting various objects not ordinarily asso- 
 ciated, or they are animistic, intimating that things have 
 human qualities. In good literature such figurative lan- 
 guage stimulates the mind to form artistic or humorous 
 pictures. The significance of such expressions may be 
 greatly increased by asking pupils to invent others in 
 connection with common objects and incidents. Surprising 
 
 [ 200] 
 
IMAGINATION IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE 
 
 ability may be shown and developed in this way even in 
 small pupils. Such questions as the following are quite sure 
 to stimulate the imagination and will frequently call forth 
 artistic literary expressions. " If a violet became a little 
 girl, what sort of girl would she be ? " " If a rabbit became 
 a little boy, what sort of boy would he be ? " 
 
 In the case of older pupils such questions as the follow- 
 ing may be used : " What is happiness like ? " " What is 
 sorrow like ? " "To what may youth be compared, or age ? " 
 " To what may life be compared ? " " How would you per- 
 sonify industry or ingenuity ? " In giving such questions 
 it may be well to present several model comparisons to 
 start the children to thinking, but the giving of answers 
 which vary from the model should be encouraged. 
 
 A primary teacher, seeking to arouse the imagination 
 and call forth poetic and pleasing expressions, asked her 
 primary children to tell what certain phrases made them 
 see or think. Some of the best answers follow. "Down 
 from the clouds : Once I saw, after a rain, when I looked 
 out of a window, little paths of light coming down from 
 the clouds." " Softest light : One night there was a ring 
 around the moon, and it looked like a soft light." "Stars: 
 Friday night the sky was full of stars ; they looked like 
 dots of gold sprinkled over the sky." " Gleamed red with 
 firelight through the leaves: These words make me think 
 of last fall in a neighbor's yard, when the maple leaves 
 were turning yellow and the veins of the leaves looked 
 like bars of gold." "A pleasa?it day: A pleasant day is 
 like a little girl with a pleasant face." 
 
 In response to the question, " If a lily became a person, 
 what sort of person would it be ? " one answer was, "A 
 baby is like a lily because it is pure and white and good." 
 
 [201] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 To a similar question regarding a mouse the following 
 answer was given: "A person like a mouse would be a 
 little boy who was very still. He would steal things to 
 eat and would not be easy to catch." 
 
 The following are some of the answers given by normal 
 students to similar questions : 
 
 I should imagine that if a mouse became a man he would be 
 a short, small, sleek-looking man with black hair combed back 
 smoothly and carefully, a black moustache, and glasses. I think 
 he would wear a black suit and perhaps carry a cane. I think 
 he would be somewhat dudish in appearance and would be 
 quiet and sly in his actions. 
 
 I should imagine a violet, if changed to a person, would be a 
 sweet-faced young lady with dreamy blue eyes and light hair. 
 She would dress in some soft white material and perhaps wear 
 a bunch of violets at her belt. I think she would have a 
 beautiful disposition. 
 
 If a mouse became a person he would be a short fat person 
 with a very full neck, wearing a high collar. He would carry his 
 chin high in the air. A pair of glasses would be placed on his 
 nose. He would be dressed in a black dress-suit coat and striped 
 pants, carrying a cane. His ankles would be rather small and 
 his feet large, with patent-leather shoes. 
 
 If a violet became a person it would be a little girl with a 
 beautiful face and lovely hair. Her dress would be white with 
 scalloped flounces trimmed with green. 
 
 In imagining how a mouse would look if he were a person, 
 I think he would be a very neat, sleek-looking man, and bright. 
 His eyes would be a very dark brown, his teeth pearly white 
 and sharp. His hair would be combed very neatly, never a hair 
 out of place, his clothes of the neatest cut in gray. 
 
 As for a violet's being a person, I think she would make a very 
 quiet, modest, shy young lady with a very neat and trim blue dress. 
 
 [ 202 ] 
 
IMAGINATION IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Which is more important, that a child should learn many facts 
 and dates in history or that he should form many vivid images of 
 persons and events ? Why ? 
 
 2. To what extent were your ideals in youth derived from persons 
 of whom you read and to what extent from personal acquaintances ? 
 Do bad characters ever have any influence upon the formation of 
 good ideals ? Illustrate. 
 
 3. What is the comparative value to children and young people 
 of being carefully trained in presenting historical events dramatically 
 and of presenting crudely, according to their own ideas, many 
 incidents ? 
 
 4. Try some experiments in having pupils write imitations of 
 literary selections and report the results. 
 
 5. Try also the experiment of having various things personified 
 or special phrases made concrete. 
 
 [203] 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 IMAGINATION IN NATURE STUDY AND SCIENCE 
 
 Imagination and observation. Teachers of small chil- 
 dren, who have encouraged nature study, especially the 
 study of birds, have been impressed with the fact that 
 many children possess better powers of imagination than 
 of observation. Better, as used here, should be under- 
 stood to mean "freer" rather than "more accurate." It is 
 frequently much easier for a child to imagine birds than it 
 is to find them, and to guess how they look than to observe 
 accurately when there is little time or an obstructed view. 
 Each child is anxious to report as many facts as any 
 of the other children, and if the facts reported excite 
 wonder and admiration, his imagination is stimulated to 
 supply others equally wonderful. 
 
 Leaves, flowers, and insects, which can be examined 
 at leisure and of which samples can be brought to verify 
 the reports of what has been seen, may be observed with 
 considerable accuracy, after a little training, by even small 
 children. Good pictures of birds may be a great help in 
 promoting accurate observation. When certain birds are 
 reported as having been seen and are described as they 
 are represented in books, the genuineness of the observa- 
 tion may be determined by questioning the child as to 
 where the bird was seen and what it was doing. A cor- 
 rect image of how the bird looks is an aid in discovering 
 and seeing the characteristics of that bird, but, on the 
 other hand, if careful observation and verification are not 
 
 [204] 
 
IMAGINATION IN NATURE STUDY AND SCIENCE 
 
 insisted upon, the child may wrongly identify birds as 
 being of the species for which he is looking or of which 
 he has recently learned. 
 
 Artistic and poetic study. Objects of nature are some- 
 times studied, not so much to gain accurate knowledge 
 as to observe their beauty or their interesting peculiari- 
 ties. In poetry and in other literature their appearance 
 and movements are frequently compared to those of per- 
 sons. Children are ready to appreciate such analogies and 
 are easily led to take an animistic view of almost any- 
 thing. Good literature concerned with objects of nature 
 and its seasonal phenomena is abundant, and some of it 
 is suitable to children and may help to make their study 
 of nature much more interesting, without in any way inter- 
 fering with its accuracy. If the facts observed and de- 
 scribed are essentially correct, there is no harm in giving 
 them interpretations more or less fanciful and poetic. 
 Such interpretations should be treated in a light and play- 
 ful way rather than in a serious and literal manner. They 
 will not then come into serious conflict with practical and 
 scientific ideas acquired later. 
 
 Practical nature study. Many careful studies of the 
 interests of children reveal the fact that children are usu- 
 ally interested primarily in what things can do or what 
 may be done with them. This truth is now being recog- 
 nized in nature study, and children are encouraged to find 
 out whether the plants and animals they have opportunity 
 to observe are useful or harmful. They make a thorough 
 study of plants of useful kinds in order that they may 
 properly care for them. They learn of the usefulness or 
 harmfulness of animals and insects, not simply to them- 
 selves but to the community. They readily appreciate the 
 
 [205] 
 
IMAGINATION AND ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION 
 
 injuries that may be caused by some of the beautiful in- 
 sects and the good done by the homely toad, and that birds 
 and other creatures may be useful as well as beautiful. 
 
 It is often more difficult to harmonize the sentiments 
 arising from animistic views of nature, especially of ani- 
 mals, with the practical need demanding their destruction. 
 The truth that death is not necessarily painful is of con- 
 siderable assistance in explaining what may or may not be 
 done to living things. 
 
 Scientific nature study. The kinds of nature study 
 already described, if properly carried on, do not neces- 
 sarily interfere with scientific nature study but may be a 
 good preparation for it by filling the child's mind with 
 images which, when they are associated with the appro- 
 priate general truths, will enable him to classify, observe, 
 and interpret his observations. Indeed, the earlier study 
 of nature may really be, to a considerable extent, scien- 
 tific. When a child is interested he can learn scientific 
 names and the correct terms to be applied to various 
 phenomena as readily as he can the fanciful and babyish 
 expressions sometimes used. In learning such terms and 
 acquiring a correct idea of their significance he should 
 not be given long descriptions or elaborate definitions, but 
 the terms should be closely associated with the things 
 which he is observing in such a way that he will perceive 
 something of their significance. With further observation 
 and use of the terms he will gain a more complete idea 
 of their meaning, and later, if it is thought desirable, 
 exact definitions may be formulated. 
 
 In turning to the more scientific study of nature it is 
 not necessary to abandon the practical. The laws of phys- 
 ics and chemistry may be studied in connection with 
 
 [206] 
 
IMAGINATION IN NATURE STUDY AND SCIENCE 
 
 practical affairs, such as the heating and ventilating of 
 houses and the cooking and preserving of foods. Such 
 training enables one to image many concrete situations 
 in which these laws are manifested and helps to make 
 them clearer and more significant. Children should not 
 be taught to image things merely as others have imaged 
 them, but what others have done should be used in a play- 
 ful and suggestive way to stimulate the child's own imag- 
 ination. The important thing in nature study is that the 
 child shall have much sensory experience of the objects 
 and phenomena of nature. The classification of these 
 may come later in the study of science. 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 1. Report instances in which the observations of school children 
 have been colored by the imagination and discuss how they may be 
 led to observe more accurately. 
 
 2. Try to draw from children their own animistic interpretations 
 of nature and see if you cannot find some that are worthy of poets 
 and ancient myth makers. 
 
 3. Children who have the experience of caring for plants and pets 
 and of studying and making collections of objects of nature may have 
 their imagination stirred by attempts to compute the injury done by 
 one fly or the good done by one bird, as well as by the expression of 
 thoughts and sentiments about pets and flowers. 
 
 4. Select a lesson as given in some nature-study book and criti- 
 cize it from the point of view of its truth and its value as a stimulus 
 or in directing the imagination. 
 
 [207] 
 
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