Imagination Now

*Image by Germán Meyer

Much of my work on imagination—Lincoln Center Institute’s Imagination Conversations and the book Imagination First, for instance—focuses on the United States. As I’ve said many times before, I want to see an imaginative shift in American education, one that will foster a national workforce of creative problem solvers and bold thinkers. But we advocates in the U.S. need to be aware of initiatives taking place in the rest of the world, too; after all, imagination is a human capacity, not merely an American one. So it’s with great interest and pleasure that I bring to your attention some recent developments in Malaysia.

In the Malaysian newspaper The Star, Priya Kulasagaran reports that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has launched “Malaysia Innovative 2010,” calling 2010 “the Year of Creativity and Innovation.” Najib, like me, believes that this new emphasis is necessary if a country is to be economically competitive. But Kulasagaran also quotes an educator who, while agreeing that developed right brains are essential for success in the 21^st-century marketplace, points out that “[c]reativity should not be seen as … a commodity, but a lifelong process of trial and error.” Eric Liu and I make the same argument in our book, Imagination First: far more important than innovative products and services is the development of a community of imaginative thinkers, an “ecosystem of possibility” (174). The article soon transitions into a discussion of the classroom. (more…)

Filed under: Link | Tagged: 21st century skills, arts in education, creativity, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, education, imagination, imagination conversations, Imagination First, innovation, Lincoln Center Institute, Malaysia, Marion Lee, Priya Kulasagaran, Year of Creativity and Innovation | Leave a Comment »