Imagination

siride May 30, 2022

Things are only impossible until they're not.

~Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Imagination is such a wonderful thing. When children are in the early grades they are encouraged to explore all things creative. At some point there is a switch in how we expect our children to process the world around them. To me that is sad. To my husband that would be logical.

My children were raised telling stories, creating films or other works of art. His children were raised doing calculus, physics and other things I don't comprehend.

Neither is right or wrong. Though I'll admit that his children never got in trouble for getting their calculus problems correct. While my daughter got in trouble for the giant butterfly.

She saw a giant butterfly and mentioned it to the class. The teacher didn't find it humorous. Judd insisted that she saw a giant butterfly. Some of the other children agreed that there was a giant butterfly. That's when it escalated and my daughter found herself in the Principal's office awaiting my arrival.

I listened to both sides of the tale. The teacher was disgusted by my daughter's disruptive behavior. My daughter assured me there was a giant butterfly. Had the teacher taken two minutes to look, perhaps she too would have seen what my daughter saw. In the dirt on the glass was what looked like a giant butterfly.

I would like to say that the teacher saw the error of her ways, but alas this was not to be. My daughter was unfazed by her unimaginative teacher and we managed to get through the last few weeks of fifth grade with her imagination still intact.