Amazing things happen when the imagination runs wild

Encourage today's children to use their imaginations and see what happens! Maybe they will add to these five amazing examples of the imagination at work.

Despite the fact that our world relies heavily on technology, that doesn't mean today's children are losing the ability to use their imaginations. I think it means they are forced to be creative in new and different ways. Some of the greatest theories, inventions and ideas came about because one person dared to imagine.

Here are five ways imagination has changed our world:

1. Dr. Suess, who was obviously an imaginative child and adult, created vivid characters, catchy rhymes, and inspired generations of children to do one important thing: read! The Cat in the Hat was written specifically for the purpose of encouraging kids to read...and Dr. Seuss was only allowed to use 225 different words to write the book. Not only did he use his own imagination, he inspired children now and far into the future to imagine that Star-bellied Sneeches are no different than regular Sneeches, and that a person's a person, no matter how small.
2. Albert Einstein's light theory had humble beginnings. At age 16, Albert started work on this theory by imagining what it would be like to ride alongside a ray of light.
3. Once people began to understand our moon, they imagined what it would be like to visit the moon. John F. Kennedy's moon speech made the idea of space flight not only possible, but do-able. Pretty soon, what was once only a dream became reality.
4. Louis Braille imagined that being blind didn't mean people couldn't enjoy reading. He was 12 when he invented Braille in 1821 and 20 when he published his first Braille book. His dream of the blind being able to read brought about amazing things for people with many different abilities and disabilities.
5. Lewis Howard Latimer was an African American inventor who, despite spending his childhood "underground" so his father could avoid re-enslavement, became an important inventor as an adult. His imagination led to the invention of the telephone and Thomas Edison's lightbulb. How? He helped Alexander Graham Bell draft his patent application, and he invented the filaments that would help bring about electric lighting.

I hope you found these examples of imagination at work to be as interesting as I did! And I also hope that you can be the spark that helps light one child's imagination.