Making Imagination an Academic Goal

Ashoka Fellow Aleta Margolis, founder and executive director of the Center for Inspired Teaching, discusses rethinking the role teachers and schools to bring out something exceptional in every child.

In this In this TEDx Talk, Margolis begins by asking: What price do we pay when we fail to set-up our educational system around the belief that every child is exceptional?

Children’s discoveries — their ability to invent and to come up with ideas — should be supported, celebrated, and the purpose of school, Margolis says. Our education system should be based on the idea that young people can come up with ideas that can transform communities.

Teachers should be instigators of thought, helping children to use their minds well. Imagination should be an academic goal where imagination is 1) the courage to create, 2) a joyful spirit, 3) the ability to generate ideas and devise solutions, and 4) the ability to play - an essential skill.

Margolis is a former professor of education at American University, specializing in authentic assessment, science and math education, and curriculum reform. As a public school teacher, Aleta taught in both elementary and middle schools and designed an ran alternative educational programs for court-referred high school students. In 2001, Aleta was awarded a Fellowship from Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, in recognition of Inspired Teachings work training teachers to transform the way schoolchildren are taught. Ashoka recognizes and support social entrepreneurs worldwide who have created innovative programs with the potential to make large scale change in society.