Key Elements of the Imagination and Its Effect on Children’s Development

By Kim Yul

Imagination is a unique ability that humans have, and it is a special ability that is expressed through interaction with the environment surrounding humans. Particularly in the case of children, unlike adults, the environment surrounding them is the environment they are experiencing for the first time, and because the environment itself gives them great stimulation, children’s imagination can be expressed even more so. Children are constantly interacting with the new environment around them, which causes them to think; thinking gives rise to imagination, and imagination is linked to their intellectual development.

All of these processes happen inside children. Explosive thoughts and imaginations that arise from inside make them look back at their environment once again, and through this they expand their surroundings and become aware of the diversity and grand structure all around them. The more this process is repeated, the more children become curious about the environment, including themselves; they in turn wonder about the world and the universe, acquiring cosmic thinking skills in the process. After all, imagination can be said to expand children’s way of thinking. Education for imagination is to broadly expand the ability that is already inherent in each child with the right education and the right method.

The most important concept of Montessori Education is the internal development of children. They work and study with the freedom to organize their spirit by themselves, and children make great progress overall during their work. It means that if a child works independently, an instructor does not necessarily lead them to abstractness from concreteness. It is important that the children find their own way to abstractness, and they should feel satisfaction and love voluntarily through their work.

To that end, Dr. Maria Montessori brings a lot to the Montessori classroom. Numerous teaching aids and themes have been elaborately combined to expand children’s right thinking and stimulate interest. In addition, in order for children to enjoy repeated learning voluntarily, we have included complex purposes for the teaching aids in use, not simple ones. Children can feel and experience new things the more they use these and other tools of the classroom. The teaching materials in the Montessori classroom look very simple, but they are not. Numerous parishes are connected and live like an organism, and children achieve internal development through constant stimulation in this environment.

Another critical point of the imagination that Dr. Montessori claimed is the love of human beings. She illustrates her ideas on the imagination in her theory that the education of the imagination should assist children to understand the true meaning of love, and eventually, they feel happiness through this process. Love is the fundamental element of all kinds of species, the nature of humans’ social life, and the most important purpose of education. When instructors give the concept of love to students, the latter understand the Earth as one country and have a love for all mankind. These ideas also lead the students to having consideration, sympathy, and concession.

The Author

Kim Yul is originally from Gwangju and has taught in Cincinnati, Ohio, for many years. He is a Montessori elementary school teacher who believes education can change the world.