Latest / Homeschool Insights - Biblical Home Education Inspiration in Under 10 Minutes! / Imagination Is Not Neutral — And That’s Why Your Kids Need Better Stories - S.D. Smith
Transcript
- speaker-0: I think sometimes we have seen generations of kids who are crying out, who are longing for stories that help shape our hearts, our affections, our loves. And we've said to them, listen to this true thing. Here's a true statement. speaker-1: So I have heard you use this phrase moral imagination before. And I have always wanted to say, okay, what do you mean by moral imagination? Do you care to share that? speaker-0: Sure. And you're probably like, I can only ask a few questions because he just keeps talking and talking and talking. I need to I need to zip it. I need to c calm down, right? well, I I love that. I I so I'm I'm a big believer, as you probably can tell, in the power importance of the imagination. And and I think Christians, we again, I think it's all God's stuff. So so Lewis talked about reason. He said that reason is the organ of truth and that the imagination is the organ of meaning. And I and I think sometimes we think about intellect in a certain way, and then we don't think about imagination in in this in the same sort of a way. I I we think I think sometimes culturally we broadly think of imagination as like, that's a good thing, or like that's a good thing for kids. Instead of sort of like it's this powerful capacity that All of us have and have been given, the intellect. We have people who are have have a very small gift of intellect. maybe having like a they may even have a special challenge in that area. And then you have people who are incredibly intellectually powerful. They have they're incredibly s smart and they have a high high degree of intelligence. You have people who have a small degree of imagination and people who have a great, but we all have it, and it's a capacity. And it's not something that like, that's the kid that likes to paint or draw or tell stories or whatever. That's an imaginative kid. And then my kid over here, who's an engineer or a mathematician, they don't have imagination, they have an intellect. That's not true at all. It's not even true in the particulars, but it's also not true that some people have it and some people don't. We all have it, and we might have it in more degree, or we might have it in more but we but So I think it's a gift that's a God. So that God's given us. And so I think therefore that's something that we need to steward. Like it's a gift to that we receive. And it's really, really important. Everything begins in the imagination. I mean, all sin is like that's a s that starts in our imagination. And Jesus talks so much about that. That's so convicting because it's the reality of like where Our our problems start are not just like I have decided, I would like to do this wrong thing. It starts with love, it starts with a passion with a with a something that forms in our minds. And so it's it's it's it's so profoundly powerful. And I think it's also so it's a capacity we all have, and then it's also not neutral. We think about like, it's just good to have an imagination. I don't think that's true. I think Hitler had a incredible imagination. He could see things that other people couldn't see. He could see this big world that he wanted to change. He was pop contrary to some people's opinion these days, he was an incredibly evil man. And his imagination was in defiance to God and hatred for his for for for a lot of gods pe people and creatures. He just was horrible. He had a horrible impact on the world. And it wasn't just because he was intellectual, he was an imaginary, he was actually an artist. And and so he I just think. we have to help our kids and ourselves develop a moral imagination, a holy imagination, because our imaginations will like our intellects, they will serve any master. They'll serve Satan, self, God. That's what we do. God's moral agents and and our imaginations are just so profoundly powerful. So I think I I I I think sometimes we have seen generations of kids who Are crying out, who are longing for stories that help shape our hearts, our affections, our loves. And we've said to them, listen to this true thing. Here's a true statement. Don't do that. Don't do this. Do this. And I don't reject. there is a lot of like, don't do that. It's good to tell a kid, don't steal and don't, do these wrong things. it's that's good. I'm not saying that's bad. I'm just saying, even the Ten Commandments are rooted in this story. Of what God is doing. I'm the God who brought you out of Egypt. It's this this big narrative, and the and the commands follow, and they are in the context of the narrative and the relationship. It's the same in the New Testament. We're the we're the we're the children of of the the resurrection, like that's who we are. Therefore, because of this big story, and Alistair Backadyer said this wonderful quote, which I think is so profound for for kids and for for all of us. says I cannot answer the question, what am I to do, until I first answer the question of what story or stories am I apart? I think stories, imagination, that's who tell that's what tells you who you are. And then you act out of that. And I think you can try to assent to the right things, which I think we should do. I don't want to downplay that at all. But what gets in our hearts is story, imagination. And I I I think it's so I think we have to show up there. And so I'm really a believer. it's it's sad to me that you say, like, who are the great Christian storytellers? And people can say, Lewis and Tolkien. And we and it's well, who what about after that? well, you know, and we have this great vast sort of treasury of great stories, wonderful storytellers, but I think we are impoverished because of our disconnection from that and because I don't think we're taking it seriously enough either as creators or as like curators. I think we think of like I think it's too often we as parents, maybe even particularly in homeschool world, we think of as like, I'll check this box as in like, kids like stories, but well, as long as it's teaching them something, then that's okay. So we think of it in this sort of utilitarian way, but I think we need to have a more robust, a more I don't know, a more How he shaped us to be story shaped me. And we we want our kids to be deeply connected to meaning. And that and like Lewis said, the imagination is the organ of meaning. speaker-2: This episode of Homeschool Insights is brought to you by BJU Press Homeschool, CTC Math, and the Explorer Bible for Kids. Visit the show notes to learn more about these excellent resources. And for more encouragement, listen to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast at Schoolhouse Rocked.com.