Trigger the power of imagination.

When my brother and I visited my uncle who lived near some swamps, we imagined the life of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by building a raft with bamboo and vines to cross the swamps. Our raft was not well-built and in the midst of fighting off crocodiles, it broke apart leaving us drinking swampy water with leeches sucking off every drop of blood from our body. Play and books have certainly fired our imagination!

Play and imagination triggered by pictures or objects helps our child to be literate.
To be literate, the child remembers words and imagine their meanings. The child learns the alphabets; learns how to combine them to form meaningful words and string the words to form sentences.

Learning words needs only memory. However, without bringing in imagination through picture and play, the words are merely sounds without meanings. To have our child be able to read with understanding, he needs imagination to picture the events or sequence of thoughts. When does he start to learn imagination?

Our child learns language through imagination. Through talk, language is first used. Parents play with their child, tickle him/her and call the child ‘baby’. The child hears the words, remember them, but cannot use them until he/she is able to associate the words with the people concerned. This process requires the mind to picture the people connected with the words. The imagination process has begun!
Play is a good method to trigger a child’s imagination. In those days when girls are brought up to be housewives, parents used to buy toy stoves, frying-pans, pot and all kind of kitchen utensils for them to play with. Parents who aspire to have doctors in the family bought toy stethoscope and blood pressure measurement units for their male children. They do this to let the children imagine such roles.

Through play children develop their imagination. I remembered putting a blanket and a pillow or bolster onto one end of the bedstead to become my saddle for a ride on my bucking bronco. The rodeo rider sometimes complete his show with the bull; no, it was no bull but my mother; chasing after me with a long cane for loosening all the bolts in her bed!

What benefits could such imagination bring? For me, it was my beloved uncle, Mr. Ong Keng Thoe, who was the headmaster of St. Xaviers Branch School in Pulau Tikus, Penang; and enthusiastic teachers such as Mr. Ramachandran of Hutchings School, Penang, who inspired me to become a teacher too. After having seen their ability to help young children develop themselves through the noble profession of imparting knowledge and skills, I imagined how I could do the same with success. Many a time, I imagined myself standing in front of a class. That was how I overcame my timidity at a young age and at twelve years, was even made a leader of a group tasked with the approaching of certain managements to enter and know the work done in certain premises in Georgetown, Penang.

I must tell you what I read about Abraham Lincoln, the well-known President of America, during his younger days. With his great imagination, this humble, backwoods boy practised giving speeches atop the stumps of cut trees near his home. He visualized himself as the successful leader he eventually became. Using his imagination, he took the courageous steps necessary for his own progress and it lead him to such great acknowledged success!

He was one of my first heroes. Like I have mentioned earlier I suffered inferiority complex as a result of poverty. Abraham Lincoln was just as poor! Yet, he became one of the greatest leaders of a great nation. With him as my hero, I struck out to improve myself and with the help of my friends, I made it!

Imagination is essential to problem solving. To solve a problem, we have to see the problem clearly. Having done that, we need to imagine various possible approaches, ways or steps to overcome it. If we cannot envisage all these, then it is difficult to solve whatever problem we or our children may encounter in life.

In some work, imagination is important. Those who are artists, draftsmen, architects, doctors, engineers and scientists certainly need imagination to picture the outcome of their work.

Finally, happiness depends upon imagination. We need beautiful dreams. We need to go back to sweet memories to brighten our darker days. Imagine how wonderful our life is with imagination; sweet dreams and beautiful memories to negate our present sadness and heighten our happy moments.