Educating the Imagination: Essays and Ideas for Teachers and Writers

In the two volumes of Educating The Imagination, fifty-five creative writers present a multitude of ideas and techniques for writing in the classroom: poetry writing; fiction writing; playwriting; writing about folklore, history, and science; translation and writing across cultures; bookmaking; writing parodies; the importance of stories; practical aesthetics; creative reading; funny experiences with words; the history of punctuation; memories of high school English teachers and other legendary figures; and that great, alluring, dangerous, delightful mystery known as the imagination. The seventy-two informal essays come from the past seventeen years of "Teachers & Writers" magazine, with practical ideas and exercises that are still fresh, useful, and inspiring. Educating The Imagination invites us to take a new look at the imagination and the ways it can enrich our classrooms and our lives. These ideas and exercises are as appropriate for the small group workshop and the individual aspiring writer at home, as they are for the formal curriculum of classroom instruction. -- Midwest Book Review