Category: GENERAL

Daydreaming: A window to Creativity

25/6/2015

Dear friends,

Today I’ll talk of day-dreaming, generally viewed as an impractical, wasteful activity: one should be doing something useful, not just sitting or walking around with “one’s head in the clouds”.

The student’s eyes drift to the classroom window and the teacher’s voice fades from consciousness. The daydream begins. It’s a familiar scene, one we have likely both experienced as students and struggled against in our students as teachers.

In a culture obsessed with efficiency, mind-wandering is often derided as useless—the kind of thinking we rely on when we don’t really want to think. Freud, for instance, described daydreams as “infantile” and a means of escaping from the necessary chores of the world into fantasies of “wish-fulfillment.”

Photo credit: lovethispic.com

But daydreaming is not what it might seem. Rather than being of little worth, the capacity to fantasize is a priceless skill, a thoroughly useful tool, a tool for all seasons.

Recent research in both psychology and neuroscience makes clear that daydreaming is an essential part of mental processing, reasoning and, yes, even learning.

Daydreaming and playing for instance are crucial for children to develop the kind of creativity many say should be a focal point of a modern education system. Educators often consider the kids who can’t sit still in class to be troublemakers, constantly distracting other children from their work. Sometimes these kids are diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed drugs to help them focus. But the same kids who have a hard time focusing in school could be tremendously creative elsewhere.

Nowadays, day-dreaming or fantasizing is discouraged in children, so that by the time they are adults it has been completely removed. It should be just the opposite. Creativity comes out of the unusual and needs space, in fact lots of space, to develop.

Fortunately, the die-hard day-dreamers/creators manage to struggle through. My husband does not believe me when I tell him that I cannot stop thinking. But it turns out that even when we think we’re zoning out or taking a mental break, the brain keeps going—it’s impossible to turn it off.

In companies, I believe day-dreaming can be beneficial in many ways and, ironically, can actually boost the productivity of employees. Plus, it's something almost everyone does naturally. Psychologists estimate that we daydream for one-third to one-half of our waking hours, although a single daydream lasts only a few minutes.

For some of us, coffee shops, pubs or public places where people are moving around are ideal spots for day-dreaming. Or, indeed, somewhere where there is running to stimulate thought and ideas in a way that perhaps a library or the solitude of a study does not.

Photo credit: screenwritinggoldmine.com

So, is day-dreaming an innate ability or something that can be taught? While I personally am prepared to accept that inheritance of ability does play a significant role in the process, I am more inclined to the idea that the environment, and perhaps chance, play a much greater role. It is said that genius is in 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

I hope you will share my thoughts.

Teacher Barbara

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10/8/2014

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¡¡¡Ya ha nacido el blog de Teacher Barbara!!!

Hola a todos, quizás os habéis preguntado qué objetivo quiero perseguir con este blog y con esta página web.

Mi único propósito es crear un vínculo con mis estudiantes, ya sean antiguos y presentes, con los que he tenido y tengo el gusto de trabajar y de alguna forma ayudarles y aconsejarles en el uso de los idiomas extranjeros que conozco además de hacerles partícipes de experiencias vividas y de intereses personales.

Para los que aún no me conocéis, os invito a que leáis sobre mí y así tenéis una idea de quién soy y a qué me he dedicado en estos últimos años.

Para los que me conocéis, os agradezco una vez más el apoyo brindado para la creación de esta página web.

Espero que podáis dedicarles un poquito de vuestro tiempo y aportar vuestros comentarios, inquietudes y preguntas.

¡Hasta mi próximo post!

Teacher Barbara

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Welcome to Teacher Barbara's blog

Daydreaming: A window to Creativity

Inicio del Blog de Teacher Barbara

﻿LANGUAGE ﻿TRANSLATOR

BARBARA CORDOVA

Archivos

Categorías

﻿﻿﻿ENGLISH COURSES

FRENCH COURSES

ITALIAN COURSES

﻿﻿TEAC﻿HE﻿RBARBARA.COM﻿﻿

﻿﻿BARBARA ﻿CORDOVA﻿

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ENGLISH COURSES

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BARBARA CORDOVA