Here is a few paragraphs on Imaginal Education from 1965.  This excerpt is taken from  IMAGE  JOURNAL OF THE ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE  Division of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago  NUMBER THREE, WINTER, 1965  EDUCATING THE IMAGINATION OF MODERN YOUTH

The full text is available on line 
Untitled
Imaginal Education
THE HUMAN ENTERPRISE of education is the keystone in the civilizing adventure. Social explosions vitally effect the educational foundations of a people. Since World War II and especially since Sputnik I, education in America has received a privileged priority in public attention so that now it has become one of our largest social activities. These very circumstances, however, constitute a temptation to think of our educational task simply in quantitative terms. Certainly our present efforts must be vastly expanded in a variety of directions. But this must not blind us to a qualitative defect in our educational processes. If our previous analysis is correct, the world of youth demands that we now recognize another dimension of education relatively unnoticed hitherto. This is the existing gap between formal learning and the ability of the student to relate our cultural knowledge to a significant and creative existence in the post­modern world. Our youth suffer deeply from this lack in the education of the imagination. Herein is the crucial challenge to present day society which is disclosed by the youth culture emerging from the moral crisis occasioned by the current cultural revolutions.
The human imagination is involved in all forms of thinking and learning. The term imaginal education is used here in the special way that has already been implied. It aims at enabling the student to discover and create images of himself in his real world which will motivate him to free, intelligent, responsible involvement in civilization. Images are the bridges between abstract ideas and the specific deed. They both illuminate the practical situation and impel to concrete action. Images offer the deep, personal permission to be and to do. They are the guides, forces and critics of our sense of personal integrity and vocational accomplishment. In sum, imaginal education intends to awaken, expand and furbish the image­making capacity in man and thereby to release him into effective participation in society.
This must not be seen mistakenly as an exclusive problem of the individual. It is a major social issue of far-­reaching consequences. A nation, a city, must decide whether it can afford to have a citizenry ill-equipped to engage creatively in the social task of building new structures for human existence and social well­being. This is not to mention the social cripples who are a direct liability to society, not in the first instance because they have been subject to sub­normal environment, childhood warping or innate weakness of will, but because they have inadequate self-­pictures and fail to organize their personal and social experiences significantly.
If this insistence is correct, it is obvious that a decision must be made as to whether or not the formal educational system should be responsible for imaginal education. If the answer is yes, radical changes in curricula, pedagogy and organizational form must follow. And it is not only the formal and public aspects of society's educational endeavor that are called to account by the demand for images. Various kinds of social agencies, character building institutions, independent welfare societies, religious bodies and private schools all have a responsibility for the educational task and all must face this need for relevant and effective means of educating the imagination of post­modern man. Since no simple, self-­evident answers are at hand, a variety of novel experimental ventures must be created and fostered.
What is needed is a reconstruction of life attitudes, a re­education of the imagination. Whatever this process be called-motivational, contextual, attitudinal or imaginal education-a new dimension must be added to our concept of learning.
It is true that no era has equaled our own in concern for equipping the rising generation quantitatively and in quality for its responsibility in civilization. Almost frantic efforts are being made to cope with the number to be educated and the kinds of education to give them-vocational training, remedial instruction, social readjustment and pre­kindergarten schooling. But educators almost unanimously report a common frustration. There is a quality in the learning process which is missing. More and better buildings, more and better counseling, more and better facilities and more and better teachers do not answer the desperate need for young people to become full persons, total human beings responsible for society's welfare. Full and constructive participation in civilization requires that the individual understand his significance and his place in life. It requires that his mental image of himself be one of worth in his humanness with all its strengths and weaknesses. A society cannot long endure without its people appreciating their genuine humanness as a gift to bestow upon it.
Education which does not take this vital factor into account, which does not provide its students with such an essential self­-understanding, is in danger of producing agents motivated by self-­interest only. Such will not become a fruit of progress but a thorn in its side. This could well be the most crucial issue of our time.
THE FUNDAMENTAL NEED of post­modern youth is for self images relevant to the actual world in which he lives and adequate to organize meaningfully his personal and communal experience so that he can appropriate a sense of significance in involving himself in the human drama of civilization. Such has been the contention of the previous essays. In short, it is the need for imaginal education
 
Jim Wiegel  

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From: Marianna Bailey via Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>
To: Jack Gilles <jackcgilles@gmail.com>
Cc: "Dialogue@wedgeblade.net" <Dialogue@wedgeblade.net>; Tim Dove <DovePHX@gmail.com>; "OE@wedgeblade.net" <OE@wedgeblade.net>; Burna Dunn <bldunn1@gmail.com>; "oslotta@earthlink.com" <oslotta@earthlink.com>
Sent: Monday, December 8, 2014 5:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] Fwd: Question about Imaginal Education these days

I would like to hear from Kaze Gadway, Sarah Buss and Nan Grow. They were there when the rational objective and existential aim was created using the comprehensive triangle on education.

Marianna


On Dec 7, 2014, at 12:10 PM, Jack Gilles via Dialogue wrote:

Dear All,

I think Jeanette has done the best job of answering the question of a definition. But we have to understand that “we” have a long history of this definition and tend to assume that others grasp the profound depth behind it, and I don’t think they do. For instance, although the term ORID is based on a natural flow of consciousness, to utilize it effectively requires a depth understanding of I.E. and that in and by itself is not Imaginal Education (as we define the term). The same for Project Work, Strategic Planning and other methods we have honed and championed. 

It could be said that all “education” is “Imaginal”, that is, it is based on a set of images and assumptions that are then communicated in a method called Education. And it is more than just being “conscious” about the process. Those who want to teach about American Exceptional-ism are very clear that they want certain “images” to be communicated and to take root. Thus you have a spectrum of Imaginal Education from outright designed propaganda to unconscious and unquestioned “Images” that are the basis of what is being communicated. 

So the issue of I.E. is the life stance and understanding that is underneath the process. To use our language, the “Word” is absolutely essential for the process. That reality is worthy of a long” discourse, but to be an effective Imaginal Educator it needs to be understood at the heart of the creative effort. For people’s information, Mark Dove’s son, Tim, has done a fantastic job of just that, without ever mentioning any of our historic language. So, having a profound and self-conscious understanding of humanness is essential for effective Imaginal Education as we have framed it. 

Good discussion (dialogue)!

Jack

P.S. I’ve added Tim Dove’s name to the list so that he can see how this discussion is going and can respond if he so desires. He is the best example of anyone I know who has built a whole-system understanding of education based on Imaginal Education.

On Dec 7, 2014, at 10:23 AM, Jeanette Stanfield via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

For me, imaginal education is an art.  It is the discernment of images that are blocking a person, a group, a community, or society from moving positively into the future.  Once discerned, messages are powerfully and creatively put into the learning environment through questions, stories, art forms, projects, activities,models etc to release the negative images and allow new images to emerge and thus new decisions and behaviours. 

Thank you Steve and Loren for inviting this conversation. 

Jeanette 

On Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 10:22 AM, Randy Williams via Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
I would say that the goal of imaginal education is to change behavior.  Our outmoded, out of date stories of reality (images) are at the root of all our problems. Example of an outmoded story--we can have unlimited economic growth on a finite planet--the story underlying climate change, global warming, and all the associated symptoms. 
Randy 

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 7, 2014, at 9:09 AM, Karenbueno via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

Imaginal Education acknowledges that images affect behavior and that images can change.  The goal of the Imaginal Educator is to change images by using a variety of teaching methods, one of which is the structured conversation model, called ORID.  The goal of Imaginal Educators trained by the ICA has been to change a victim image to an image of  one's individual power to affect one's life and the world.
 
from Karen Bueno 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: steve har via Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>
To: Order Ecumenical ICA-USA <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net>; oe <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net>; Tatwa P. Timsina <tatwa@ica-nepal.org>
Sent: Sun, Dec 7, 2014 7:32 am
Subject: [Dialogue] Question about Imaginal Education 9these days

In Nepal and India
Nelson Stover and Loren Weybright are collaborating on two schools one
in Nepal and one in Chikhale school in Maharastra.

Loren is onsite in Nepal for 3 months doing Action Plan projects with
the staff & teachers and curriculum design and coaching with
individual teachers.

In January they both will be in Maharastra at the Chickhale school for
a 2 day professional development.

Here is a question that needs an answer:
Just what is Imaginal Education, Now and how do you practice it?

Nelson asked this question and they are looking for a variety of
(simple) responses.

Can you share a sentence on Imaginal Education rom your experience,
short, simple?

-- 
Steve Harrington
PS if you want you can track developments in Nepal and Chikhale by
signing up at the Imaginal Education Collection upper right hand
corner here: https://wedgeblade.net/wordpress/imaginaleducation/blog/
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