"[The] average daydream is about fourteen seconds long and [we] have about two thousand of them per day. In other words, we spend about half of our waking hours - one-third of our lives on earth - spinning fantasies."
RESEARCH
Cognitive psychologist Jerome L. Singer proposes the existence of two mental states in the human brain: working memory and daydreaming. He argues that daydreaming is the “default mental network.” Daydreaming is often deemed synonymous with “task-irrelevant thought,” or “Stimulus-Independent Thought,” which classifies daydreams as “stray,” “random” musings “unrelated” to the task-at-hand (Singer, 2009). However, Association of Ideas - a psychological theory on the human thought process - undercuts such a definition by suggesting that the human brain unconsciously and continually links one idea, image, or thought to another, allowing uncommon associations – ones that are unique to an individual based on personality or personal experiences – plunge one into secondary thought only seemingly unconnected to the original thought. Daydreaming has been shown to adhere to, and spawn from, this process, “trap[ping] new ideas and unexpected associations more effectively than methodical reasoning” (Hotz, 2009).
References
Benedek, M., Könen, T., & Neubauer, A. C. (2012). Associative abilities underlying creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.
Gottschall, J. (2013). The storytelling animal: How stories make us human. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Hotz, R. L. (2009). A wandering mind heads straight toward insights: Researchers map the anatomy of the brain’s breakthrough moments and reveal the payoff of daydreaming. Wall Street Journal. A11.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., Christodoulou, J. A., & Singh, V. (2012). Rest is not idleness: Implications of the brain’s default mode for human development and education. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 74(4), 352-364.
Klinger, E. (1987). Why your daydreams are so boring: Fantasy is geared toward tasks. San Francisco Chronicle. B3.
Lahey, J. (2013). Teach kids to daydream. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/teach-kids-to-daydream/280615/
Singer, J. L. (2009). Researching imaginative play and adult consciousness: Implications for daily and literary creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. 3(4) 190-199.
INSTRUCTIONAL USE
With the Dansville school district on the right path with “brain breaks” to accommodate student attention spans, we need to access the parts of their minds that wander off during the day. We want to go with them when they drift off and see where they go when they tune out in our classes. Lahey (2013) urges that children spend time outside and teachers choose not to fill silence with music. Rather than a task-after-task format, teachers should integrate time for students to think freely.
“Inadequate opportunity for children to play and for adolescents to quietly reflect and to daydream may have negative consequences – both for social-emotional well-being and for their ability to attend to tasks.”
– Neurologist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang on “constructive internal reflection” in her paper, “Rest is not Idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education”
– Neurologist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang on “constructive internal reflection” in her paper, “Rest is not Idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education”
David Almond’s books lend themselves to many creative writing and drawing prompts that allow students to build on the imagination and creativity he sets forth. Students can imagine new characters, write alternative endings, and even step into Mina’s shoes by taking a little field trip outside to draw.
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For example, imagining new characters and writing how they would fit into the plot furthers characterization of Almond’s pre-existing characters. Sitting outside like Mina would help students’ understand the protagonist better. So daydream-enabling tasks are imaginative, but didactic.
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Taking advantage of the didactic potential of students’ daydreaming is especially applicable in today’s increasingly test-orientated education system with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and its associated PARCC assessments. A study by Ramirez & Beilock (2011) revealed that “mental downtime” paired with “expressive writing” prior to a high-stakes standardized text led to less student anxiety and higher achievement (as cited in Immordino-Yang et al., 2012).
RELEVANCE TO ALMOND'S BOOKS
Not only does David Almond cite his imagination as a key component of his books and argue the necessity that the writing process involve “playing with words,” many of his characters use their imaginations to design their book’s adventures. Henry, Sue, and Ben (Mouse Bird Snake Wolf) create new animal species using only leaves, sticks, and their imaginations. And Paul (The Boy Who Climbed Into The Moon) pulls a wild theory about the moon from his imagination.
“‘How can you see him if you haven’t imagined him first?’ said Molly. [Paul] imagined a man working with wood in a garden, and then he looked through the telescope again...” – The Boy Who Climbed Into The Moon, p. 23 |
“See how school shutters you…I’m drawing, painting, reading, looking. I’m feeling the sun and the air on my skin. I’m listening to the blackbird’s song. I’m opening my mind. Ha! School!” – Mina, Skellig, p. 58 |
David Almond creates bizarre stories that require his readers to use their own imaginations and “suspend their disbelief” because he believes that writing for children is unique in that it is a very “open,” “energetic,” and “experimental” field (Richards & Almond, 2011). In The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas, the third-person omniscient narrator even provides a choose-your-own-adventure cliffhanger that the reader must fill in himself: Does Clarence P. Clapp jump into the Pancho Pirelli’s piranha tank? |
DAVID ALMOND ON IMAGINATION
“Children need space to dream.”
–David Almond (Richards & Almond, 2011)
During his 2011 televised talk for the Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour, David Almond declared that our ability to think makes our heads – which, in its physical form, is not even the size of a football – “one of the most immense and amazing things in the whole universe.” Believing everyone’s mind is full of “amazing stuff,” Almond placed his hands around his head and held the small shape out in front of him, attempting to show the audience how its size doesn’t do its thoughts justice.
David Almond expresses strong opinions about the education system from his experience as a teacher. He claims that adults “often want to try to limit children’s experience, to deny them the opportunity to roam” and “to limit their imaginations” (Richards & Almond, 2011). This view is evident in his novels, as Paul (The Boy Who Climbed Into The Moon) and Mina (Skellig, My Name is Mina) opt out of public education - via truancy and homeschooling, respectively – in order to engage in creative learning and imaginative thinking.