When I spend time with young learners in classrooms like I do most days, you learn so much about the power of their imagination.  Most young learners live in dual worlds–the real world and the dream world. We’ve been talking about our dreams lately on the morning announcements (especially during College Week) and several students have interesting things to share with me on dreams:

1. “Dreams are those things I have at night and talk about in the morning.”
2. “Dreams tell me things about my past, my present, and my future.”
3. “Mrs. Van, did you know dreams tell our future?”
4. “I can never remember my dreams; they fly by too quickly.”
5. “Mom says my dreams can launch a lifetime journey.”
6. “My soccer coach tells me to find a dream and chase the dream; I want to play pro-soccer, you know.”

Albert Einstein noted, “Imagination is more important in life than just knowledge.”  Perhaps his point is well-taken.  Children’s imaginations push them forward in the learning process and we do our best to cultivate it daily.  Dreams take time, patience, sustained effort, and a true willingness to fail if they are ever to be anything more than dreams. Every day is a new chance to be what you’ve dreamed and to do what you’ve imagined.

My Granny B. commented, “Your dream come true is just a tough little wish that wouldn’t take ‘NO’ for an answer!”  Surely we all find those dreams that made it beyond the original tough wish into our daily reality–I know I did (from my earliest days, I felt the call to educate).  Here’s hoping our learners today dream big, but don’t rush themselves too much; after all, what will they do tomorrow?