4 Ways to Squash a Child’s Imagination

Head in the Clouds

Kids’ imaginations can get them into trouble.

I distinctly remember when my Kindergarten teacher, a woman with a starched lace collar and a perpetually downturned mouth, stood before the class, droning instructions on how to color a ditto of a fishbowl. As she predictably designated the seaweed green and the water blue, my mind drifted toward more tantalizing shores. I meandered along a beach where the mid-afternoon sunlight set pebbles afire like opals. The ocean, swaying against the sand as if dancing a waltz, mirrored a brilliant, jewel-toned sky. As the wind swept my hair from my face, I craned my neck to listen. Was that a voice gliding on the wind? A song? The tune was so familiar, so achingly beautiful, like a heartbeat hinting of mystery and home . . .

“Katie!”

I jumped. Kids sitting cross-legged on the floor around me snickered as a blue crayon somersaulted out of my hands, and I raised my eyes in time to see the teacher’s scowl deepen. “Get your head out of the clouds!” she barked, the lines on either side of her mouth darkening.

I scrambled to retrieve my crayon. As I scribbled ragged lines across the fishbowl and blinked away tears, the water I colored seemed lifeless and flat, the blue so very dull.

A Timeless Dilemma

Although my own troubles with daydreams feature worn-down crayons, imagination mishaps don’t limit themselves to a given era or culture. I remember a crowd of school kids in Kenya who giggled and tossed balloons to our medical team until a shout from the principal stopped their antics. On the opposite hemisphere, a five-year-old girl, her brown curls long fallen out from chemotherapy, used her IV pole as a scooter to zip down a hospital corridor—until the sharp words of a nurse halted her.

Even those populating history books struggled with the consequences of their childhood imaginings. In the early 1900s, a classmate described future Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner¹ as “the laziest boy I ever saw . . . he would do nothing but write and draw.” Albert Einstein² was such a daydreamer that his teacher declared he would amount to nothing. Over centuries and across the globe, the wonder of a child’s imagination has clashed with the hard, iron-cold realities of a grown-up world.

The Last Keeper

Kathryn Butler

In the conclusion to the Dream Keeper Saga, Lily faces her final battle against Eymah and his army, and an ancient scroll foretells the return of Prince Pax.

Teach Them Diligently

In many respects, of course, our children’s minds need guidance. As we’re all sinners in a fallen world, the thoughts that preoccupy kids can turn toward wickedness (Gen. 6:5). To counteract such tendencies, we’re to teach them God’s word diligently: “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:6–7). They need our help to cultivate discernment, setting their minds and hearts on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable” (Phil. 4:8).

Shepherding children’s minds is kingdom work. But sometimes our determination to instruct extinguishes the wonder sparking in our kids’ minds. When do our efforts to discipline actually squash a child’s imagination, and what is the cost?

Brightness in the Shadowlands

According to some of the most inspiring writers of the last two centuries, a vivid imagination is too precious a gift to squelch. “No child should be permitted to grow up without exercise for imagination,” Mark Twain³ warned. “It enriches life for him. It makes things wonderful and beautiful.” In his A Defence of Nonsense, G. K. Chesterton⁴ connected the imagination not with frivolities and childish whims but with worship:

So long as we regard a tree as an obvious thing, naturally and reasonably created for a giraffe to eat, we cannot properly wonder at it. It is when we consider it as a prodigious wave of the living soil sprawling up to the skies for no reason in particular that we take off our hats . . . . This is the side of things which tends most truly to spiritual wonder.

C. S. Lewis agreed with Chesterton, noting in Surprised by Joy that the imagination reflects “heavenly truth.”⁵ Scholar Kevin Vanhoozer notes the following:

Lewis did not put reason on the side of truth and imagination on the side of falsehood . . . . Stories wake us up to the meaningful patterns of life. The imagination helps us to taste and see the goodness of God: the brightness in the shadowlands.⁶

Lewis’s observations reflect a biblical truth. God created every speck of sand and stardust, piled high every mountain, and tunneled out the volcanoes of the deep. As we’re his image bearers (Gen. 1:27), he’s stamped on our hearts a delight in creativity. When we allow our minds to fashion things wild, majestic, true, and lovely, we engage in work for which God designed us. We point to the author of all wonders, reflect him, and gasp at a glimpse of “brightness in the shadowlands.”

Four Ways to Squash a Child’s Imagination

Kids possess a natural capacity for such wonder and invention, yet too often we snuff out their daydreams and silence their stories. In the words of Samwise Gamgee, we “boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew.”

No, you object, I would never do such a thing! Friend, you have, even if unwittingly. As have I! The following list captures only four ways we serious-minded grown-ups squash kids’ imaginations. As you read this list, take heart—when we falter, God’s grace abounds all the more (2 Cor. 12:9).

When we allow our minds to fashion things wild, majestic, true, and lovely, we engage in work for which God designed us.

1. Replace books with screens.

In our era of swipes, likes, and tweets, some might categorize books as obsolete. Why bother, when kids can Google any topic for information? Doesn’t technology offer a plethora of new, exciting, and cutting-edge ways to learn?

When it comes to imagination, no, in fact. Research has linked screen time to decreased reading comprehension⁷ and reduced mental imagery⁸ in children. Digital media deprives young minds of the sensorimotor input and active engagement necessary to cultivate rich inner worlds.

The more we swap out “living books”⁹ in favor of screens, the more we starve kids of the experiences they need for their God-given imaginations to bloom.

2. Be stingy with your time.

Think of a dour character from a classic book—perhaps Mr. Bumble from Oliver Twist or the humorless Agatha Trunchbull from Matilda. We may not identify with such antagonists at first glance. Surely, we’re not that crusty or crotchety! We’d give poor little Oliver extra porridge if he asked. And yet, we likely share a trait with them: impatience.

When the oldest is late for soccer practice, we’re racing against a deadline, and we’re bone-weary after an arduous day at work, a kid’s silly joke or meandering story can grate rather than enliven. In such moments, how do we respond? Do we take a breath, reach into the dusty well, and draw out our last few drops of enthusiasm? Or do we wave our kids away? “Not now,” we say. “I’ve got too much to do. Go play on your own.”

These moments of dismissal are relatable and understandable. But they add up. When we shrug away our kids during moments of inspiration, we teach them that the stirrings of their minds don’t matter.

Don’t fall into this trap. The next time a child tugs at your sleeve, draw a breath, pray for patience, and then lean forward with a smile. Teach kids that rather than silly ramblings, the adventures of their imagination are gifts from God with heavenly import.

3. Always act your age.

While few would tolerate tomfoolery during a business meeting, we stifle a child’s imagination when we never act like children ourselves. The potential to dream trails us into adulthood, even if our daily work of crunching numbers and drafting plans fights to subdue it. When kids invite you to make believe, join them. Read books theatrically, with voices and emotion, rather than with Siri’s robotic cadence. Play. Be silly. Joke. When a child claims a donkey will invade the castle in a suit of armor, don’t lecture about how donkeys can’t wield swords. Forge the donkey a helmet out of tin foil instead. Dare to look a tad ridiculous, and watch your kids’ minds come ablaze with creativity and joy.

4. Teach the Bible like it’s a statistics textbook.

Shepherding the heart is serious work. Too often, we misinterpret this gravity to mean we must teach the Bible in monotone. We may relish a child’s giggles as we read Where the Wild Things Are, but during Sunday school we drop our voice an octave and teach with the vitality of a tortoise plodding across the sand.

Kids deserve better. And the Bible offers better! Where else can kids encounter the one who made heaven and earth? Where else can they learn of his incomprehensible majesty, mercy, and love? When you teach kids God’s word, cleave to the wonder. Show them your delight. Entrance their imaginations with the one to whom all the greatest stories point: our risen Savior, who offers the most marvelous happy ending the world has ever known.

Tantalize kids’ imaginations with God’s wonders. Leave them awestruck. And sing praises as they nurture sparks, coax them to a blaze, and follow the light of the world into the shadowlands and ever after.

Kathryn Butler, MD is the author of The Last Keeper.

Kathryn Butler (MD, Columbia University) trained in surgery and critical care at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she then joined the faculty. She left clinical practice in 2016 to homeschool her children, and now writes regularly for desiringGod.org and the Gospel Coalition on topics such as faith, medicine, and shepherding kids in the gospel.

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