WEmagination Principle #1: Social Innovation From the Inside Out
What enables a social purpose organization to excel at developing new ideas and practices? In many cases, the answer lies not in how people connect with the external social landscape, but in how they connect with each other. We pay a great deal of attention to the inner experiences of the people with whom we work. The key to changing the world has to do with understanding the person who sits right next to us. The value of our inner experiences and turning inward may seem paradoxical at first. When we’re trying to wrestle with the large and complex issues “out there,” why would it help to dwell on the relatively small issues “in here”? As we speak honestly with each other about our experiences of life and work, we come to understand that the social realities that we seek to change are not purely external. They are in the room.
As a socially innovative organization, participants draw on experiences to generate the raw material of social change. They do so in Self-Directed Professional Development (SDPD), discussion groups, and workshops, and also in the routine meetings and conversations that make up most of organizational life of WEmagination. We are committed to capturing the invisible, interior structure and essence of play. This focus on the practice of play encourages the surfacing of ideas and intuitions, aspirations and fears, values, and memories. This might sound like a “soft” or even a useless practice. The concept is disarmingly simple but play as a serious practice (and as an investment) turns out to be rich and complex—and much less common than one might think. Far from being an easy recipe for success, it is an anti-recipe: It challenges people continually to engage with themselves and their environment in new ways.
WEmagination Principle #2: Representing & Illuminating A Very Specific Experience
The principles of self-active learning are rooted in the belief that adults as well as children have a developmental need to experience creativity through self-expression.
Our approach to teaching and learning is built on the core ideas that:
- Play with concrete open-ended materials offers a powerful medium.
- Children and adults who are skilled at play with both things and ideas have more power, influence, and capacity to create meaningful lives.
- Play can build capacities like problem solving, persistence, and collaboration that we draw on throughout our lives.
- Play is a powerful mode of response to new experiences where the content and meaning are ambiguous and the outcome uncertain.
- A playful attitude enables the mind to remain open to explore and imagine a wider range of possibilities when seeking answers to new experiences.
- Facilitated and reflective play can and should be available to children, teachers, and parents alike through direct experience.
- Teaching play requires setting the stage for learning by creating a safe accepting environment for hands-on activities, reflection, and dialogue—as well as for investigating theory and practice.
- Play is an integral part of the curriculum, opening the door to more engaging hands-on problem solving and inspiring projects.
- Play is a natural organizing framework for integrating academic learning
experiences in mathematics, science, literacy, and social studies. - As children and adults play and work together, we can discuss differences of opinion and seek civilized ways of settling them. As we share emotions and thoughts, we gain insight into perspectives other than ours and discover that we are not so different from peers. This process helps us learn how to become positive and contributing members of the community.
“Play is the self-active representation of the inner life from inner impulse and necessity. The child who is absorbing from his environment materials with which he is building his own world clarifies and orders his own experience through its constant expression in play.” (Friedrich Froebel, 1904).
WEmagination Principle #3: The Healing Potential of Play
Play is a natural and enduring behavior in all of us. It has healing powers for the mind and spirit that we are only beginning to appreciate and learn to use. The results of integrating play into our daily lives are becoming clear and measurable. Play can restore the whole person, over time, helping to relieve stress, which negatively effects the mind. Fear and depression can both impact the health of the body. Play is a viable intervention; an activity aimed at moving energy and intention towards restoring the mind and soothing emotions. By engaging in movements that are natural for our bodies (in playing we use two hands, which integrates the right and left sides of the brain), we can begin the process of recovery and healing. Play movements uncover layers of awareness that repair and optimize the whole person’s health in body and mind. Play strengthens the vestibular system, which controls balance and sensory input from the body. This system is turned on by moving our head and eyes, which we do naturally when we are playing. We also automatically engage in crossbody patterns which, among other benefits, increase our tolerance for distress and help us gain endurance. Our movement patterns develop during childhood and throughout our lifetime. Movement patterns depend on the body systems to work well. Exercises that strengthen the entire person will help the body to repair and recover. Play is an exercise that does this with no effort from the participant – the magic is that these benefits manifest automatically when we engage in play.
