Is genius shaped by the imagination of childhood? Edith Cobb's collection of autobiographies and biographies of creative people, as well as her observations of children's play, suggest just that. She sees the child to be innately connected with the natural world. Inner powers alone do not further the imagination. Her book remains a groundbreaking philosophical meditation on the importance of children's deep experience of nature to their adult cognition and psychological well-being.

Inspired by papers developed for the 6th International Conference on Imagination and Education: Imaginative Practice, Imaginative Inquiry (Canberra, Australia, 2008), this book connects a cross-section of educators, researchers and administrators in a dialogue and exploration of imaginative and creative ways of teaching, learning and conducting educational inquiry. Imagination is a concept that spans traditional disciplinary and professional boundaries. The authors in this book acknowledge diverse theoretical and practical allegiances, but they concur that imagination will play an essential role in the building of new foundations for education in the 21st century. From our conception of human development through our ways of educating teachers to the teaching of mathematics, they argue for the centrality of imagination in the realization of human potential, and for its relevance to the most urgent problems confronting our world. Introduced by a wide-ranging literature review and extensively referenced, this volume makes an important contribution to a rapidly expanding field.

The "tree" is the vertical dimension of aspiration, deepening, individual growth, and spiritual development. The "hoop" is the circular representation of our relationship with humanity and the earth. Using examples from Native American and other ancient traditions as well as modern psychology and systems science, Chris Hoffman shows readers how to develop both parts of the whole to help people lead lives of balance and fulfillment.

Celebrate and Rediscover the Restorative Power of Childhood It’s easy to sometimes feel that our lives have become dull and stagnant. Now, in Forever Young, psychologist William Crain invites us to consider how six great individuals were able to call upon the powers of childhood to restore their spirits and nurture their creativity. Explore the remarkable biographies of Henry David Thoreau, Albert Einstein, Charlotte Brontë, Howard Thurman, Jane Goodall and Rachel Carson, and discover how each one revived childhood qualities such as a sense of wonder, playfulness and a feeling for nature, and in the process overcame personal roadblocks and expanded our understanding of the world. Following these inspiring stories, Crain also offers practical suggestions for how we too can reclaim the spirit and strengths of childhood to help us uncover meaning and purpose in our own lives.

Despite the fame Ted Hughes’s poetry has achieved, there has been surprisingly little critical writing on his children’s literature. This book identifies the importance of Hughes’s children’s writing from an ecocritical perspective and argues that the healing function that Hughes ascribes to nature in his children’s literature is closely linked to the development of his own sense of environmental responsibility. This book will be the first sustained examination of Hughes’s greening in relation to his writing for children, providing a detailed reading of Hughes’s children’s literature through his poetry, prose and drama as well as his critical essays and letters. In addition, it also explores how Hughes’s children’s writing is a window to the poet’s own emotional struggles, as well as his environmental consciousness and concern to reconnect a society that has become alienated from nature. This book will be of great interest to not only those studying Ted Hughes, but also students and scholars of environment and literature, ecocriticism, children’s literature and twentieth-century literature.

In the First Country of Places explores how people's personal philosophies of nature shape their childhood memories and self-identities. Drawing upon written work and original interviews, the book describes uses of memory through the perspectives of five American Poets who represent different contemporary beliefs: William Bronk, David Ignatow, Audre Lorde, Marie Ponsot, and Henry Weinfield. These authors present their relationships with nature and childhood in the context of major Western traditions of philosophy and religion. Each poet confronts the modern scientific image of an alien nature within which histories of individuals are insignificant; and three poets elaborate alternative versions of connection with nature and their own past. This work opens new directions in the psychology of memory, developmental and environmental psychology, environmental studies, and the study of American poetry.

Camps often provide children with a first taste of independence and freedom from the restrictions of home and school while offering a milieu full of opportunities for psychosocial development, creative interaction, and mutual aid. Though summer camps have simultaneously given current and future social workers educational, practice, research, and theory-development opportunities as they direct, staff, attend, and provide supervision, the field has received limited scholarly attention. Not Just Play focuses on the relationship between social work and the summer camp movement and provides a comprehensive treatment of this underappreciated area of practice. Social workers and camp professionals will value the many advantages and connections explored in the volume, which also incorporates case vignettes and core scholarly research. The text offers readers a multifaceted examination of social work and summer camp that broadens their professional and scholarly perspective.