A lot has been said about the lack of imagination in today’s young people. 

And most of it is depressingly true. Children prefer to sit in front of televisions and mindlessly imbibe images that are thrown at them. Or they blast the brains out of aliens with the biggest gun they can find.

Today however, I received renewed faith in the creativity of our young people. I have a writing club with Grade fours to sevens.

Our meeting today was about setting. I stuck three pictures up, and asked the children to describe them. 

1) An idyllic tropical beach 

2) A quaint cottage nestled in flowers

3) A spooky house with resident bats

Some of them struggled to truly describe the places in a way that was different, but there were a few who came up with truly amazing stuff.

And one little boy who will be the next Steven King if we can get him to punctuate his sentences properly… He said that there was something suspicious about the lovely beach. The palm tree was giving orders to the waves.

I seriously have to get him to write that conversation down!

So there is still creativity and imagination in our youth of today. People just need to take the time to help them unlock it.