Kids losing their imagination?

[Amanita]

In regards to what Jackfaire said, I remember showing some of my anthro-skyscraper drawings to a teacher in high school. He got all concerned, saying "You don't believe this is real, do you?"
Good thing I wasn't an Animist back then!
Likewise, a guidance Councillor got the same way- some of these people are so conditioned to look for signs of deviance or dysfunction that they honestly freak out when somebody like me comes along, with a vivid imagination and a creative streak.

[Andara Bledin]

Wow. I guess its a good thing that I kept most of what I imagined in my head.

I used to play board games with four seats and wrote different characters for each seat and then had them work through conflicts based on how the game went.

Then again, a good chunk of my personal writing was written in Tolkien runes just because I could.

^-.-^

[anakhouri]

Wow, really? I foresee many school meetings in my future then. Today Khan has been Darth Vader, Iron Man, Martian Manhunter, a mouse, Hulk, Thor, a construction worker, and Super Mario. Does he actually believe he can squish walking mushrooms and shoot repulser beams out of his hands? Well, he seems fairly bright, so I doubt it.

[Seifer]

In regards to what Jackfaire said, I remember showing some of my anthro-skyscraper drawings to a teacher in high school. He got all concerned, saying "You don't believe this is real, do you?"
Good thing I wasn't an Animist back then!

People think their pets think and act like people, which is hilarious in itself. Guess what? Dogs don't care about the outfits their owners buy, even though some owners like to say they do. "Oh, Missy just LOVES her new dress!" Missy doesn't give a shit about a dress. She's a DOG.

Why is it so odd to give a building a personality?

[Amanita]

After 9/11, I found several other urban Pagan types, who were like me. They could sense a presence from skyscrapers the way most Pagans sense it from trees and animals.
I think I always knew something was there on a subconscious level, because I've been doing such artwork ever since I was a kid.

But back in high school, I didn't even know what Animism was, so there was nothing "suspect" for some school psychologist to try and badger out of me. Although these days, I'd tell that psychologist to do some reading on the concept of Animism, Kami, and other spiritual concepts, along with the writings of modern Urban Pagans, before trying to label me with psycho-babble.

[fireheart17]

Likewise, a guidance Councillor got the same way- some of these people are so conditioned to look for signs of deviance or dysfunction that they honestly freak out when somebody like me comes along, with a vivid imagination and a creative streak.

There are a few things that I've been told to look out for in regards to mandatory reporting. One of them is the drawings the kids do, but I've been warned that under no circumstances am I to use loaded questions and stick to open-ended ones.

[Dreamstalker]

Kids are being drugged and treated for schizophrenic related illnesses because they have vivid imaginations. To the point where we make it clear to our kids what is pretend and what is not and unless our kids specifically preface what they are saying with "We are playing pretend" parents assume the kid really truly believes it's real.

(sadly) BTDT. I still maintain that some of the medications I was put on in childhood contributed to my AS diagnosis later in life. When I was a pup I was heavily into Star Trek. Did I at times wish there was a shuttlecraft in the yard? Sure. Did I act in any way to lead a normal person to believe I actually thought it was true? No. (although my shrink at the time seemed to think I did) It was just the standard geeklet-fantasy when playing with a refrigerator box in the yard. And yet somehow I was labeled as 'delusional'.

When I was 15-16 or so, I got sent to a psychiatrist who--no joke--thought that I 'needed' to be committed (the last in a long line of misdiagnoses). I was involved in a few gaming groups at the time and I also wrote fanfic.

I had a regular therapist at the time, and after I told her what the woman wanted to do I had my therapist's blessing to mess with her (carefully, as nobody wanted it to backfire). So I did, in such a way that exposed her views that anyone with an imagination needed to be institutionalized. When my therapist felt she had enough evidence she fired her and let her know exactly why.

(for the hell of it, I just Googled the doctor--she's still practicing but one comment describes her as "very strange" and overall she has poor reviews on provider websites)

[Lillfilly]

This reminds me of something my boyfriends mother just told me; one of her nephews ‘failed’ at test in kindergarten recently because he was supposed to name 5-animals. He named tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurus, brachiosaurus, allosaurus and triceratops. Apparently, the teacher did not qualify these as ‘animals,’ saying he should have named cat, dog, monkey, etc. So, teacher neglects to set test rules in terms of living and extinct animals and flunks a clever kid? This is the same nephew who, when asked to name his favorite animal and why, was sent to the office for naming ‘chicken’ and ‘because you can eat them!’

[fireheart17]

This is the same nephew who, when asked to name his favorite animal and why, was sent to the office for naming ‘chicken’ and ‘because you can eat them!’

OK, while the kid is clever, I would've burst out laughing at that point when he said that he liked chicken because he could eat it. (more of a "I wasn't expecting THAT answer) I certainly wouldn't have sent them to the office!

[TheHuckster]

This reminds me of something my boyfriends mother just told me; one of her nephews ‘failed’ at test in kindergarten recently because he was supposed to name 5-animals. He named tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurus, brachiosaurus, allosaurus and triceratops. Apparently, the teacher did not qualify these as ‘animals,’ saying he should have named cat, dog, monkey, etc. So, teacher neglects to set test rules in terms of living and extinct animals and flunks a clever kid? This is the same nephew who, when asked to name his favorite animal and why, was sent to the office for naming ‘chicken’ and ‘because you can eat them!’

Wow, that sounds a lot like a teacher I had in elementary school who, if you said anything that she didn't expect, regardless of whether it was technically correct or not, would result in some form of discipline or ridicule.

My mother was especially upset about her, as I got in more trouble in that grade than any other, and the reasons were usually totally BS. It was one of her biggest motivations to get me out of public school and get me into either private school or home school.

[Attolis]

I can attest to this- I got into it on a cosplay forum with one member, who most likely couldn't be more than 14.
I've been doing artwork personifying skyscrapers ever since I was a kid, and recently I've been turning some of those drawings and concepts into costumes.

This child flat out told me that if she saw me at a convention "cosplaying a building", she would take that as a sign that I was "crazy and to be avoided".
She flat out could NOT comprehend cosplaying as anything that wasn't a pre-made character, and couldn't wrap her head around the concept of personification in general- if it didn't have a face, she couldn't understand how anyone could see any kind of personality or character there. And she had no qualms at all telling me this in the nastiest way possible, complete with ignorant comments about mental illness and such.

Yeah, I told her off back, condemning her overall ignorance as well as how offensive she was being towards the genuinely mentally ill.

On a similar note, a friend of mine does personification artwork too, and one night we were talking about how every time we log into deviantart, Anime styled stuff is always on the front page. "It's pervasive" my friend said. "It's sad, really. These kids just want to copy that one drawing style instead of finding their own artistic style".

And I agree with NGC too, about the overscheduling and lack of opportunity for unstructured play. When a kid's every activity is structured one way or the other, with somebody else making the rules, when is a kid supposed to develop ideas of their own?

I love the concept of personification, and that girl sounds like a moron... She's obviously never seen anyone cosplay a DeathNote book before http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs43/f/20...y_Made4Mac.jpg

I also agree that logging onto DA only to find a half decent drawing of Naruto on the front page, simply because it is Naruto is incredibly frustrating.
However, I also enjoy anime, and disagree with your comment "These kids just want to copy that one drawing style instead of finding their own artistic style". While it is true that many, including myself, will start out copying our favourite author's characters, that does not mean we can't develop our own style within the anime/ manga genre. To me, it would be like saying "all personification artists draw the same thing, and have no imagination", simply because they share a common theme.
Also, although many of my drawings are influenced by anime, it is not the only thing I draw inspiration from. I find ideas, as I think most people do, from things I see every day, and, I'd like to think, from my own imagination.

I'm not trying to discredit your views, I just wanted to share mine. I hope I have done so in a way that recovers your respect for anime artists even just a little in light of that horrible girl who, unfortunately, represents a not insignificant portion of the fanbase. Everyone suffers because of them

[Amanita]

I think that where Anime's concerned, or comic art in general, there's a lot of people like you out there- they just start out copying and develop their own style eventually. I knew one girl who did that, with western style comic art. Unfortunately you get some who become snobs- who turn their nose up at anything that isn't "Anime" or whatever their style is. In miniature painting, this also happens- you get the ones who are devoted to the Games workshop style to an unhealthy degree, dissing anything not painted that way.

[Ree]

Toys have become more .. automated..less imaginative. Now of course everybody is different, but I can remember a time that two sticks could provide thousands of different things...I show two sticks to my nieces and nephews..and they see two sticks.

Exactly!
With the advances in technology, toys have become more advanced.

The simpler toys of childhood now come with mini computers and chips in them that accomplish all those things that children used to imagine.

Why should a child pretend the baby doll is eating, drinking, dirtying its diaper, laughing or crying, when today's dolls already do that?

Why should they imagine the truck is revving up and plowing through mounds of dirt or the car is flying around the track when all they have to do is flip a switch and it does that?

Why do as my older brother did and nail some boards together, decorated with bottle caps and strung with fishing line to make his very own guitar, when most parents these days can afford to go get real ones?

Even good old board games have gone high tech.

Also, as has been said, many kids are over-stimulated and over-scheduled most of the time. They are shoved into organized sports and carted off to dance, art, and gymnastics classes.
It starts right out of the womb.
Simple little baby toys can't be simple anymore.
Everything has to be structured to educate. (Baby Einstein, for example)

You can't just hang a small multi-coloured mobile over a crib any more. It has to "do stuff" to stimulate and capture the baby's interest.

Others have also mentioned that children aren't being allowed to use their creativity in school. Art classes are structured and teachers have a certain curriculum.
They also have larger class sizes and have to stick to the agenda because they just don't have time to give to the more creative, In fact, creative children sometimes get labelled as "problem" (although that may not be anything new), and many teachers can't take the time to foster that creativity.
Of course there are exceptions, but, sadly, most of the stories I hear bear out those exceptions as being rather rare.

Lillfilly's story has put me in mind of that Harry Chapin song about the little boy drawing a flower, "Flowers are Red".

The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said.. What you doin' young man
I'm paintin' flowers he said
She said... It's not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

Well the teacher said.. You're sassy
There's ways that things should be
And you'll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me.....

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

The teacher put him in a corner
She said.. It's for your own good..
And you won't come out 'til you get it right
And all responding like you should
Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen

Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found
The teacher there was smilin'
She said...Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let's use every one

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen.

[TheHuckster]

I love that song so much.

My elementary school's art class was like what you described: structured and strictly graded based on how much your drawing looked like what was on the board. I went to a private middle school after that, and was greatly impressed with their more open structure. The art teacher had only one rule: You had to try one medium at least once. Besides that, after I've tried the different mediums and techniques, it was a free-for-all for the most part. I was much into building structures and even cities out of foamcore, which the teacher applauded.

[anakhouri]

Once for a story time craft (at the library), the kids made caterpillars by gluing cut-out shapes, googly eyes, pipe cleaners etc on construction paper. One kid's mom kept saying, 'No, that's not how it goes. You're doing it wrong. Caterpillars don't look like that!' (this story time is for 2-3 year olds!).

I looked at Khan's caterpillar, which apparently had been hatched near a nuclear plant (3 eyes, antenna coming out of its feet, head apparently in the middle) and thought, "Pablo! You can't paint people like that! People don't look like that!"

A lot of parents try to make their kids do the projects the 'right' way (so they look like the librarian's example). I don't care.