Executive Summary
Destination ImagiNation® is a leading-edge organization dedicated to teaching participants the essential skills of creativity, teamwork, and problem solving. Traditional education is in urgent need of complementary programs focused on teaching students how to be world-class innovators and critical thinkers. Destination ImagiNation fills that urgent need. In just over 10 years, Destination ImagiNation has grown from a non-profit startup into an organization that offers programs for students of all ages across the United States and in more than 30 countries. Today, 100,000 children and more than 30,000 adult volunteers take part in the Destination ImagiNation program each year. The Destination ImagiNation program—developed jointly with the renowned Center for Creative Learning and The Creative Problem Solving Group—provides children a transformative experience that shifts their worldview for the rest of their personal
and professional lives.
The Urgent Issue
The future of our students, workforce, nation, and world is on the line. Our students are preparing to enter a dramatically changing workplace, one that will require a new, dynamic skill set. A 2006 poll of 431 employers around the world reported “workers of the incoming generation… sorely lack in workplace skills.” Three- fourths of these employers judged creativity and innovation to be among the top-five applied skills, and they believe these skills will continue to increase in importance for future graduates (eSchool News, October 2006). According to a growing cadre of government, business and academic thinkers, the “new basic skills of the 21st century” are creativity, innovation, teamwork, the ability to manage change, and communication. Here’s the problem: educators and parents today are not well prepared to foster these skills. This is less a criticism than an observation that even our youngest parents and educators grew up in a remarkably different world than that of their children. Destination ImagiNation participants gain the dynamic skill set required for future success. Five decades of social and scientific research in Creative Problem Solving (CPS) have taught us it is possible to transform the way a person thinks and interacts with others. We have seen how the process of CPS can positively affect the way that our participants approach problems and find solutions. Destination ImagiNation is at the forefront of a movement to get beyond the rhetoric and meet the challenge of preparing all young people for the future.
Imagine the Possibilities
Destination ImagiNation is in the vanguard with other thought- leaders who say we need to shift our educational and business focus toward process. Too often, our children are left with the idea that higher achievement simply means trying harder or working longer. However, success does not often stem from more work, but rather in changing tactics—in other words, working differently and more effectively. Dramatically different results can happen, but only if we focus on the nature of the process with which we approach and solve problems. In the 21st century, we will reach the greatest heights of achievement only by re-imagining our current approaches and processes. Destination ImagiNation participants learn to innovate solutions by taking unique approaches to problems. The processes
and tools of Creative Problem Solving release them from the constraints, limitations and over-reliance on linear thinking to which they are bound. Our past and current corporate sponsors share our view of shifting the traditional culture and way of thinking in schools and in the workforce. Among our esteemed sponsors are: 3M Corporation, the National Dairy Council, Syfy, and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) – one of the largest, most powerful industrial
associations in the world. Past sponsors include Federal Express, Best Buy, Velcro USA, and Bank of America.
To read more download the 2009 Destination ImagiNation – White Paper here.
by debi
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