IMAGINE: Helping Talented Kids Discover the World

Oh, to be young again! That's my reaction to reading a recent issue of Imagine, our newest magazine in the newsstand. Its purpose is to inform talented and imaginative kids―middle schoolers and high schoolers―of the many, many possibilities open to them for academic study and growth. Imagine is published five times a year by the Center for Talented Youth at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University. The issue I've been perusing, November/December 2005, consists largely of accounts by young people of recent projects they've been engaged in, such as helping at a Chacoan Anasazi archaeological dig in Colorado, at a dinosaur hunt in Montana, researching ancient textile design in Peru to develop a method of dating archaeological finds based on twining techniques and studying Latin during a summer program in Rome. Imagine also writes about a variety of academic competitions―in math, geography, science, even classic mythology―that can result in substantial scholarship awards, as well as the joy of meeting like-minded peers at state, national and international levels. Each issue also contains a fascinating review of a college by its own students. This one focuses on Oberlin College, a progressive liberal arts college amid the cornfields of Ohio that justifiably earns praise for its involved faculty and a curriculum that encourages intellectual exploration. I was intrigued by this criticism: "Despite the justifiably vaunted diversity of the student body, there is an underlying sameness to many of them. The typical student comes to Oberlin as the most interesting person he/she knows, and isn't very happy to surrender that position. He/She is also usually in the awkward position of being alienated from society in some way yet simultaneously privileged (a $25,000-a-year education is undeniably a great privilege)." Imagine is a great resource for young persons seeking encouragement to learn about the world—and fighting peer pressure to just blend in. An annual subscription (five issues) is $30.00 from the publisher; you can get a sample copy from us for $2.59.