The elementary and middle school students in China have low imagination standard, said Chen Huichang, professor of Beijing Normal University, the China Youth Post reported today.

Chen was a supervisor of a research task to test Chinese children's imagination capability. The task began in April 1999,and the test was conducted to 1,888elementary and middle school students ranging from seven grades of six cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenyang, Nanchang and Zhenzhou by random sample.

The elementary and middle school period is an important era for the development of human's imagination. The research indicated that children's imagination development shows an upward trend when they are from elementary school grade three to junior middle school grade two (from 8to 14years old).After that period, children's imagination development reached a standstill.

Imagination standard was access at three aspects -abundance, creativity and logic .Creativity plays an important role in children's imagination development. According to the research, only 18.7percent of elementary students reached the highest level of imagination capability, and nearly 42percent students stood at the lowest level, and among junior high school students, no more than 37percent students reached the highest level.

The elementary and middle school students in China have very low imagination standard, Chen said.

Imagination plays a leading role in the study and thinking development, and the research indicated that 70percent of the students with high imagination level got good marks in their studies, with 90percent having better morality.

The traditional education and culture encourage students to obey what teacher say, and go with the stream, so the potential imagination of children is buried.

More than 60percent students said reading fancy stories were beneficial, while only 31.5percent of parents agreed with that. Up to 34.4percent teachers don't organize after-school activities to stimulate children's imagination.

The research also indicated that children had high points of curiosity while have low points of taking risks. Children lacked courage to put thing into practice, Chen said.

Considering too much on students'marks is the main hindrance of their imagination development, said Wang Jisheng, a researcher of the Psychological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Parents should satisfy children's exploration demand, and create more imagination space for them, Wang said.

(Eastday.com.cn 06/12/2001)