2022/2023 Annual Theme at Jules Verne Campus: Imagination flows everywhere!

„Alles, was ein Mensch sich heute vorstellen kann, werden andere Menschen einst verwirklichen.“ (Jules Verne)

“Imagination is everywhere.” (Albert Einstein)

In the spirit of our namesake Jules Verne, and as a take on Einstein’s wise words, we decided on Imagination flows everywhere as the title of our 2022/2023 Campus-wide annual theme at Jules Verne Campus.

Why? In keeping with the unique educational philosophy in the SBW Haus des Lernens Dare to do what you dream and our innovative approach at JVC, you need imagination to dream! Imagining solutions out of the box, sustainability, future careers and innovations, and new political and societal structures. If we say Jules Verne Campus: The journey into your future begins here, we’ve committed to fostering the creativity and courage needed to envision, or shape, a bright future—before we get ready for it or journey into it!

For any free society, it’s essential to have three things: 1. quality ideas to ponder; 2. the time and the freedom to dream and imagine using good impulses, conversations, and dialog; and 3. the ability to put ideas into action to make a difference.

All three were supposed to be burned and destroyed in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Not only the death of new ideas, but the death of imagination. Intrinsically the opposite of consumption, imagination is the mother of creativity.

And how do we get from ideas to action? That’s where flow comes in. Flowing is about finding our talents and getting into “flow,” flowing from the mere ideas and acting on solutions. How can we form the very future we’re preparing for? The theme also links to water. How does what I do affect other people or things, making waves or ripples?

To explore how we can make these essential ideas something relevant for our JVC children and learning partners ranging from Kindergarteners to Abitur graduates, I invited the whole JVC team to brainstorm on the theme on our Oasis mural wall at our annual Journey Day in September. I invited the team to write speech bubbles, provide famous quotes, tell stories about being in flow, jot down project ideas, draw things imagined, or depict water or ideas flowing. Examples include soaring geese, rainbow colors, quotations by Walt Disney, Friedrich Nietzsche and Simon Sinek, and images of a child turned on their head. We invite you to have a look at the beautiful results in the Oasis when you’re here on Campus for the upcoming parents’ evenings.

Using the ideas, we’ll generate concrete project ideas this school year for different ages groups on Campus. In both editions of the Campus News this school year, we’ll share highlights of the projects that arose from the brainstorming with you. On this note, let’s flow into this next school year with our imagination – open to our dreams, open to our future.