A Universally Useful Faculty
Some have held the notion that imagination is a faculty useful only to actors, artists or poets. This is untrue. Some parents have discouraged and even killed the imaginative faculty in their children, because they did not wish them to follow either of the above professions.
Your child will be the greatest credit and satisfaction to you if he becomes that for which his natural endowment and inclination is strongest. It is a great mistake for parents to drive a child to grow up according to some previously conceived plan or professional choice of their own. Parental wisdom and duty are to find out what the child is especially endowed for and to guide him in taking advantage of these natural gifts, and at the same time inducing a general development in other lines.
Because of past misunderstanding or lack of understanding of its importance in every line of effort, including science, engineering, and every business development, many parents have discouraged their children in the use of their imagination. Every leader in commercial and industrial life is a man who has learned to use this faculty. Without it he could not make great progress. Other men as brilliant as he have lagged behind because they have never cultivated their imagination or allowed themselves to be led by it. You should do everything possible to encourage and to guide your children in the conscious use of this faculty.