Its kind of interesting that no one has commented on this essay especially as "education" is one of the hot topics in the culture wars both here in Australia and (especially) in the US.

Sarah is onto something here. Dante created an imagined world in which real characters appear. Liturgical worship operates on an imagined dichotomy of heaven and earth. The risen Christ is an imagined being whose presence raises us from the deadliness of teaching for assessment and all of the modern reductions.

The imagined Christian story grows out of historical event and becomes much more than the event. Plato has a role here in which the imagined reality is more real than the objective world tha stimulates our senses.

My one objection is that cognitive behavioral therapy seems to me a futile attempt to create an alternative imagination to suit out therapeutic purposes. We cannot simply invent an imagined reality.

We in Australia show deep respect for the aboriginal imagination while ignoring our own.

Sarah, One of the best books on Modernity is Louis Dupre "Passage to Modernity". You will find much on "imaginaries" in Taylors "Secular Age".
Peter Sellick (Sells)