The different ways in which imagination was spoken of in the educational field were shrouded in ambiguities. Sometimes welcomed and desired, sometimes feared for the troubles it might cause to the production of the child as a future citizen. The discourse unfolded, identifying nuances in these ambiguities and anxieties, above all through the lines drawn between good and evil imaginations. The imaginative child as a kind of person was already a reality, with more than one way to be lived.

This report is based on presentations made in a Workshop at Estoril Portugal 21st-25th November 1972 organized by CERI in collaboration with the Portuguese Ministry of National Education, and organized by the OECD. By 1972 Portugal was still a dictatorship.
The report aims to "identify contributions and benefits of the school as a focal point for social change". There are six major contributions: