Parents and schools need to encourage kids to be non-conformists
Mark Twain said, "The
man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds."
That is why, most children
are not encouraged to speak their mind or share their ideas. And thereby putting a full stop to creativity. When
children come up with an innovative idea, most often they are dismissed as
'crazy', 'silly' and the like. But the real education lies in letting them
imagine, fantasize and the like.
According to Raksha Bharadia, author of a best-seller book on parenting titled Roots and Wings and who conducts parenting workshops across the country says, "When we insist that children reproduce similar work every time, be it in answering questions, making pictures, writing essays or doing projects, we discourage their creative exploration. Conformity is not the enemy. Our approach towards it can be. When we are learning something we need a place to start, a standard to refer to, hence the potato and the onion. The problem begins not in beginning as a conformist but in remaining one! Children are drilled to conform, accept and not question."
Overemphasis on conformism and to 'fit in' has become the number one killer of imagination too. Exposure to popular media like television and social media has also played a pivotal role in killing imagination. Einstein said, "Imagination is greater than knowledge. Knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."
It's essential to allow the children to explore, create and think. In the process, they might not succeed or face failure but it's essential for them to explore life. As says Anita Mathew, a young mother of two, "In India, the education system puts too much of emphasis on sticking to the curriculum. And in many ways too much of emphasis on performance which affects a child's creativity. We need to encourage a child to think, imagine rather than just learning by rote."
By Deepika Sahu, TNN | Jan 29, 2013, 12.00 AM IST
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