Nurturing Creative Children

How do families deal with children who show an inclination to the arts? Drawing and painting, singing, playing music or dancing is sweet when they are young, but troubling when they don’t grow out of it.

One of our final year Fine Art students had his drawings regularly torn up by his father who wanted him to concentrate on a career in Engineering. Many famous artists developed their passion at odds with their families. Degas’ father wanted him to join law school, Gauguin  gave up his life as a stockbroker, Cezanne attempted to become a banker as desired by his father; Miro attended commercial college and after two years as a clerk, had a mental breakdown before his parents let him attend art school.  While Toulouse Lautrec’s aristocratic parents did not prevent him from studying art, his physical deformity after fracturing both femurs in childhood made him feel more at home in Bohemian Montmartre amongst the outcasts of the music halls and brothels of Paris. 

Nurturing the creative spirit of a child is a combined effort of schools and family. The US based National Foundation of Gifted and Creative Children lists ten characteristics of gifted children that often get ignored or misinterpreted including extreme sensitivity, high energy levels,  getting bored easily, easily frustrated , compassionate and loving, needing lots of encouragement , poor at rote learning. 

Average school systems are usually unable to cater to the needs of gifted children.  Thomas Edison, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Ludwig Beethoven are some of the gifted students who failed or were expelled from their schools.  When parents or teachers fail to understand highly creative children, they tend to withdraw and refuse to learn. 

The world renowned Malaysian expert on creative children,  Dr Yew Kam Keong,  has written “Nurturing Creative Children” a detailed guideline for parents and teachers. Lucy Jo Palladino’s ‘Edison Children’ are gifted children - Dreamers who could become designers architects and artists; Discoverers who make good inventors, pioneering industrialists; Dynamos who become great athletes, fighter pilots, emergency health workers.  

Most school curricula nurture the left side of the brain responsible for logical mathematical and verbal skills, while the right brain is intuitive, visual and imaginative. If right brain abilities are developed between ages 0-6, they stay for life.  Developing both sides of the brain develops the full abilities of a child. The architect inventor Buckminster Fuller said  “All children are born geniuses, and we spend the first six years of their lives degeniusing them. ”

Overly structured lives with no time for fun, play and exploration atrophy the imagination. Play and fantasy are essential activities for a child according to Jung. Better than expensive toys is turning empty cartons into cars or spaceships or draping sheets on chairs to make castles. Parents should read  or make up bedtime stories, cut orange peels into interesting shapes, teach pahelis or riddles, help children find shapes in clouds and  praise their efforts. Both parents need to be equally involved as each bring different energies. 

 We grew up trying out invisible writing made with lemon juice, made our own ghulayls or catapults, and  bows and arrows, skipped rope, made cats cradles or tana bana, climbed trees, found tadpoles in rain puddles.  Our elders made shadows on the walls with their hands, took us on picnics. Plato said “Young children learn by games; compulsory education cannot remain in the soul.” Playing develops self-discipline which is far more effective than imposing discipline. A creative child is a happy child and grows into a productive adult. 

“Parents should realize that it is better to bring children up as excited innovators and thinkers instead of unhappy and obedient followers. ” Chong Sheau Chin , Director of Asean Work-Life Balance Project

Durriya Kazi

September 15, 2019

durriyakazi1918@gmail.com