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
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