Thinking outside the box

New ideas bring changes which have a chance of being innovative. We can identify these ideas as creative. Today’s education system demands originality in thoughts and actions. It gives an opportunity to the present generation to display their opinion in various ways.

Steve Jobs said-“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things.

This makes it very obvious that our youngsters need to work on developing the quality called “CREATIVITY”. Creativity sounds like an abstract thought process and one that is very natural to conclude, is inherited and cannot be inculcated. However, the good news is that Creativity can be fostered and nurtured. Definitely there is a need of fostering creativity among our children.

What is creativity?
Creativity is a thought, an idea or an action which is performed in a different way and has a positive impact.This new idea or action might not be intentional or set in advance, and it just blooms within a person.

In the present scenario we often see job advertisements looking for people who think out of the box and knowhow to handle situations in a smart way. So when and where do our young generation learn these 21st century skills?

Our education system to some extent is giving opportunities in this field. Presentations, public Speaking and projects are added to the curriculum. Students have the liberty to express themselves in more than one way.

However, not every student displays similarity in thinking. Some shower random thoughts while others need lot of time to organise and present their ideas. There are also some children for whom anything that needs originality and imagination becomes very difficult.

These students are satisfied with the knowledge they are provided with and they prefer to move ahead with that limited input.For these students, the good news is that Creativity can be nurtured.

Some of the ways to foster Creativity are-
Don’t guess;let the creator tell you…
As the objective of the tasks vary; so does the approaches. Each child has his own way of bringing up the idea. It is wise to listen to the child’s idea rather than interpreting, by doing guess work.

Emphasise on the process
not the result
Approaches to the same assignment can be different. As far as the process is correct,there is a good chance that the result will be fair. Children take the risk of creating something new; we must appreciate the effort and the learning involved in the process. If not a great result; the child will get involved in a lot of learning during the process.

Comparison
It is a very old theory that every child is unique and cannot be compared to another child. Comparing twostudentsdoes not help much. On the other side encouraging and giving ideas and tips wherever required fosters creativity. However; as adults we can help children develop creativity by giving some clues or prompting them with some ways to reach to the result.

All the above theories look very simple and many of us might even know them. What makes it difficult is to practice them. We as adults are used to see things in a structured way. We find it difficult to accept the new ways of doing things. The day we start looking at things with a different perspective and encourage out of the box thinking; creativity will flourish.
As Roosevelt said, Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
We as adults should take the responsibility to create great minds and take the society at least one creative step ahead!

By:Vandana Dadi
The writer is founderCareeraims, Hyderabad.