“Doesn't this say something to us in modern Sri Lanka? Should we as parents and even grandparents learn this secret which is the key to our children's success in life, even in this daunting and difficult world? So let us set our children free. Let's give them the opportunity to think and make decisions for themselves, to choose to do what their inner selves know is right for them.”_________________________
by Nalini Weerasinghe
(April 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) When I was young I could identify with Shakespeare's idea that all the world was a stage! A wonderful stage and all of us placed to play our part with honour and integrity. In fact my daydreams took me around the world as a ballerina or playwright! I dreamed dreams of life full and beautiful and fulfilling, and I have lived to see some of them come true!
But what has today's world got to offer our growing children? What dreams can they dream? For one thing - they have no time to dream! It's an endless routine of school, tuition and a programmed life with snatches of elocution, dancing, drama, art and sport. The wheels turn mercilessly, and the young mind is driven to toe the line in a harsh and competitive world.
So the world seems to produce second class citizens. A child born to delve into scientific research becomes a half-hearted doctor; one whose second nature is to care for the sick is moulded to be an engineer, a business mind is schooled to be a teacher! Parents generally decide which mould to set their child in!
We need to set our children free. Free to think, to choose, to express their innermost urges and enjoy themselves, setting the stage for a fulfilling, dynamic life ahead.
Basically, the simplest way of helping children grow up with confidence is to give them opportunity to use their creative urge in free creative activity. Now art education is all about this, as against fostering talent. Creative art education gives a child the chance to use his/her own ideas and thoughts, develop his/her hand control, further his/her technical "know how" and make aesthetically pleasing or psychologically satisfying works or art.
And it does not stop there. Creative activity can lead to expression in poetry and prose, the composition of a piece of music or an expressive dance form.
Ravindranath Tagore gives us a revealing and delightful anecdote from his childhood which tells a story parents should note. Tagore says he had to take tuition and the tuition master came home. Sometimes he was in no mood for lessons so he would tell his mother of the "bad stomach ache" he had. His mother would send the tuition master away having understood that her son's "stomach" needed healing with a good day's break. And so the boy spent a whole afternoon gleefully playing in the back garden where a dilapidated old palanquin became a "king's palace", a "robber's hide out", or "a stage" where he would make an oration to an imaginary audience. And so it was that the freedom given to him to think and to dream made Tagore what he became.
Doesn't this say something to us in modern Sri Lanka? Should we as parents and even grandparents learn this secret which is the key to our children's success in life, even in this daunting and difficult world? So let us set our children free. Let's give them the opportunity to think and make decisions for themselves, to choose to do what their inner selves know is right for them.
This may sound alarming to the traditional parent, but guess what? When you give your girl or boy the freedom of choice and put the onus on them to consider the results of the choice - they will choose the good, the fine and the beautiful. That has indeed been my experience.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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