By Jugal Srimar
Attempts are being made these days to search and find
ways and means to introduce the spirit of creativity
among children in this super-industrial age.
“Education is the field where we have done
worst in India, I believe, because we
have provided education for the mind
only and not the character.”
Lord Wavell, Governor General of India
writing to George VI (King of England) in 1946
Change has occurred during the last four decades:
 Art colleges confer degrees in Painting and Sculpture
 Child art is recognized, encouraged, accepted
 Children’s art contests occur all over the country with artists
from over 100 countries and prizes offered by Russia, USA, and
Japan
 An Art Contest by the Nehru Children’s Museum drew over
7,000 young artists in 1992
 Creative children are not usually liked by parents or teachers
because they don’t follow the rules
 Parents and teachers must be prepared to face conflict from
creative children
 One can’t expect new ideas from those who are not creative
 Discipline and creativity cannot co-exist because discipline
leaves little room for free, imaginative thinking
 Over-emphasis on
theoretical and
academic studies
in schools creates a
negative impact on
children’s mind
development.
 It hinders the
ability to cope with
life in a rapidly
changing society.
 The education system
introduced by the British
elite in the first half of the
19th century was designed
 to fit stereotypes to rule
and run the country, not to
promote initiative,
alertness, awareness and
creativity among children
 or adults.
 Bal Bhavan Society, a project of the government of India, is
promoting creativity.
 It generates children’s confidence and involvement and
urge for self-expression, curiosity, personality, and selfhelp.
 A child is given freedom to explore and experiment with his
own ideas.
 Promoting creativity
among children will
gradually help bring
about a change in the
socio-cultural pattern
of the next century.
 Teachers must guide children when they ask for the
explanations to satisfy their curiosity.
 Jugal Srimal is the founder
and director of Nehru
Children’s Museum in
Calcutta and has written
numerous books on social
and educational problems.
Based on what we know about India today,
do you think Srimal’s ideas have been
listened to?
What support can you give for your thinking?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CE8QtwIwCg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yo
utube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DrWWIVGXNK3E&ei=lxhbU-qALdGeyASgvoGACw&usg=AFQjCNETdwF6mgekwBuMMtMhN5d5w_XrRg
http://www.nehrumuseum.org/founder.html
What about American education?
How are we doing here and now?
How about education in China?
The Creative Mind
Pearl Buck
The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:
A human creature born abnormally,
inhumanely sensitive.
To him…
a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god, and
failure is death
Add to this cruelly delicate organism
the overpowering necessity to create, create, create,-so that without the creating
of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of
meaning,
his very breath is cut off from him.
He must create, must pour out creation.
By some strange, unknown, inward urgency
he is not really alive unless he is creating.
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June
26, 1892 – March 6, 1973), also
known by her Chinese name Sai
Zhenzhu Sài Zhēnzhū), was an
American writer and novelist. As
the daughter of missionaries, Buck
spent most of her life before 1934
in China. Her novel The Good
Earth was the best-selling fiction
book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932 and
won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In
1938, she was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Literature "for her rich and
truly epic descriptions of peasant
life in China and for her
biographical masterpieces."
After her return to the United
States in 1935, she continued her
prolific writing career, and became
a prominent advocate of the rights
of women and minority groups, and
wrote widely on Asian cultures,
becoming particularly well known
for her efforts on
behalf of Asian and
mixed race adoption.
Wikipedia
We can always do better, right?
Even your teacher
can go from 2 to 6!
And she can learn when to stop
or not…you know I can’t