Mathematics and Life 50 10 signs of a creative child

 10 signs of a creative child

Important Although the traits I am discussing here are as much applicable to adults as for the child, I will confine my attention to discussing the child. 

A bundle of surprises and confusion A creative child can be broadly said to be a bundle of surprises and confusions. At times she will give surprising answers and at other obvious to answer times would sit like a dumb child.

In the light of some known creative people examples, some traits of a creative child can be seen as 

• High energy but lost in thought A creative person has heaps of energy and unending enthusiasm. Of course at a younger age, the body supports it, but even at the age of  65 KFC can be founded. Einstein used to give money to the tram conductor who had to calculate and return the difference as Einstein could not do it. Many children do not understand arithmetic, have a high abstraction level and do well once algebra starts.

• Smart and naive Creative children are very smart, resourceful, innovative in attaining their interest tasks, but are at times less than the average talented friend, sibling or cousins which is a very popular point of public insult even within the family.

• A weird combination The creative child is a weird combination of playfulness, discipline, responsibility and irresponsibility. I have seen kids in standard 7th doing very good video editing, standard 10th students assisting parent on legal drafting. But the same child, doing such work seriously and properly, cannot buy vegetables, cannot express his point to the best friends. They, lost in their thoughts, will conveniently forget anything otherwise important as well.

• Imagination, fantasy yet grounded The creative child has great imagery, spectrum of colours unfolding, exploding all the time, yet they are very grounded on basics. As Edison famously told, I have found 999 ways the bulb cannot be made and tried the 1000th time.

• Confusing signals  Parents, teacher, counselors, peers in touch with the creative child always get confusing signals. Opposite tendencies of being extrovert and introvert are very common. Like we see on the television, young girls nicely explain their ideas even to the Prime Minister on a call, but may not tell her worries to her mother even on the asking.

• Humble and proudly at the same The creative child is very humble accepting limitations, to learn from others, and agreeing that he made a mistake. But, at the same time, he is outrightly assertive of credentials, credit to go to him. Famously, Sachin Tendulkar did not talk to a scorer friend for a long time as the scorer made a mistake in noting Sachin runs, although it was corrected also. That was when Sachin was 15+, but the habit remained to give us all lot in the future to be.

• The biggest issue is a traditional minded society is challenging the stereotypes.No gender stereotypes the creative understands. There is nothing like men’s work / dress / language etc in her scheme of working. They often get in trouble for the lack of societal norms like who can and cannot do what, when etc. To illustrate, the menstrual restrictions of not touching etc are beyond them. 

• Rebellious, independent , yet traditional and conservative The creative child is rebellious by default, has independent ways of working and that is what makes him creative. But they are conservative and traditional as well. It is not without a reason that ISRO satellite launch or Rafael induction to the AirForce are preceded by a Pooja or IIT, IIM programs begin with a Saraswati Vandana. 

• Passionate and objective about their work Newton often used to forget to take lunch served on table. The creative child is so much lost in the thought that the immediate is even not visible to them. At the same they put objective measures to check progress instead of asking opinions which are often loaded or biased.

• In pain, still happy The creative child is always exposed to opposition,  suffering and pain, yet they are full of enjoyment, excitement. A very inspiring example is of Veer Savarkar who, amidst the life taking tortures at  Andaman Cellular jail, wrote 6000 line poems using coal, nails.  Memorised them and recalled each line well after decades and the book was published. 

So, next time you see a confused, lost in thought kid, striving hard to say / do something different at least do not discourage if you cannot encourage.

I am a Ph. D. Education in the creativity research area, contact me to help the kid. We may be having our Sundar Pichai within India.

Dr Prakash Moghe

Moghe Education Consultancy

8085906062,7489447223

drpnmoghe@gmail.com,9