Showing posts with label Instilling creativity in children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Instilling creativity in children. Show all posts

Monday 13 August 2012

The tough question of instilling creativity in children through inspirational tutoring


Tutoring is a very difficult profession because not only do you have to take care of understanding the needs of the children but also impart knowledge to them in a very creative manner. In this blog; I have tried to enumerate the points which can help instill creativity in children through tutoring.




I know looking at the subject of this blog, you might be wondering what exactly do I mean by innovation; and how can it be taught through tutoring? I will definitely try my level best to explain this predicament in this blog. But first let me start with some of my personal observations. I know many of you might have seen “Disney channel” which showcases various shows which depict creativity amongst kids. One of the shows which caught my attention was “Hanna Montana”. In this show, we see a minor girl which by the way has grown up to become an adult by now but the point is that she is creative and talented. Alongwith that she also manages to complete her class work and home work like a normal child and also changes her personality to become a pop star known as “Hannah Montana”. Now, looking at this show, I was very astonished to find that children do have hidden talents in them but it needs to be developed further to grow into something bigger and better. Although this can be argued with the fact that it is parent’s genes which affect a child’s natural talent. In the “Hannah Montana” show; her father is a singer and so obviously she had the talent to become a pop star. But the same cannot be said about his brother who unlike the father and daughter is completely different and does not enjoy singing. So now the question arises how do we determine whether a child will develop a particular trait from their parents in long term? The other question being can innovation be developed in students since early childhood? The answers are quite difficult to find.
Let me take another example. Sachin Tendulkar is unarguably one of the best batsmen in the world. So can we then safely assume that his son Arjun will follow the footsteps of his father and become a cricketer? It is very difficult to answer this question. But we are already seeing him practicing in the nets batting like his dad nevertheless; he still has a long way to go. We have also seen the son of Bishan Singh Bedi, Angad Bedi starring in movies. Bishan Singh Bedi was a great Indian cricketer; but his son has not followed the footsteps of the father; and is trying to make his own mark in the Bollywood industry. So can we safely say that if any of the parents of the child are creative; then the child has an in-built creativity of its own which needs to be enhanced? The answer to this question is quite subjective.

The other question is how to gauge the creativity in the children? Like I have already said my times in my previous blogs; every child is unique with different qualities which need to be nourished. Many times a we find that a child is not good at studies; but is good at our extra-curricular activities. That does not mean that he is a dud; but it reflects that he is different with his own identity. This is a lesser known fact that some children find their uniqueness in early childhood; while others learn it later after facing lots of difficulties. But the major task of the tutor is to encourage children; and try to find out their creative side. Then try to amalgamate it with the studies; so that education can be fun for them.

Now, let us look at the following points to get a fair idea about how to encourage and instill creativity in children while teaching them:

·     If you find that a child is good at creating drawings. Instead of making him understand everything theoretically; ask him to draw images of things that he understands. After every step guide him; so that he knows where he needs to improve. This kind of creative learning can instill lot of confidence in the child. It also helps them to retain the information for a longer period of time.

·  Similarly, if the child has a knack of writing stories on its own. Encourage them to write creatively after explaining them the chapters. This will make them write things on their own about the lessons taught; which will register in their brain for a longer time than making them cram everything in one goes.

·    The third criterion is when you find that the child has lot of interest in seeing cartoons and animations. In this case; although the process is lengthy, if you can display the lessons in the form of a picture gallery or animated series to the child, they can understand the lesson in a much better way; and also remember it for a very long time.


Although the methods suggested in this blog look quite simple to use, many online tutors have still not found the winning combination of holding on to the interests of the children. If you have any suggestions that can be used to enhance creativity of children through tutoring; please send us your comments and feedback by following us at: http://www.facebook.com/PracTutor, http://hardik.practutor.com

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