My child - a Genius?!

This week, I just want to carry on from where I left off. Have you ever noticed how some children's eyes light up when they listen to a good song and start singing along, while others just start swaying to the beat of the music? How some love to spend hours on drawing and painting little 'cards' for you and their friends, while others love to make little boats and other shapes with paper or clay? How some of them love to tap to the beat of some inaudible music with spoons or pencils, while others get deeply engrossed in playing 'air guitar'? How some children love to play outdoors, while some love to stay indoors and read or write poetry and stories filled with flights of fantasy?

Why do all children have something that they love to do more than others, and they can spend hours doing that? What is that gives them that concentration, focus, and above all, that great joy spreading across their faces and a great peace surrounds them, even as their little fingers and minds are working at a furious pace? They are just 'expressing' themselves. They have discovered their 'expression' in any of these activities and this brings them joy and fulfillment.

We smilingly watch them do this and indulgently 'allow' them to carry on for some time. We often make reference to our children's active imaginations; we accept that they are creative; or note that they seem to be naturally curious and playful. But soon enough, our concerns for their future and their careers kick in, and we become anxious. We immediately transmit this stress to them by scolding them for 'wasting' precious time, time which could have been more constructively used in 'studying'. Our concentration on academics per se is so dominant that we frown upon and discourage any interest displayed by our children outside this. Many children are talented in so many fields but most parents and teachers consider those talents 'unproductive' as career goals. Children gradually lose interest in those activities and their talents get buried along with their self-worth and potential. Children are rebuked for not bringing 'good' marks in academics, while good performance in non-academic or creative acts is written off as wasteful 'play'.

But to make children high performers, we, as parents and teachers, have to realize that by igniting the child's artistic brain, we inevitably stimulate the academic brain to perform better. Until this realization takes root in our minds, schooling will continue to be a tedious exercise for all concerned. Our focus should be on the child's capacity for constructive growth and creative potential at the highest levels of functioning. Focus should be on providing opportunities for our children to explore.

Creative activities can positively affect a child's reasoning, thinking skills and spatial intelligence. They can affect test scores, raise energy levels, improve reading and writing skills, aid in learning and retaining new material, promote coordinated body movement, and take creativity to a higher level. We need to introduce activities that appeal to their feelings and to their 'right brain'– activities that the child responds to naturally. Activities like music, rhymes, song, dance, drawing, painting, clay modelling, role-play, dramatics, concerts, catch-ball, yoga, aerobics, hopping, skipping, jogging, juggling, and numerous other fun-filled activities, these stimulate the complex structure of the brain, encouraging both brain 'centres' to work in consonance with each other. This helps them to experience a greater integrated balance throughout their lives.

By having the freedom to 'express' themselves through any creative pursuit, our children can lead richer, more vibrant and fulfilling lives. Some of them can even turn them into wonderful career opportunities. It is our duty and responsibility to let our children explore and develop their potential in whatever they 'love' to do. We can help them in this way to have more 'complete' and integrated personalities. If their desires and dreams are not thwarted, but encouraged, they will be confident, well-balanced individuals, and whatever they do in lives after that, they are sure to leave their impressions for posterity. This is my dream. Is it yours too?

Juhi Mehta, the quintessential mother-teacher, runs Life Express - an after-school center for children. She can be reached at juhimalini@gmail.com. She also writes 'Reflections of an inner Journey'