Imlisanen Jamir
Over a thousand students from Nagaland and neighbouring states took part in one of the largest art festivals for students seen here.
The awards ceremony for the 3rd Mega Art Festival was held in Dimapur last Sunday, drawing participation from kindergarteners to senior high school students. While billed as a move to help interested students get started early on the fine arts, competitions like this also shine light on an aspect of education, which is constantly misrepresented or misunderstood—creativity.
You can’t see it, smell it or hear it, it’s not tangible; and people disagree on how to define creativity or where exactly it comes from. Despite not being an academic discipline, creativity can indeed be learned.
It is most synonymous as being a quality that is required by artists. But that’s a narrow understanding. Creativity is also present in the lives of scientists and entrepreneurs; and it plays a pivotal role in their endeavours.
All of us benefit from it: we thrive mentally and spiritually when we are able to harness it. It is a delicate thing, easily stamped out; in fact, it flourishes most fully when people are playful and childlike. At the same time, it works best in tandem with deep knowledge and expertise.
Creativity is not something that should inhabit the school curriculum only as it relates to drama, music, art and other obviously creative subjects, but that creative thinking ought to run through all of school life, infusing the way human and natural sciences are learned.
When children are regarded as containers to be filled with facts, creativity does not prosper; nor does it when teachers’ sole objective is, perforce, coaching children towards exams.
Admittedly, it is arts subjects through which creativity can most obviously be fostered. Festivals like the one mentioned before are admirable steps towards this end.
However, the disparity between educational institutes in efforts to foster this crucial ingredient of education is a matter of social justice. It is simply wrong and unfair that most children have a fraction of the access to choirs, orchestras, art studios and drama that their most privileged peers enjoy.
As lives are affected by any number of looming challenges – climate crisis, automation in the workplace – humans are going to need creative thinking more than ever. For all of our sakes, creativity in education, and for all, must become a priority.
Comments can be sent to imlisanejamir@gmail.com
