Every Friday, we take Elle, Belle, and The Littlest Uncle to a toddler group, where they play, sing and take part in a 'creative' activity.
The creative activity looks really promising at first; tables drowned in pots of glitter, stickers, crayons and all kinds of treasures; but then, as soon as your child's creative intuition kicks in, they put down a piece of work they made earlier alongside the words 'THIS IS WHAT IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE."!
The creative activity for children then becomes more like a competition for parents; all trying to make the neatest picture that looks most like the example. Some parents even take this further by not letting their children even touch their masterpiece!
How can children learn how to be creative and to trust their own instincts if even at this young age they are being bluntly told that 'different' is WRONG?
I really don't know how children can learn from this. It's ridiculous to expect young children to copy something to almost perfection and parents to not have the sense to realise that they are simply causing stress to their own child. This is very typical of today's competitive society.
ReplyDeleteCJ xx