In our bid to create a manicured environment, we have gone a bit too far. Our homes are increasingly swept and cleaned and spic and span. We don’t like our routines being disturbed even in the most non-intrusive ways. We raise our children with similar expectations and then we fail disastrously at that.
Children are inherently curious. Some too much so. But as Jinan, a radical educationist explained, the only job that a child has is to make sense of the world using his senses. So if you notice all their shenanigans, they are aimed at making sense of how things work, knowingly or unknowingly.
What happens if I throw the glass off the table? Learning about gravity and science..
What if I ride the bicycle at high speed and then apply brakes? ..Force and motion…
What if I add more water to the atta? … Chemistry
Their inherent curiosity is fed not by our words, which also are increasingly rare, but by their own research. And if we hope to raise original thinkers and creators we ought to let that happen. As far as it is not inflicting serious harm to their own selves and others or causing major losses, naughtiness in children is a sign of an active mind.
As educators, we often come across extremely naughty students in our classrooms who are brilliant in their studies. And we often pray that we could separate their naughtiness from their brilliance. But at GGIS we remind each other that one stems from the other. That brilliance is fed by their curious mind which makes them look naughty to an order-seeking adult.
While schools have increasingly accepted this version of children and they try their best to accommodate different learning styles, parents seem to be still living in their own archaic conventional vision of schooling. Very few parents are ready to appreciate their child’s theatrics as means of learning. Mostly they either put up with it because they dare not displease the child or they ignore it.
I hope we let our children be naughty. Let them fall off a tree or play games on their tabs for a tad too long or create a mess while cooking or spill paint all over or stare out of the window forever. Childhood is sacred and real. It is not to be rushed through to reach the “real” life.
What is your take on naughtiness? You may name it differently but do you believe that children’s curiosity leads them to chaos? Do share your views.
