This takes be back to the childhood days. This is a video of very creative traditional toys. The main person in the video is Mr. Sudarshan Khanna who has been associated with NID for almost 35 years. I find it fascinating to combine science and art together to create something that is fun and also creates opportunities for learning.

Look at the confidence. Even if this boy has memorised all these, it’s not easy at all. Especially considering he picked those languages from tourists. Yes, why does’t this boy deserve education? (I don’t know what is the latest status of this kid though.)

This is a great talk on creativity and education system. A must watch. Here are some of the notes of what he says and what I think.

In this video, Sir Ken Robinson talks about why we need to rethink our traditional education system. He says that there are some common issues in every education system. According to him industrialization is one of the core reasons for structural changes in public education systems. And I think that is why our education system is driven by what is more important for the industry than what is for children and future of mankind. Hence subjects like mathematics/science are at the top and arts and humanity at the bottom. Certainly not every field in education earns the same amount of income. But that does not mean that education should leave less earning but creative subjects out. Mathematics and science are very important, but I think arts and humanity is important as well. If it’s just all the brain we focus on what will happen to human values?

Sir Ken Robinson talks about how children are not afraid to make mistakes and as they grow they lose this ability. It is also a part of education system that creates this fear, snatching away the opportunities to foster creativity. He says that we should be prepared to be wrong and that’s the only way we can come up with original ideas.

We all know that every child is special and hence we should let children explore their own abilities and and let them do what they enjoy the most (of course not anything bad). Then there are trends in societies that parents think their children should be diverse so they send their children to learn music or painting even if they might not be as interested in them as in playing games. So what is important for parents and the education system is to provide a platform for children where they can not just learn subjects but explore them through creativity and find what they enjoy the most. And one thing is for sure that if you can do what you enjoy the most you will become really good at it.

Another good point he makes is that because of the way education systems work many talented, brilliant and creative people think they are not. And I think that is really sad.