I will be reaching my half-century this year, as middle line player. In these years involving my childhood, youthhood, adulthood, and first signs of adage included, there has been such grand scale immersion of creativity.
Most of my childhood stories are curtesy my mother. When I probed her for how I was as a child on rare occasions she would spin a tale of wonder. But there are certain points in her narrative that had a blurry image in my mind.
One such image would be Lower Kindergarten and Upper Kindergarten in Kudremukh and later in Chennai where I completed my entire schooling and college. So, I am not sure of the images in my memory; but there seems to be an indication to creative thinking mindset.
Creativity in Kudremukh Schools
My family were in Kudremukh as my father was employed in Steel Plant testing lab. I remember the red soil and the rains in this place of my early childhood. The memory of crowded marketplace lit with lanterns permeating with the smell of eclairs sweet.
There was the school van which picked all the children from the employee quarters. The van would pick-up and drop us off between our home and school. I have memory of my ring finger of my right hand getting jammed in the van door.
The incidence from this time are stories told by mother and how I was the only girl child in our lane and was popular to request the neighbours to play the radio. I would sit down for a while listen and return home.
Mother also told me about the babysitting done by her Telugu friend while she worked on her chores. But none of these images are in my memory. Except for the raincoats and baby boots and jumping over red puddles.
My First Creative Expression
When I was about five or six years old, we shifted to Chennai and settled down. I still had a few months to finish my Upper Kindergarten. My school principal asked me to redo my UKG in the Nursery School.
The school was more an Anglo-Indian predated British Colonial education system. It functioned more like a finishing school up to seventh grade. After 8th grade things became more school aimed for higher education.
This incident was share by my mother, about my UKG drawing. I had made in my Nursery school even now it is still clear in my head. I had drawn a fictional fisherman and his wife depicting a single day after work in their life.
That was my version of life of a fisherman hanging the net and separating the fish from the net while his wife looks at him from a window on the second floor. Now, don’t ask me, how I imagined a building for a fishing community, which at my time was steeped in poverty and cannot afford a sturdy building!
Nurturing Creativity Happened in Art and Craft Class
Though I could think in diverse ways, yet schools have a way to streamline even creativity. During the holidays, I would play around with creativity and come up with some new ideas.
The fourth summer break was different since I had begun picking up Famous Fives series. It lasted right into my 8th grade. I remember writing the titles in my green diary. I enjoyed the art and craft classes; but I did not do well in them. Somehow, the inspiration seemed to have dried up.
It was during my 5th grade that I started to look at writing with a sense of awe. I often wonder, what keeps the creativity nurtured for growth and expansion. Creativity is in opposition with order and logic.
Great Expectations and Great Fails
As a student, I felt lost in school and my scores were not the best; but somewhere the resilient self would appear sparkling in a show of brilliance and immediately vanish. I never had an Ah! Moment at class until I began teaching myself.
I also disliked minding the class, so much that, it felt like physically throwing up. I am happiest when I am not supervising anything or people. But my sister excelled in it. I always wanted to hide under the tablecloth and never see the light.
This strong shyness and extroverted personality warred against each other, and I was a confusion of a person for a long time. I began spending more time alone and that is when I could imagine wild things. Reading also helped in building my imagination.
Home Tutoring and A New Understanding
When you are in the shoes of the teacher and work as a teacher that is when you understand that attention given to each student individually is a myth. Unless you work one-on-one with a student.
I realised that I could not teach a student with learning disability because I used a different method for my disability in learning. That choice of option did not work for my ward’s needs; and I had to throw in the towel defenceless.
This brought with it some series of mental turbulent thoughts while as a true Libran I debated each point such as ones starting from my childhood education to present day distracted children with low attention time.
Though I could not help my ward I understood that my competence as a teacher was so poor that I could not realise what he was having the most trouble with; how he can overcome it.
I Had Great School Teachers and College Professors
Now while trying to teach the basic alphabet to a child seeking literacy, I understood the kind of patience my teachers had in my educational years. Every student is a hope for a teacher and sometimes it is a two ways road of learning experience.
The Ah! Moment of understanding can happen only when the student has made clear and strong neural network of what he or she had learned in the class and applies it practically.
I still remember when one of my Primary class teachers Mrs. N and Mrs E had used things and objects to teach Human body and Solar System, I felt I learnt more, and my fascination of dark room and splatters of light makes education a fun experience.
For Further Reading
Parent Portal | 92% of Kids Say Creativity Helps Boost Their Confidence, Crayola Study Shows
Parent Portal | Most Parents Have the Wrong Idea About Their Kid’s Creativity, Study Finds
Itinerant Storyteller 