My friend's daughter, about 6 years of age, takes keen interest in drawing and has a natural inclination towards art. Her mother wants to put her in an art school, so I checked with an artist friend of mine, Gitanjali, on how to go about finding her a good art teacher.
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Gitanjali gave me an interesting perspective! She said Vaishnavi is very young, at this age, we should allow her creativity to blossom without putting her into the boundaries of learnt art. Let her fly with her imagination first, skills are easy to build later. Before we know, she will be exposed to other artists which will anyway "colour" her innocent splashes. This is her only chance at experiencing free art.
My life in a semi-rural set up in Rishikesh threw deeper light on this.
Prakash, a kid in the neighborhood, spends hours by himself, playing with the same rubber tube, sometimes rolling and running with it, sometimes tying cotton thread all around it, and sometimes to just throw it at the barking dog, unsuccessfully though because his hands are still tiny.
Long hours of being left alone as his mother goes to clean and wash in the neighborhood, leaves little Prakash with no choice but to keep himself entertained with available resources. In the process, he also learns to be creative. He needs to use the same resource (in this case a rubber tube), to play multiple games to break the monotony. This is gadget minimized, instructions-nil play. The one that affords maximum spontaneity and creativity.
What is organically learnt in our culture is now a growing concept in the west called Free Play.
Syeda Sazia Zaman from the BRAC Institute of Educational Development explains that play is at the core of the development of the child. Children experience and learn about their world through free play, it is a really important tool for children’s cognitive, physical, social and emotional development and also their imagination and creativity. Free Play is when children have full freedom to play in whatever way they want.
This is an advantage of growing up in an Experience Culture society like India. Such societies are chaotic, experiential, they rely on situational solutions rather than a structured, organized system. This enforces creativity, a natural ability to work with limited resources. Compare this to the Clock Culture of the West, where every activity is systematized, predictable, and often accompanied by abundance. Learning, then, becomes more organized than organic.
The joy experienced by little Noor in licking each drop of her favorite yoghurt is infinite. Any attempt at sanitizing the process and the whole fun is lost. This is the critical point of an experience culture. The happiness in Noor's eyes justifies any and every inconvenience caused through a messy floor or a messy blue frock, because of the premium that is placed on Experience.
