Three-year-old Tony was encouraged by his grandfather to take things apart. By age 5 he was using tools like soldering irons to build stuff and by age 14, he was creating and selling computer programs, heralding adult inventions that have revolutionized the electronics industry and the world.
I worry that today’s budding inventors won’t have the opportunities and freedom to explore and invent like Tony did.
Kids need time to pour themselves into the creative process, to experience those flow moments when they are so engaged that they lose track of time. Busy schedules packed with activities don’t allow for this. Creative, original thought often springs from daydreaming, when we aren’t distracted.
Author Ken Robinson has a great quote related to this topic: “If you are not prepared to be wrong and make mistakes, you will never create anything original.” That means we have to let kids make mistakes, get frustrated, maybe even fail as part of this inventive process.
Many adults who became inventors were labeled ‘different’ as kids, often being teased or excluded. They really did see the world differently, and this set them apart because their original and unique approach to things was not valued. Sometimes creative kids hide their talents for fear of being shunned.
Ask a classroom full of 5-year-olds, “Who is an artist?” and you will get a sea of hands wildly waving. By fifth grade, you might see a third raise their hands, and by high school, a few embarrassed ones. We really don’t value artists, musicians and dancers nearly as much as the athletes and those excelling in the three R’s. In a lean economy, it is the arts programs that get cut, never the football program. A high school senior interested in art colleges is usually smothered with lectures about starving artists and not being able to make a good living.
The comedian Louis C.K. shared in a Rolling Stone interview last year that he learned to do his creative writing at a computer with no internet access, because in his moments of writer’s block it was too easy to get distracted. He worries that kids today are not willing to go through the frustrating times that can result in the greatest new ideas because it’s too easy to click onto the next, more interesting thing.
Kids need to be given down time to avidly pursue things they are interested in. It’s only when they are fully engaged in their passions that they will be willing to put in the 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladwell, in the book Outliers, found people had invested to become masters of their craft. I want kids to rediscover the love of learning that is inherent in the pursuit of knowledge, and to play games and sports for play’s sake and for the fun involved versus seeking national championship banners. Left to their own devices, kids are natural born learners: curious, ready for adventures, self-motivated, and bearers of vivid imaginations. Perhaps our job as parents is to get out of their way and allow them a more soulful childhood.
[Tim Jordan, M.D., is a Behavioral Pediatrician who specializes in counseling girls ages 6 through college. For more information, go to drtimjordan.com.]