Someone once defined Creativity as the “ability to hold two opposing ideas in our head and still function”. Any one of us who have seen very young children in action will be amazed by their curiosity, energy and innocence.
Sadly, some children lose this “awe and wonder” and the spirit of experimentation as they grow older and learn to rationalise at the expense of creativity, through the schools. I am therefore greatly encouraged by the Ministry of Education’s intention to reignite the sparks and bring joy of learning to our students.
I came across this poem, “The Child is Made of One Hundred” by Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Approach to pre-school education, which sees young children as intellectually curious, resourceful, & full of potential. Hopefully, as their child minders and significant adults, parents, guardians, teachers, coaches and instructors will continue to give children the “time” and “space” to dream, experiment and make mistakes.
The poem, “The Child is Made of One Hundred” for your reading pleasure:
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child
has a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred way of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marvelling of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands,
to do without head,
to listen and not to speak,
to understand without joy,
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way, The hundred is there.
Loris Malaguzzi,
Founder of Reggio Schools