What we can learn from a child’s creative curiosity.
Often we associate creativity with the applied arts, like painting, drawing or sculpting, but it encompasses so much more, especially for children. Most artists will admit that failure is the ultimate teacher. There’s no better example of the power of failure and repetition to teach us how to navigate our surroundings than when we watch a baby learn to walk. Without ego or frustration, they stumble their way through a remarkable creative process, utilizing anything and anyone to help them achieve their goal.
Curiosity and exploration are tools that enable children to make sense of their surroundings, their culture, and to acquire the verbal/non-verbal communication skills needed to express themselves. Children have a remarkable capacity to embrace countless mistakes and mishaps in order to master something. A misjudged reach for your leg may lead to fall back onto their padded bottom. But next time, they may judge the distance with more acuracy. A coffee table, a seat, a drawer handle, your knee are to them perfectly scaled abstract objects designed to help with, standing, balancing or climbing their way to the next challenge. This is how a baby’s creative mind actively imagines innovative ways to make progress possible.
A Positive Pursuit
The beauty of their will to triumph is that it’s largely a positive pursuit. A child refrains from beating herself up for not being able to walk. She just keeps trying. Thankfully she’s blissfully unaffected by the negative feedback loop that afflicts the adult mind. Otherwise humans would still be knuckle walkers.
A child learning to walk, falls an average of 17 times per hour (National Library of Medicine USA). This is of no concern to a baby trying to get from point a to b. They are singularly focused. What happens in between doesn’t really matter. They accept the stumbling and bumbling as a means to an end. This is also why caregivers must ensure guardrails are in place to prevent accidents.
The nurturing aspect of this process involves a healthy dose of positive reinforcement in a safe environment. Ideally, a caregiver offers encouragement for successes while also disregarding baby’s mistakes. The focus should always be on the good stuff, giving the child the confidence to keep trying, while under your safe, watchful eye.
Embracing the Child Within
Maintaining our childhood enthusiasm for learning unfortunately fades as we grapple with the responsibilities of adulthood. Our creative aspirations are no longer encouraged, for fear they will not have an economic benefit. Art school is probably one of the final frontiers where adults are encouraged to embrace failure and take risks. But to get back to this child-like way of thinking requires a lot of letting go, particularly to many societal norms and habits.
It is so tough that many universities see nearly half of students in the first year drop out. Even less of those who managed to graduate with a Bachelor in Visual Art have maintained an artistic career, choosing more mainstream pursuits in order to make a living.
The good news is that it is not too late to bring creativity back into your life. In fact, it couldn’t be more urgent to do so. New studies are showing significant benefits to signing up for an art class – this could be music, dance, craft or contemporary art (the list goes on). Attending an an art class could add around seven years to your life, by “improving cognitive function and memory, and improving self-esteem and well-being” according to the National Institute on Aging.
Sure, there are greater costs to our mistakes in adulthood. You can’t drive into someone, say whoops and just continue on. And some may say an art degree is a mistake, when compared to a law or accounting degree. But maintaining some of the wide eyed curiosity we had as children might just make us happier, healthier, more curious, playful, and it may even prolong our lives.
Get Inspired! Creative Classes for Adults:
Browne School of Art – An independent art school located in Grey Lynn (Auckland). Browne offers a selection of part-time day, evening and short art courses for teenagers and adults wishing to develop their experience of drawing, painting and printmaking. Practical skills are taught and creative thinking is nurtured and encouraged within a structured framework that emphasises each individuals artistic development, without imposing any specific stylistic interpretation.
The Clay Center – Whether you are looking for an evening class after work or have the mornings free, we have a class to suit you. We offer hand-building, wheel throwing and sculpture classes for all levels of experience. (based in Mt Wellington, Auckland)
Farina Restaurant – Pizza Making Classes. Master the secrets of creating an authentic Pizza alla Napoletana. Classes are once a month (Saturdays, 11:00 AM)
