The article is part of a master's thesis on the topic "Radical reform in education - individuality instead of unification" in Pedagogy to acquire the qualification "Teacher of Economic Disciplines" at IU - Varna, protected with Excellent
The world is changing very fast. And we have no way of knowing what will happen in the near future. Because cultural changes are rarely linear and difficult to predict. In this dynamic, we need more and more new ideas, people who can work in a team and know how to communicate. Little kids are full of ideas, but then something happens. Why do we stop thinking outside the box when we grow up? Or maybe the creativity is still smoldering inside us, but instead of igniting it, we for some reason suppress it. To answer these questions, let's first see what it means to be creative. And who are the people - innovators. The creative process has three main steps. The first is imagination, the moment when we see in our mind things that are not available at the given moment to our senses. The second step is creativity – the ability to develop original ideas with value. And finally we come to innovation – the moment we put these new ideas into practice. It is a misconception that only special people are creative and that it is a rare talent. Virtually anyone can be creative as long as they are given the right conditions. Another misconception is that creativity is only associated with certain activities such as advertising, art or design. Natural sciences can also be creative. In fact, wherever we use our intelligence, creativity can break through. Starbucks certainly didn't invent coffee, but they managed to create a certain culture around it.
Being creative means playing with ideas, having fun and letting your imagination run free. On the one hand, creativity is about working hard on ideas and projects. But on the other hand, with making decisions about what and how will work best. And the question is not only to start something new, but to be able to keep it. However, in order to create a child who will grow up to be a creative adult, we need to give him freedom.
Freedom or security
Every parent is programmed to protect and care for their child. There are exceptions, of course, but they only prove the rule. And the main thing that mom and dad strive for is to give security to their child. So strongly do they strive for it that to this day they do not feel themselves crossing the line of useful security. Modern man has lost his idea of freedom. And he often confuses it with this certainty. True freedom is determined above all by the possibility of making decisions about one's life. And in today's modern world, in practice, the individual does not have the opportunity to decide almost anything on his own. The state provides almost everything - education, health care, work, but at the same time controls all of this. It's the same in the family. Today, parents are increasingly taking care of their children unnecessarily. They do things for them with the idea that the child does not get hurt, that he does not suffer, instead of teaching him well to manage on his own. Thus, modern society has become filled with generations of dependent children who will grow up to be dependent adults; big people, unable to do certain things and make decisions. This is how these future adults will raise their children.
Freedom is, first of all, independence and the ability to manage on our own. The first principle of building a successful child is to give him more freedom and less security, to teach him how to handle the rod instead of serving him the fish straight cooked. But apart from independence, freedom is the presence of self-control, self-discipline and self-governance. Because they are the cornerstone on the road to success. What is the connection with freedom? Very simply - when we know how to control ourselves, it is assumed that our actions and decisions do not depend mainly on our emotions. And independence is a prerequisite for free will. To build this sense of self-control in a child, he must learn from an early age the meaning of the word NO. It must learn that the path it has taken is not smooth and safe. There are barriers there for it to overcome and limitations to come to terms with. And despite our innate instinct to please our child, we must firmly stand up for our NO because that is what is right for our child.
© 2023 Iliana Dechkova