Props to encourage creative and critical thinking among children

I have found Tulika Books to be some of the most entertaining and colorful books for children. To my knowledge, there are very few publishers today in India that publish original childrens stories that are set in the Indian context, that relate to everyday lives in India,and are written in a variety of Indian languages. Tulika is one of them. Add to these features, colorful illustrations and engaging stories to suit every age. I own many of Tulika books and me and my daughter absolutely love them!

It was refreshing to see recently that Tulika Books offers writers-workshops  for children in India. They do this at some of the schools and also at summer camp settings in the major cities in India. Reading Tulika books, doing various activities to discuss the characters and plots in these books and encouraging the children to write stories of their own seemed to be the general theme in these workshops.

Discussing the plots and characters in the books encourages critical thinking in children. Asking questions to children like, “What would you do if you were in this situation and why”, “Why do you think the character did what he did”, and so on, pushes the children to analyze the situation and think about alternative solutions to issues in front of them.In addition, activities that encourage rich discussions are opportunities for the children to engage in meaningful dialogues with each other and challenge each others thinking in a non-competitive environment. Research studies have shown that learning that happens in one context does transfer to other contexts. So, if children are made to think critically about the stories that they are reading and have discussions about it with each other, it will transfer to other real life situations that they face.

Having the children write original stories is a great way to encourage creativity in children. Giving them an opportunity to make up their story based on their thoughts and experiences helps them unleash their creative energies into something useful. When such activities are combined with discussions about how the children’s favorite authors design and write their stories and dialogues, can help children understand the creative process and apply them to their own work.

What made me like even more about these workshops that Tulika Books offers is the fact that they are based on books that are set in an Indian context with Indian characters and languages. For me, there is nothing more enticing about books than the fact that they help children relate to the environment that they live in. Books help children express the emotions that they feel inside them and relate them to the world they live in. I have always felt that, not having popular childrens books that are set in Indian context has been a huge loss for the children in India. They have had to resort to books that are set in foreign contexts – especially USA and UK. Although, this has definitely provided opportunities for the children to improve many of their academic skills, I feel it been a big setback in terms of not helping them to relate the books they read, to what they see and experience on a daily basis.

After reading about the writing workshops that Tulika offers, I started wondering as to what it would take to have such workshops in many more schools and educational settings in India. Knowing the competitive culture in many schools across India today, it would require a shift in thinking where children are given freedom to explore their ideas more, without the competitive pressures. What does it take to make this shift in culture in schools? What does it take for people to realize the importance of why this shift in thinking has to happen? These and many more such questions are what I’m thinking about today…