By Volunteer Aashi Gupta, FHI Bangalore
Thinking out of the box means lateral thinking, where you don’t follow the conventional options to any given problem. It is a space where you make an attempt to pull yourself out of the goat race in which following a hurdle leads to nowhere.
But the question is why thinking out of the box is particularly important for children?
This is because childhood is the only time where our mind is adaptive and ready to learn new things. Hence, teaching children to think out of the box at this tender age and crucial time, would mean that we are preparing them to face the cut throat competition in a novel way where they question every decision they make, and they don’t stick to the conventional way thus having an edge over others which in long term is the key to success.
Additionally, thinking out of the box doesn’t really need to be question based or problem based, as observed in our various events. It has helped children improve their creativity skills and look at things from a different perspective. One example of such creativity was when at one of our centres, we asked the kids to draw whatever came to their minds when they saw a particular color and a girl drew joy for green color, instead of the usual grass or trees that other kids drew.
In conclusion, lateral thinking for children is really essential because it helps them become more creative, more street smart, develop a different perspective and be more practical in tasks where they find themselves stuck. Also, it is an important tool to have in your arsenal in this competitive world.
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