Removing the BOX

Why is space black? Why do we have elections? Why do we have to follow the rules?........ So many questions! When you are in the company of young people, be ready for one of these rapid-fire rounds every now and then. And guess what? Young minds do not stop at questioning everything, they also find answers on their own! And the answers can be very imaginative. For instance, space can be black because a spaceship flew too close to the sun, got burnt, and the resulting smoke made the space black 😀😀😀. Ask any complex question related to science, philosophy, politics, or economics to young people and you will get a wide set of wonderful imaginative answers. And if the same complex question is asked to adults……………well, many of us would say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘its complicated’ or ‘I don’t care’. Young minds dare to think OUTSIDE THE BOX! Or should I say the BOX is not yet well-defined for them?

What does the education do? As we move up from the preschoolers to school children and finally to undergraduates, we teach them to be IN THE BOX. We put limits on their imagination. And then suddenly when these young minds pursue higher studies, or enter the job market, we want them to think OUTSIDE THE BOX. Workshops are organized on the topic ‘how to think outside the box’. Isn’t that contradictory? Don’t we want to reassess our education system?

Children are born with the ability to think innovatively. Dennis and Calvin are the classic examples of this ability. We need to learn (or should I say ‘re-learn’?) from them, rather than teaching them to suppress it.