TDC director Abbas Husain spoke on a panel discussion on creativity in contemporary schooling, alongside other eminent educationists. The panelists spoke at length about the scope of creativity in our increasingly regimented schooling systems — the question of new methodologies and approaches in education were discussed alongside the limitations of existing systems.
Some memorable quotes:
“The schooling system cares about sustaining itself, it does not care for the student.” -Quratulain Bakhtiari
“All children naturally possess the grains of creativity. It is destroyed when teachers and parents channel doubt and disbelief.” -Salman Asif
“Are children born for schools or are schools created for children?” -Abbas Husain
“Why is creativity in high demand these days? Is this another expectation produced because of buzzwords associated with success?” -Azeem Iqbal
“What will our lives look like 50 years from now? There is no agreement, but everyone can agree that creativity will be invaluable. It will be a more powerful influencer than market force, because it helps us confront uncertainty and adapt to the world’s changes.” -Salman Asif
“We must not equate standard of life (consumption + buying power) to quality of life (nature of relationships, ability to create).”
“We must acknowledge children’s fundamental intelligence and curiosity. We must trust the seed, not force an alien system on it.” -Salman Asif
“Our current practices render us incapacitated for the future’s demands. We must be open to experimentation.” -Irfan Hyder
