Young children have pure minds. Their worlds have not yet been coloured or framed by various socially constructed concepts and ideas. The whys and the hows constantly flow in their mind, trying to make sense of the world. That is why they are such philosophical beings that “think outside the box.” Why the air quote? The fact we think these children think outside the box is already thinking within the box itself. It’s sort of saying that these children do not possess the same thinking process we hold and that they are unique and creative.

This “thinking outside the box,” this creativity, and this philosophical nature of these little people, I think, is beautiful.

The sad part of it all is that children somehow lose this ability as they grow older. They become assimilated into the mainstream cultural and societal norms. As Sir Ken Robinson states in one of his TEDtalks, “[our current education system is] educating people out of their creative capacities.” He says that “we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it.” I strongly agree to his claim. Schools prepare children to become successful adults who are capable of functioning in the world the way society sees success. This idea of success is leaning towards getting a degree, getting a stable job, getting married, so on and so forth. Dreaming of becoming an engineer seems to be  much more valued than dreaming of becoming a musician – this is the sad reality of socially constructed idea of success.

Teaching children to become an adult who is capable of functioning in the world is an essential part of education. By functioning, I mean understanding social norms and social cues, learning how to learn and accumulate knowledge, developing interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, etc. As educators, we are responsible for preparing students to understand how our current world functions and is structured and how the social sphere operates. But in doing so, creativity or uniqueness is often disregarded and/or forgotten.

Sir Ken Robinson also states that “if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original…” However, the system tries to pack the minds into a beautifully wrapped box so that when they come out of the production line (i.e.: education system), they can be neatly stacked and organized. The unique ones, they disrupt the balance of this stacking process and are pushed to the side so that other “perfect” boxes can be neatly stacked. This system then teaches individuals to become afraid or hesitant from creativity and/or uniqueness because if you’re different from the others, you are either misfitting or mistaken. The fear of being wrong stunts the whys and the hows because these unknowns can easily lead to a mistake.

With such huge obstacles, how then can we preserve these wonderful philosophical natures in young children?

My conclusion is to keep the children wondering. Encourage them to ask the whys and the hows. Encourage them to make mistakes and to be wrong. Teach them that mistakes can be a great asset – we learn from our mistakes. If we were able to provide an environment in which students are able to feel comfortable making a mistake, we can potentially eliminate the fear and continue nurturing the whys and the hows. Just because society asks individuals to fit into the box doesn’t mean we need to lock young minds into it. As an educator, we can give them the keys to access the world outside of the box.

Appreciate and live these questions together with these little people – because children are natural philosophers. They have so much to offer and we have so much to learn from them.

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Here is a link to one of my favourite book called Big Questions from Little People & Simple Answers from Great Mind. We can learn so much from these amazing questions children have posed. The power of children’s wonders and curiosity is perfectly captured and illustrated in this book.

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