JOIN USCrammed, Clustered and Chaotic are currently the 3 Cs that dominate a student’s life. It is no denying that too much is being crammed into a student’s agenda, as his or her days at school and college are clustered and chaotic. In an academic year, studies of varying subjects, both profound and mundane, bombard them. Loading him or her with a wide range of subjects — many of which perhaps, he or she may never find much use for in later years — a student, today, is missing out grossly on being nurtured in some key areas that is verified to be a stronghold for him or her in the years to come.
These areas could broadly be grouped under the 3 Cs: creativity, critical thinking and courtesy. When properly understood and made part of mainstream education, these 3 Cs can equip students with the know-how to synergise their erudition in an effective manner, even long after their graduation from universities. As America’s Management expert, Peter Drucker, put it, “The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.”
If a different future has to be faced with present knowledge, then the art of tweaking textual concepts to make them relevant for a different time frame is compelling. While creativity and critical thinking will be the direct tools to be employed in dealing with an altered future, courtesy is the indirect, yet equally pressing component that will augment the myriad skills of students in proving their calibre and mettle in the future.
So now, the moot question is: how does an education system that has to deliver loads of information in the form of knowledge through various subjects, package these vital skills of creativity, critical thinking and courtesy to students? Here are some insights about the 3 Cs that are worth mulling over.
Creativity
Thinking and innovation are complementary and supplementary in nature. Innovation of any kind in world history is the direct offspring of an ability to think beyond the knowledge acquired. And this ability to think should be trained from early on. Just as in training to dance or play an instrument by breaking the expansive art into its rudiments, the mind can be trained to think by breaking big concepts down to small bits and then ruminating on them.
Students could be asked to think, “Why did Jill come tumbling down and not up?”, while they are being taught the rhyme Jack and Jill. This will not only help them in understanding the laws of gravity later on but will encourage them to think, really think.
Such out-of-the-box thinking becomes the building block of creativity. True creativity often stems from real, concentrated thinking. A compulsory session once a week or fortnight can also be earmarked for nurturing creativity in students. Just as a compulsory PT hour or a library hour fosters games and reading habits in students, a ‘creativity hour’ will encourage students to get the creative juices flowing. Julia Cameron, a novelist who has been teaching creativity to students for over 25 years, recommends that students are to be compelled to write 3 pages — in long hand — about whatever comes to mind, no second guesses and no editing. “It is a mental dust buster, sucking up the negativity that might inhibit creativity later,” she vouches.
Critical thinking
A technologically advanced era has paved the way for free and incessant information. Presently, an avalanche of data is readily available to all and sundry at the click of a button. The natural tendency is obviously to be driven and influenced by these opinions and facts, particularly if they are well-crafted and appealing. Yet, any rational and reasonable mind should not be obliged into accepting anything alluring to be the whole truth.
Logic, reason, clarity, rationality, fairness, ethical and moral norms need to be applied before any matter can be accepted and believed. Such an approach to thinking facts through in a reflective and independent manner is referred to as ‘critical thinking’. Teaching students this skill of critical thinking in the process of their education is a key resource that ought to be made available to them.
When students are urged to employ critical thinking in their understanding and judgements, they learn to look deeper, broader and farther into their subjects. They begin to ask questions, relevant and yet, complex, that will provide cues for the required analysis, synthesis, interpretation and evaluation of the data being studied. Integrating critical thinking into mainstream curriculum will prepare students in an altogether higher order of thinking. For, an academically brilliant student might have all the facts and a higher memory to assimilate them into his or her cognition but if he or she cannot be a critical thinker, there is every possibility that he or she might just only be a genius on paper.
Courtesy
In today’s digital era where a good part of communication is in digital syntax, icons and done predominately through social media and smartphone screens, there is a huge gap in understanding and expressing in tactile terms the courtesy a cultured society should exude through good manners and etiquette. The myth that these elements will take care of themselves so long as a student is accomplishing academically has also led to a general apathy in instilling such important social skills to students. An hour of ‘Moral Science’ that was a compulsory period of the curriculum in the last century enhanced the merit of the students of that generation exponentially. As Adrian Tan, author of The Teenage Textbook, rightly points out, “A lot more can be accomplished by a smile and good manners than with a PhD.”
It must be emphasised that while good education, impressive grades and high academic degrees are all ways to a respectable job and a place in society, it can be limiting in reaching the full potential of students if the 3 Cs mentioned are not introduced in tandem. If students need to remain buoyant and relevant long after graduating from universities, their education ought to go beyond subjects and lessons.