
Teaching Parents About Creativity and Imagination
The games teacher pushed Dogood to the stage. A pair of four hundred eyeballs, some hidden by glasses, accompanied Dogood and the teacher to the centre, where the podium had been a few seconds ago.
Dogood had squeezed his small frame covered in a navy blue coverall into a shopping trolley.
As he was preparing for the talk he had considered wearing a vest and using a playpen but reconsidered.
He had asked to speak to the parents alone.
The school administration had invited Dogood as one of the guests for the annual parents’ meeting. At first he was reluctant because it was a public school. When public schools call parents for a meeting it is always about money, and asking for more money. The meetings start late, preceded by exaggerated entertainment meant to dull the parents’ senses. Tired, scorched, heavy with concerns of travelling back home, the parents are pounced on – We need more money.
Once Dogood confirmed that the school was genuinely concerned about the parents’ wellbeing, he jumped at the chance to talk on his pet subject of creativity and imagination. He even offered the school a huge discount on his usual fee.
“Dear parents, how are you? I am sorry to disappoint you…I know when you saw the podium carried away you built some expectations… Please go on and imagine all those nice things. I promise this presentation will be short. I am not here to teach or lecture.
“What you need is a daily choice to exercise your creativity and imagination. You have to be creative before you can teach or encourage your children to be creative.
“Show them how to be creative, do not just them. So go home and start getting in touch with your inner child. Go home squeeze yourself into something that will remind you of how to be childlike…. have fun.
“Let your children see you being joyful and creative. That way you will not even have to tell them, they will just copy what you are doing.
“Many parents especially Christian parents walk around with long faces. They treat every idea like it is from the devil. Others are so scientific that when people around them or even their children share jokes, they want to measure the temperature of the joke before they can laugh.
“Then some of the plans and visions parents have for their children are only good for raising robots.
“Children are born creative until they meet their parents!”
Trolley: Photo by NEHEMIAS GOMEZ FOTOGRAFIA