I am reading an interesting article called "The Play Imperative" by DK Holland which is published in the Sept/Oct 2001 issue of Communications Art. The feature interesting play 'institutions', ranging from recycled decrepit buildings to cutting-edge museums.
My favourite is the City Musuem in St Louis, and I like the closing para of the article, an excerpt of which I will quote here "America, the land of the individual, the land where we are all free to pursue our happiness, was built on a dream. And play is the pathway we take to get to dreaming. So it's no exaggeration to say that play is an imperative in our lives: Our happiness - our children's happiness - and the future of America depends on it."
I wish Malaysian and Singaporean parents (and many more developed Asian country parents as a whole) would see the importance of this statement. Just replace "America" with the name of your chosen country. Singapore is trying to make itself a creative entrepot in Asia by introducing many govt funded programmes on creativity. But all these is in vain until the people's mindset undergo a major shift. Why waste money trying to bring back the very natural instinct and aptitude you have worked so hard to get rid of in schools?
I do enjoy my rather idyllic primary school days. Though I didn't learn much by way of academic lessons (having a homeroom teacher for the first five years of my life who was a shirker and not much of a nurturer), I learnt a lot from play, as did my classmates. I didn't like my sixth year in secondary school because I was put in, together with the so-called creme-la-creme of my primary school, into a room where we are put on endless drills (I ended up copying most of my homework, which were as numerous at that of Chinese vernacular primary school students)to make us A students in Languages, Composition and Arithmetic. And also the drilling for an IQ test (I don't see the point of the latter)that we all have to sit for (which is not even a proper IQ test, based on my current understanding of that). We are all made rigid and had to conform to a particular style. Maybe it is little wonder that none of my classmates from there ever broke the mould. The same happened in secondary school. Many aspiring artists and musicians, and even writers, I wonder what happened to them, because I don't see them anywhere doing any of these things, anymore.
I remember some schoolmates during my form four days. I was trying to stage a play. Some classmates promised to be in it. I finished the play, some other artistic classmates finished in designing the costumes and props for the set. And these classmates who promised to be part of the play, pulled out at the eleventh hour, citing schoolwork and exams as an excuse. Most of these very same girls ended up as saleswomen, selling stuff from insurance to scientific equipments.
So, there, creativity for you.
