Creative Role of Work

The topic taken for discussion today was given as "Creative Work". I hope you will not consider me presumptuous changing it, though slightly, to 'Creative Role of Work'. I have been asked to consider the topic with reference to children of pre-primary school age which may be understood as children between the age of two and a half to five years. I must mention that what little I know about children of that age group comes from my knowledge of Dr. Maria Montessori's findings and ideals. How important a role WORK plays in the life of a child is what I want to present here. By work we mean purposeful directed activity through which any achievement become possible.

Here is what Dr. Montessori says in her 'Secret of childhood' regarding 'Creative Work' in the child ...

The child too is a worker and a producer. If he cannot take part in the adult's work he has his own, a great, important, difficult work indeed the work of producing Man. If from the new-born baby, helpless, unconscious, dump, unable to raise himself, comes forth the individual adult with perfected form, with a mind enriched with all the acquisitions of his psychic life, radiant with the light of the spirit, this is th child's doing. It is the child who builds up the man, the child alone. The adult cannot take his place in this work; 'work' is still more evident and more absolute than the exclusion of the child from the work producing social order superimposed on nature in which the adult reigns. The child's work belongs to another order and has a wholly different force from the work of the adult. Indeed one might say that one is opposed to the other. The child's work is done unconsciously in abandonment to a mysterious spiritual energy actively engaged in creation. It is indeed creative work.

By doing the work he has to do what does the child create? As Dr. Montessori clearly indicates the child's work is not the same and not even similar to the work the adult does. As Man the adult creates things externally with the help of his limbs and expanded energy, the child's work helps him to build a more perfect, more confident, a more developed adult out of himself. Every adult who can claim to be having any of the attributes (physical, mental, intellectual, moral, etc.) owes it to the child he once was and built them. The final human behaviour pattern is developed and consolidated by him within the period that is specified here, namely the first five years of life.

We see in animal life that the young ones develop fast immediately after birth helped by their instincts. But comparatively speaking Man, the child takes a long time to develop in himself the characteristics that are peculiar to the human species, characteristics that prevail in the part of the world he is born in and the characteristics that specially belong to him as an individual. All these put together form the final behaviour pattern in him. This is what the child creates for himself by himself and this is particularly true with regard to the human species. This creative work the child does continuously for the time he is born. He does it willingly with a great enthusiasm and never does he have a moment off. It looks almost that the human child is endowed with the powers, the capacities and he is compelled to do it, as it were, by some power within.

Naturally the question arises - If this were true, does the adult have nothing to do with respect to the child's development? The answer would be 'Most certainly, Yes!' In order that the child actualises his potent capacities he needs the right environment from where he gets all the help he needs. This environment not only provides him with the conditions and material necessary for his development and also protect him from any other disturbances that may hinder his developmental progress. The environment along with the adult helper should be able to nourish and stimulate him in his work. The help has to be modified as he keeps developing. This is the 'work' that is organised by the adult who has taken up the responsibility of offering help.

What is the type of work that we will try to provide for the children in course of this fundamental development? In the first place the activity must be such that will help his development and not one that will prove to be an 'energy spending process'. Naturally the work that is suggested should be such that the nature of it is easily understood by the child. The particular activity should be short so that he can finish it in a short time and the goal is reached early enough. The activity has to be simple such that the child is capable of judging for himself how well he has performed. The virtue of self-judgment is worth possessing at whichever stage of life we are in. It goes without saying that activity proposed must be within reach of the child's capacity so that it does not tire him out. It is found that the children of this age group are fond of repeating the same activity a number of times when such activity proves to be an answer to their current need. Yet we try to provide them with a variety of activities to be able to cater to the plurality of children and also help develop the power to choose.

Summarising we want to provide children with work as a means of satisfying their inner needs and thus their development so that they can create total human integrated personalities.