Skill Factor # 5 - What school did not teach me that life always asks of me.

SKILL FACTOR # - THE ART OF PLAYING.

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
― Albert Einstein

I remember a story that l came across in one of these books that l was reading. It is about a truck that got stuck under a bridge after the driver misjudged his high-rising truck to fit driving through this bridge. The truck got stuck and people were now trying to find a way of removing the trapped truck. Among some of the onlookers was a three your old boy who after some minutes on the scene saw an officer and started a conversation. "Excuse me sir what are all these people trying to do," asked the little boy. They are trying to figure out how to remove that truck that has been trapped under the bridge answered the police officer. Scratching his head, the little boy answered, "Why don’t they remove pressure off the tyres." Dump founded with a laugh of a defeated frontier the officer walked towards the truck to share the little genius' idea.

If we could just record on camera children playing and then find ways of developing their ideas we would be amazed at what we would come up with. Could this be one of the reasons why Jesus said,

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [Mat 18:3]

In his book, 'Free to learn', Peter Grey, from experimental evidence had this to say,

📌Learning problem solving and creativity are worsened by the interventions that interfere with playfulness and are improved by interventions that promote playfulness.

He goes further and gives an example of one experiment where researchers presented real physicians (doctors) with a case history of difficult-to-diagnose liver disease. The case included some misleading information which created a barrier to identifying the relevant information in arriving at a correct solution.

Mood manipulation was accomplished by giving some of the doctors a little bag of candy (sweets) before presenting them with the problem. Those who got the bag of candy arrived at the correct diagnosis more quickly than those who didn't.

✅Conclusions drawn from the research showed that a positive mood (playfulness topping the list) improved creative insightful reasoning.

Peter Gray had also experiments conducted in England to back his claim. In these, they found out that young children could solve logic problems in the context of play that they seemed not to be able to solve in a serious context. Four-year-olds in play easily solved logic problems that they were not supposed to solve until they were 10 or 11 years old.

What am l trying to say in all this? One skpoliceill that education took away from us is the art of playing.

What is it that is in their lives that we tend to lose because of the kind of education system that we go through. As we engage the school system we lose our creativity as we are taken out of play. It is when we play that our creativity is at its best. School did not teach us to play but in reality it is those who have never stopped playing that have become the most powerful people in their times managing to turn the world in one direction or another. Their voice has been heard and the signature sound of whatever they were doing has left a mark in their environments.

When I talk of playing, l am not talking of organised play such as sports and music. I am talking of being out there where your imagination is left to wonder without any set boundaries and adventure as the order of the day. When we would play as children we would use anything from the environment to paint a picture of what we wanted to have. We would use anything to shape the imaginary reality of play. It’s that kind of play that should have remained untampered with to keep creativity at work. This is not the case when we begin to go to school. One thing we are assured of in school is that school time is not a time of play.

The education system begins to narrow our minds to go along certain lines of thinking. Failure to do so would mean being labeled as incompetent. Many whose imaginations would try and continue wondering would be spanked to concentrate and pay attention. This explains why many who were labeled by the Education system to have learning disorders were the ones who made real impact. They had problems at school and some of them left school early and continued to play. They never allowed the school to kill their power to continue playing with their imagination.

Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Napoleon Bonaparte, Richard Branson, Tom Cruise, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates and many more world changers were said to have had either ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or Dyslexia (a learning disability in which a person finds it difficult to read and write) in their earlier lives. All the above have one thing in common they were struggling to fit in and continued to play and used their creativity and imagination to bring about what the education system could not bring about.

I will quote a portion l used in the last blog. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. [Gen 2:19-20]

The creator left the first man to play with his imagination to name the animals. There were no boundaries or structured course to follow. He was just supposed to play. Creative ideas come when we are relaxed and our imagination is left to play freely, like the guy who asked why his best ideas always came whilst in the shower or on the toilet seat. It is in such moments that our mind is left to play freely.

As we begin to embrace the idea of playing and intergrate it in new educational systems we have to create a new attitude in our people on how they will relate to their environments. Do not let the environment determine what shall be but let what shall be come from inside and persist until you have managed to make the environment clothe your imagination. The environment was meant to clothe man's creativity and imagination. It’s when ideas put on or clothe themselves with earth that man enjoys and fulfills his mandate on earth. An environment with so much substance without man to find ways of drawing from it is useless. It is only when man begins to play and puts work in it that energy will be utilized for good. When people are playing, no matter how much work is required in the play they will not need any external motivation to push them to work. They will be consumed in the play and not feel the work that they will be doing meaning they will be more productive. How pleasant it is to do the work that you enjoy doing, while others will be calling it work you will be playing.

The greatest gift that we can give our children is the knowledge and philosophy of understanding that life is what is inside them and what comes from within. With a strong enough will and meekness they can find ways of drawing from the environment to clothe that which is inside and imaginations will always be turned into reality. Children grow with this success principle when they play but it’s when we begin to stop them from playing that we begin to kill them. Death begins when you stop playing. Education should have been designed to get in their play to be effective. Watch children play and see how they use the environment to clothe their imagination. They can play all day without feeling hungry or tired. The greatest educationists are those who will be able to bring what is important in people's play.

All work and no play makes Jonny a dull boy and all play and all play and no work is not a reality since there is energy at work in play but the right work in play makes Jonny a successful boy. The world will never stop rewarding artists (imagination) because they never stopped playing. Musicians, sportsman, architects, designers, entertainers, inventers, entrepreneurs never stop playing and it is these who give scientists work to do. Scientists, engineers, builders, mechanics will then have to go to the environment to find ways of clothing the ideas of the artists. Let's raise more artists, people who use their imagination, they create from inside and give direction to scientists on what they have to extract from the environment.

The destiny of Africa lies in our ability to recapture the unlimited potential of imagination that is released when we continue to play and be set free from the colonial education system that made imagination the least rewarded ability. Coach Tarie Coaching and Consultancy (COTACC) and the Arise Africa Cause are there to help as many Africans to capture transformation and begin to learn and apply these life skills that are not taught in formal educational structures but that are relevant to realize real success. It is our heartbeat to help Individuals, families, organizations, governments to be what they were created to be, have what they were destined to have in order to do what they were wired to do by original design.

“I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.”
― J.G. Ballard

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Coach Tarie - Coach Tarie Coaching and Consultancy (COTACC)

Skill Factor # 5 - What school did not teach me that life always asks of me.