Encouraging Children to Think

As manufacturing industry in India has taken a backseat, the value of strategic thinking becomes
more and more emphasized in today’s world. Technical education is not the only roadway to make a
living anymore, and alternative avenues are opening up. Getting into these sectors require quite a
bit of critical thinking and analytical skills. Coupled with an ever-fragmenting society, the capacity to
think becomes more and more important in a world full of conflicting opinions and deliberate
propagandas.

India is a land known for its diversity, and to take India forward as a whole, it is necessary that
people from various backgrounds work together. Today’s world is no longer a world confined to your
own neighbourhood or street, or even country—those belonging to the future are venturing out of
their narrow silos to take on the wider world. Those with the capability of taking up the mantles of
leaders would be able to communicate and identify with people from differing backgrounds. For a
compassionate and just society, empathising with those unlike you—including people from a
differing gender, social background and senior citizens—is a necessary skill not given much
importance in the Indian context. However, it is all the more relevant to India; and this mindset is
given importance in some of the leading developed countries, with high human development
indices.

The ability to think in a wide variety of ways—including critical thinking, imagination, lateral thinking
and empathising—is the need of the day; and sadly, it is often claimed that Indian children are
straggling in this respect. In all contexts, inculcating this gift in children would undoubtedly lead to a
brighter future, for those individuals as well as communities.

Steps

1. Literature Review and Similar Endeavours

2. Gauging the present condition of the kids
3. Review of Existing Teaching Techniques and Curricula
4. Developing Products and Processes: Classroom Exercises, Modules and Materials
5. Feedback from teachers and students on teaching processes and materials
6. Training of teachers, those who will test and validate the products and processes in
classrooms
7. Testing and Validation in the Classroom
8. Modifications of the Products and Processes with feedback from the teachers and students

Target Population

Hopefully a private school and a public school (or more).