Today we are celebrating the 2 nd Summer of Weaver Birds Carnival, an inter- school platform for interaction among children and I am happy to see that children love to be a part of such events, where they get a chance to interact, learn, compete and at the same time have a lot of fun. The theme of today’s carnival is-“presenting the Culture and tradition of North East India”. Keeping in tune to it, we organized an Art Competition on this theme, there was traditional dress competition and a Quiz Competition. There were also workshops for children on Pottery Painting, Terracotta creation, water hyacinth processing, traditional handloom, the Shatriya dance form etc. This year we chose this theme for Weaver Birds Carnival, so that we could encourage and initiate the little ones, into the basics of the Culture and Tradition of this region.
I believe, children are a store house of positive energy and creativity and I am sure, we all believe the same. Yet there are times, when we adults, knowingly or unknowingly, stifle their creative pursuits by bogging them more and more with routine work. This I feel is not right. Children should be allowed to express, explore and assess outcomes under the steady guidance of elders- be it parent, family members, or facilitators and they should not be restricted unnecessarily from pursuing their interests. If we do this, we interfere with their creative genius. Here I would like to quote Thomas Henry, who rightly said, “The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity”. Hence we see that all great work is the result of creative ideas/ big dreams—powered by enthusiasm and fearlessness; two very strong forces that every child carries in its heart. Here I would like to narrate an incident that happened in one of our centres while I was on a visit. A child was playing with some blocks, and arranging them in different ways, thus creating an assortment of designs. Well, those blocks were not meant to be arranged in the manner in which she was doing it, yet the outcome was brilliant. Without even knowing she was able to create from her imagination….something real wonderful. And what is it that I learnt from her? I went back to my childhood when I was full of enthusiasm, fearlessness and had no inhibitions to try out new things.
And this is exactly what we endeavor to do in a pre-school. We want to facilitate our children to grow up, to become lifelong happy learners, to chalk out new pathways… And this we do by instilling in them confidence, love, trust and joy of learning. A pre-school is not only about academics. Here children learn to interact, communicate, develop social skills, know themselves and their peers, develop team spirit, life skills and a lot more. It is the foundation of their character. Children learn from what they see, feel, experience and the conditions under which they grow up. We adults should always try to motivate them with positive inputs, so that they grow up to become individuals who contribute positively to the society and the nation.
With this note I wind up my speech and wish every little one present here a very bright future. Thank you.
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