Think!

The most desired possession that we would like to give our future citizen is not knowledge or information, it is to make them trained intellect. Which would enable them to adjust themselves in this fast changing world in which we are living today. The school is the only place where an organised effort can be made to ensure a continuous flow of trained intellects.

The mental factor lies broadly under two heads:

1. Convergent Thinking — The abilities are those which are mainly responsible for dealing with a given information in a logical manner to arrive at a single right answer for any problem.

2. Divergent Thinking — The abilities are those which enables the individual to go off in many different directions, generating new information from given information and arrived at varied and unusual solutions to problems.

Both type of thinking have their place in life, but the divergent thinking is undoubtedly more useful ones from the point of view of successfully dealing with the new and changing situations of life which the individual may face in his or her life. It is therefore, essential that in the educational programs, we should cultivate the divergent thinking abilities.

The divergent thinking abilities consist of a very important cognitive component of creativity. Creativity requires on the part of the individual to fuse the given information in different ways and find new relationships, which no one else have thought before.

The creative thinking abilities can be developed to different degrees among different individuals through systematically organised program of instruction. Creativity is not a unitary trait, but a complex of so many discrete abilities and personality qualities. We cannot turn every child into highly creative person, but we can make each child think in a creative manner, so that he or she is able to use his or her abilities in one or the other field.

In our Indian education system, we have seen that we have arranged everything systematically ready made knowledge in form of neatly organised lessons, nits and textbooks. The entire syllabus is prescribed and child is required to follow it rigidly. The course is generally so heavy that the child does not feel easy with the text. So we have to plan our teaching strategy in such a way that creative teaching and learning are also emphasized in the regular course.

Intelligence has been associated with the kind of thinking now being designated with convergent thinking and creativity is a part of divergent thinking. Creativity and divergent thinking cannot be termed synonymously.