Sharjah message Ahmed Mansour
Saturday, May 13, 2023 02:00 PM
A number of creative writers emphasized the importance of early support for the child, to stimulate his creative imagination and intellectual energy, pointing out that this support comes primarily from the parents, then the teachers in the school, and those around the child in the early childhood years.
This came during a dialogue session entitled “The Value of Creative Thinking”, within the activities of the 14th session of the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, in which the painter and designer Aisha Saif Al-Hamrani, children’s literature writer Jakiar Khurshid, and author and sports hero Ellie Robinson participated, and it was moderated by Omar Al-Douri.
Aisha Saif Alhamrani
The artist, Aisha Al-Hamrani, said that she, as a painter, impersonates the child’s personality, to approach his perceptions, feelings, and his own vision of the universe, adding that the environment is the greatest stimulus for creativity, because we are looking for what resembles us, for characters that bear our features, whether in narrative or cartoon content, and this is not limited to us. I noticed that people all over the world tend to like what is similar to them and their culture, and this is due to the deep values in the collective memory.
-And Aisha Al-Hamrani continued, “As a presenter of workshops for children here in Sharjah, I leave wide spaces for imagination and creativity, and I find that children sometimes know more than adults, but they do not have the means of expression, but today technology has given the holiday opportunities for new generations, so they are providing content, in photography and drawing.” Design, montage, etc. Therefore, as families and artistic mentors, we must direct these talents and provide a moral compass. We must believe that the relationship between adults and children is reciprocal, each of them learns from the other, and arts and literature may be the best link in this relationship.
-For his part, Jakiar Khurshid, a writer of children’s literature residing in the Netherlands, presented samples of his books during the symposium, and presented interventions for some children who he believes have creative imaginations, including the child Hanin Kifah, who explained her creation of “The Message of Transcendence”, whose idea came to her. After a quarrel with her friend at school, she thought of writing a letter to her, but she did not find paper to write this letter, so she explained the matter to her mother, who believed in the idea and encouraged her to do so.
Khorshid pointed out that the faith of mothers and fathers in children is the greatest motivator and inspiration for them, to activate their creative faculties, and there are several ways to enable children to do so, by pushing them to imagine and meditate before bed, enjoying nature, encouraging self-confidence, permanent learning, brainstorming and learning from the mistakes of the surroundings. .
Khurshid stressed the importance of accustoming children to creativity and courage in expressing feelings, explaining that the creative mind is an innovative mind that faces problems and finds many solutions for them, until it reaches the appropriate solution, and that the creative child accepts difference and opens up to cultures in all its human and cultural spectrums.
Author and sports champion Ellie Robinson also called for the constant pursuit of knowledge, and saw in that the secret and engine of the creative process, adding that the world is evolving every day, and we see how artificial intelligence has begun to provide solutions in many creative fields, but humans always maintain their distinction in the aspect of feelings and their sincerity. In communicating emotions, which the machine may not be able to access in the same depth, and there are still many opportunities for learning and creativity, and the whole thing in this process is the love of discovering knowledge, thinking outside the framework and stereotyped boundaries, and expressing our feelings creatively.
She indicated that as a writer, she is very interested in history and psychology, and this is due to her interest in understanding human behavior and creating strong personalities in her novels.
