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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nI read this story when\nI was a teenager, I liked it, and it was interesting and that\u2019s about it. I\ndon\u2019t remember reflecting on it, about myself, or my conditioning. When I go to\nmy sessions in Hombegowda School, I have had some interesting, yet customary instances\nin many sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The children copy each\nother\u2019s drawing, even if it has to do with drawing their self portrait, copy an\nimage from their book, or cover of their pencil box, instead of digging into\ntheir imagination, peep into their friend\u2019s sheet to write the things they treasure.\nWhat was amusing was seeing one student copying his name from his namesake!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who is to blame? The\nchildren,who can\u2019t think out of the box, or the adults,who always give\nreferences to draw, to write or do anything the children could on their own! What\nare the underlying fears or rhyme and reason for boxing everything and giving a\nreference point for everything? Why not let children\u2019s imagination and creative\nforces run wild? Or is it the lack of trust in them, or the fear of failure, or\nneed to rescue? Or, are we adults also conditioned that this is the only way? And\nwhat are the repercussions of this kind of functioning? What is this leading\nto? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, what starts off\nas efforts to help the child or direct the child, it ends up conditioning them\nthat they can no more break free to act, or express without it. Unfortunately,\nthis becomes a learned behaviour that is difficult to let go of in later life, despite\nour fully developed abilities to create our own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, instead of drawing from\nour imagination, we look for already existing, conditioned pictures of drawing\na landscape with mountains with 2 birds, a tree and a hut below; instead of\nmustering the courage to compose our own song, we settle down to singing the\nalready existing ones. However, there is nothing wrong or less of us to do so,\nbut this conditioning must not belittle children\u2019s or our creative forces in\nfinding or own voice. What do you think? <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 100th<\/sup>\nMonkey, we facilitators consciously make it a point to encourage students to\nvisualize themselves as Heroes, to imagine what their future will look like,\ncreate their dream school, or village, or world, compose a song etc. These are\nour efforts to encourage students to step out of their conditioning and comfort\nzone and enter the zone of creative possibilities. It is truly a journey filled\nwith inner triumphs, when they \u201cbreakfree\u201d from that rope that is holding them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n How many of us go\nthrough life hanging onto a belief, assume we cannot do\nsomething, simply because of our previous conditioning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what is the rope\nthat is stopping you? How will you break free from it?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you heard the story of an elephant being tied to a pole with a rope? Where the elephants could, at any time, break free from their bonds, but for some reason, they do not! Coz, \u201cwhen they are very young and much smaller, they used the same sized rope to tie them and, at that age, it\u2019s enough to hold them, but as they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/IMG_20200116_162451-1024x769.jpg\")
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