In a literal sense this quote carries little substance, but think of it as a metaphor for the power of creativity and how we lose it with age and it becomes rather more poignant.
Buy a child a toy and they will play, not with the toy but with it's box. A box is never just a box to a child, it is a spaceship, a castle, a horse; it's limitations are confined only by the imagination. Ask a young boy a question and he will blurt out the first thing that comes to his head, relevant or not, with the conviction of an expert in the subject. He has no fear of being wrong, the thought does not enter his mind, he is only concerned with providing an answer to the problem presented to him.
At what point does this change? When do children fear the stigmatism of being wrong? And more importantly why does this happen?
Is it because children are encouraged to conform to society from the minute they enter education?
A pathway is outlined early in life: you go to school to go to college to go to university to get a good job to be happy and live comfortably. If you do not follow this model then you miss out on opportunities later in life. The problem with this is that it does not allow for mistakes or errors of judgement, it does not let you find your own path for fear of getting it wrong. It can make you adequate in several areas but suppress your talent in others.
Is it because children are not encouraged to think for themselves enough?
When teaching you often ask questions, but it is easier to ask a closed question in order to force the answer you are looking for as this takes less time and less patience; but ask a more open question and the variety of answers will differ greatly, some will think of the question and try to answer logically, others will answer with key words they have remembered from earlier information, some will say the first thing that comes to their head, and some will not say anything at all. The benefit of an open question is that it encourages children to think, to try, to experience being wrong, to experience being right, and ultimately that it is not always easy and persistence gets results.
When coaching you are a teacher, children look at you for answers. But simply giving them the answer can have more negative affects than positive, it does not allow them to probe and think, to create in their minds several ways of trying and letting them figure out which way works best. When coaching try not to force a certain issue, put in place the parameters which will get your topic out, but allow the children the scope to be creative and try their own way, and when needed coach their idea to help them improve it.
There are of course times when a more dictatorial approach is needed and you need to give the answers and you need to show the correct way. But it's also vital for development that you are allowed to work it out for yourself, to successfully find ways that do not work as well as ways that do. To use the information you have been given, but to find your own ways to implement it and maximise it's impact.
There is probably no definitive answer as to why we start to to lose our imagination and the ability to create something special from nothing but I'll leave you with a thought of my own: Children do not grow into creativity, they grow out of it. It is the job of those who teach to challenge their creativity to flourish!
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