Curiosity, the willingness to learn and the courage to take action.

Now that we have seen how important these qualities, curiosity and courage, are from an earlier posting, how do we help our children to strengthen them?

Of course, everybody have such innate qualities and capabilities as a result of their genes having DNA with such qualities. Despite this, such qualities and talents can be subdued by careless parents or people in contact with the children. This is a mistake I made although I knew that parents can suppress their children capabilities.

Firstly, children have an inborn sense of curiosity. Every child wants to know what that strange thing on the table is. Every child would want to touch, feel, see and know about it. Go to a toddler or a baby and show him/her your finger or spectacles. Unless you are a stranger to him/her, the child would want to touch it, hold it or put it into his/her mouth to know whether it could be eaten. Well, you cannot blame them as all they can think of is food, right? Of course, we do not allow the finger or the spectacles to go into the mouth as it can be full of bacteria, but we should not scold or frighten the child in any way. Perhaps we could replace the spectacles with a clean toy which can be held or sucked. We must encourage curiosity.

We must also encourage the desire to learn and to know anything which is not dangerous. If the child wishes to play with the blades of a table fan or electric sockets we must remove the dangerous objects. We do not have to scold. One day, when he/she understands the danger, he/she will not touch them.

Yes, we must encourage our children to learn and to know. Sometimes, it involves having to spend some money and what adults consider wastage. Whatever, it may be, parents have to be patient and understanding. If we understand that it is a necessary part of a learning process, then anger will not arise. In actual fact, we ought to be extremely happy to know that our children are capable of spontaneous learning on their own. Unfortunately, this is not always the case with parents and I myself almost forgot myself because of the amount of money I had to spend for the process to continue.

Well, this is my story. My younger son was very interested in watches when he was about ten years old. I bought him a watch just to discover him opening up every part of the watch to look at the inside. Again, he asked for another watch. The same thing was done to the second watch. After six watches in less than half a year, I became very irritated and told him watches were for telling the time and not to be played with. After that, there was a stop to the removing of the back of watches with a tiny screwdriver.

Fortunately for this father, my son did not stop exploring and learning. Next, he was interested in an electronic toy from Japan. It was expensive. I told him it cost too much money. Then, a few months later, I saw him with a new electronic toy. I asked him about it. He told me he bought it with his own money. Then, he explained that he had bought spoilt electronic toys for a few ringgits each, repaired them and sold them at a good profit. With the profit, he had more than enough money to buy the toy. His curiosity and the courage to go on doing what interested him saw him rewarded. Seeing his interest in electronic things, I started giving him money to buy parts to make his own digital clock as well as other things. Then, he helped a friend to repair her daughter’s alarm clock.

A few years ago, a television which I had condemned as not repairable as it had been to the repair shop a number of times in just three months, was repaired by him just as I was thinking of how I should dispose of it. In fact a new television had already been bought when he wanted to take it apart to search for the problem. He found the problem but did not have to replace any part. Today, the repaired television is still good! My son is studying mechanical engineering in a university. His action towards this end was encouraged.

As for my elder son, it was pets. When he was about ten years old, he was interested in chickens. We bought a hen for him. The hen laid eggs but he would not allow the eggs to be eaten. We were not even allowed to touch them. “Why were there no chicks?” He was curious to know. We had to explain that chicks can only come from eggs when eggs are fertilised by a cockerel. So, a cockerel had to be bought. Then, there were chicks. Nests were found under a bush, above a window ledge and outside our compound. One white chick from the window ledge flew down one morning and was named White Eagle. His curiosity did not stop there. From chicks, we went on to ducks and geese. Later, there were tortoises, roboskies, birds, fish, rabbits, guinea-pigs and hamsters. Nature’s wonders and places with ponds, rivers, waterfalls and sea-sides became his favourite picnic spots. From his interest, he learned so much. His interest and curiosity took him to magazines and books on nature and animals. Today, he is studying to be a veterinarian.

As you can see, they were encouraged. In their teenage years, they learned and developed the necessary knowledge to indulge and further their interests. They were encouraged to satisfy their curiosity in the field they enjoy. Many friends told me animal doctors do not earn as much as doctors who treat humans. Well, I was delighted to hear my son tell me a happy life is more important than earning more money for I totally agree with him. To me, he has made the right move and that is what is important.