Do children have the right to be creative and empathetic?

Creativity fuels discovery, originality and invention while empathy brings mutuality, compromise and collaborative innovation. The development of creativity and empathy is hence a precondition for sustainable growth, shared prosperity, and a peaceful future.

Though children are innately creative and intrinsically empathetic, their daily interface with the adult world that emphasizes schooling and inculcation could make them start thinking inside-the-box and turn narrow-minded, parochial or sectarian.

Creativity research points to the “fourth-grade slump” in children's creativity when they become more conforming, less playful and spontaneous, less likely to take risks and study to answer the questions and not question the answers. Once this slump gains a foothold, it can consolidate and linger into adulthood.

Neuroscientists have discovered that every child has “mirror neurons” which reflect in him or her the pain or the joy of others. Transgenerational transmission of trauma, prejudice and hatred can muddy a child’s mirror neurons, often beyond repair.

In an ever-changing globalized world that constantly demands new thinking and adaptation, creativity and empathy are more widely recognized as the most salient attributes of successful learners and leaders.

Though not included in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, for the child to be creative and empathetic is paramount for a prosperous and peaceful future. Creativity and empathy grow the freedom that challenges the norm for the sake of a brighter future. Thus developing schoolchildren’s creativity and empathy is essential. The arts can be a powerful tool for this, since creativity and empathy are both rooted in the arts.

To join the International Child Art Foundation in planting the seeds of freedom by preserving, exalting and magnifying the innate creativity and intrinsic empathy of schoolchildren, please visit https://ICAF.org