Achild can benefit more from a stack of papers than from a room full of playthings, Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget, the pioneer of Cognitive Theory, once asserted.

Children along with their peers can learn independently and interactively, and they learn more this way than they do when taught by a teacher, which is a common practice in most countries.

Cognitive Theory lends us some insight into the playful world of children. What would happen if they are permitted to explore how things work rather than being taught about it? Will this self-learning help the child become more analytical or will it decrease his mental capabilities?

Let us discuss the answer to these questions. For children’s mental development, it is necessary to think creatively, overtly and independently. For example, when the teacher wants the children to draw a picture, say something natural, the children should draw whatever comes to their minds first. As Clay P. Bedford stated, “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”

So, teachers should not try to mould children’s natural thinking by interfering with their choices; instead they should only supervise what the children are involved in. Of course, it is not that they should have full freedom with regards to the activities — there should be some guidance and supervision, but not more than what needs to get them going.

In addition, some parents and academies push children to study books and indulge in other such ‘difficult’ activities at a very tender age — when it might be too early. They think by doing this the child would become exceptionally intelligent. Some studies show that children who are given a head start may perform exceptionally well but then they are at a greater risk of becoming depressed, gloomy, lonely, etc., when they grow up.

Plato puts it this way, “Do not train children to learn by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”

Whatever the children are learning, it should be appropriate for the stage of development they are in. For example, a five-year-old child is unable to understand what quadratic equations are and indeed should not even try to understand it no matter how awesome the numbers and symbols look.

Further, it is more favourable for children to be directly involved in whatever they are learning rather than just reading about it. In other words, real-life experience is crucial during learning. They should know the real-life applications of whatever they are learning, so that they do not end up cramming their lessons.

With access to Internet at school and home, children should themselves discover the broader aspects of their lessons. If they are learning geometry, they should Google it and learn about the Egyptian pyramids. In this way, they can comprehend geometry as a tangible concept, not something abstract limited only to ‘boring’ math books.

Children who experience violence in their childhood are very much likely to turn more violent and aggressive than children not exposed to such things. Nowadays, the market is flooded with games, movies and TV programmes, including cartoons, that have violence and fights, and a lot of children enjoy them. But it is best avoiding such nonsense. Self-learning is important but not the sort that involves indiscriminate aggression and violence.

So, for children’s healthy mental development, the environment they are growing in should be peaceful, open and free. Undue pressure, academic or extracurricular, should be avoided. The focus should be on refining talents with affectionate encouragement. Creativity only comes out in uncomplicated and undemanding surroundings. Thus the type of environment children grow up in really matters; what they had to endure in their childhood would eventually have a role in what they turn out to be in later life.