One of my core desires is around doing something to foster creativity among children in developing nations, especially among those children, who lack awareness and resources to experience the “creative process”.
Given that desire, my soul always looks out for anything related to it.
I stumbled upon today’s Courier News paper at the desk of one of my colleagues at work. I was browsing through it really quickly, until I stopped at an article in the local section that said “Students prepare for World Finals of problem-solving competition” . The heading was enough for me take a minute to read through it.
I had never heard of “Odyssey of the Mind” of before. But it sure hit a chord in me. Obviously, I returned to my desk and googled it. Odyssey of the Mind is apparently a popular competition among school-going children and its purpose is to “foster the development of children’s creative-thinking and problem-solving skills”. Founded almost 25+ years ago, seems a movement of a sort to foster creativity among children. One day, I would love to do something like this for children in India, who I am sure, given right environment, resources, time and encouragement, will beat anyone else in creativity!
I was just fascinated to visit their website : http://www.odysseyofthemind.com. Looks like their next world finals is next week in MaryLand and a few teams from central jersey has made it to the world finals. I was telling Harini that we could go there if not for the safe arrival of our little master! Children from 20 different countries participate besides children from 50 states in the US. Indeed, India is not one of them.
Perhaps, my “calling” came through the Courier News today!
