The thinking cap stays on for good : The Tribune India

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The thinking cap stays on for good

The other day I met a young lady specialising in training children to sharpen their 'thinking' skills.

The thinking cap stays on for good


Brig Suresh Chander (retd)

The other day I met a young lady specialising in training children to sharpen their 'thinking' skills. It was a new one for me and the thought of tinkering with toddlers sounded absurd. But having learnt many embarrassing lessons, I refrain from uttering hasty comments. A search engine promptly confirmed my ignorance. ‘Activating children’s thinking skill’ is a well-developed science and is included in syllabi of many primary schools in some countries.

‘Thinking’ seemed to be confronting me at every stage of life. I was sent to a good school. Like all parents, the expectation was that I would learn to think big while interacting with the progeny of the upper crust.   Later, I joined the finest infantry regiment, at a time when it was undergoing a revolutionary change: from ‘Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die’ to ‘thinking infantry’. Most of us infantiers rebelled as our rock-like conviction was that we were already great thinkers. Names of Rommel — infantry to begin with — and other brilliant commanders were flaunted to support our claim. However, the Army was carrying out a broad-based transformation programme to broaden the horizons of leaders at all levels. Besides a slew of other measures, we were war-gaming and discussing futuristic warfare with arms and equipment that only the most advanced countries possessed. It appeared very unrealistic at that time, but we were learning nuclear warfare, advanced digital communications and the impact of computerisation in the battlefield. This was decades earlier, when we were still operating with WW II guns and equipment. The process of creating thinking leaders was systematically going on.    

 During the third phase of my greying life, the theme was the same, but couched in the most delicately packed action programme. We were constantly encouraged by our illustrious children to attend seminars, discussions — within and outside the country — so that the grey cells remain fully functional. Our physical activity programme was unobtrusively monitored and facilitated. Thus, regular yoga, golf and other activities became part of our routine. It took us time to realise that our children were putting us through principally the same routine as they had been brought up in their growing years in cantonments. Study hard, play hard and take part in every activity that was made available by the Army. This time, we were not being trained for future nuclear wars, but to keep Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s etc., at bay. 

 Finally, if refining our thinking skill is going to pursue us till our old age, it may not be a bad idea to start tinkering and activating the thinking of tiny tots early on!

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