I am from China. I want to know how to teach a child to be more creative, to think more, not only to work hard, but to enjoy their time. How do I do that?

From my experience with teaching and training Chinese kids, the best is to show them some real examples. Of course, if you are family the first example should be yourself but telling stories of actual people or things open really good discussions about how to improve them, what are their flaws, etc.

Those examples are found by millions in books and arts from all over the world, and the lack of such a diversity is what makes Chinese education so boring today. Cultivating one ‘s imagination and curiosity is about being interested in other ‘s life, not only his/her own succes. How do other people live? Why?

Also it takes a lot of self-confidence for someone to decide what they want, especially in China where it still so hard to be different sometimes. So, don ‘t blame children too much for doing bad, do tell him/her how to do things and if he/she has done well. In discussing “creativity “ we often underestimate how asserting a kid idea actually help him to come up with more later.

This text was originally published in quora.