Process over Product

We understand that you may expect your child(ren) to bring products home that they’ve made – colourful paintings, perfect pictures, beautifully decorated cards, seasonal gifts and more. 

However, have you ever stopped to imagine the production lines that are created to enable this to happen? How a child absorbed in their play may be asked to stop what they’re doing and instead go to the conveyor belt of handprints to make yet another card; the same card the child next to them is making. What learning comes from this? What values are we embedding?

We strive to promote children’s curiosity, imagination, exploration, freedom of choice, discovery, thinking… we want to teach our children HOW to think, not WHAT to think. Why should we pester any child to make a Mother’s Day card, or a decoration to hang on the Christmas tree, when it’s not what they’ve chosen to do? What right do we have to dictate children’s play or their choice of creation? You may cherish the end product, but at what cost?

We believe every child should create their own journey, and follow their own unique style of learning. We want our children to be engaged in the joy of DOING rather than the end result.

Let’s cherish these years when children are confident to be creative in any way they choose, when they can create unique masterpieces expressing their individuality, and when they still have the freedom and independence to choose their own path without fear of disapproval. Let them take the lead in their experience, without concern for any pre-determined outcome.

Sadly we know that as they get older, enter higher education and become more exposed to media, that they are likely to be weighed down by preconceived ideas that they can not paint, draw, dance, sing, run, climb etc. One day soon, they will have to conform to a set of standards.

So at this crucial stage in children’s development, we choose to concentrate on building children’s self-esteem, resilience, imagination, motivation – we want our children to believe in themselves!

At Clocktower, we value every child’s journey, no matter which path they choose to take;
the ‘process over product’.