Nurturing talent

I have been helping out at a children's holiday club run by my church.

I have been so amazed by some of the talent shown by my six-year-old charges. One played football very well. A couple of the girls showed superb abilities in their colouring.

I was quite taken aback because my son was still drawing stick figures when he was eight or perhaps even ten. His colouring was quite atrocious. No amount of  'colour within the lines' had any effect on him.

He dreaded doing art and sport most, I think.

With the exception of three-dimensional art. He is fascinated by origami and has created some most spectacular origami structures.

When I looked at them -- they connect and can be manipulated and transformed -- I realized that this was not origami as in 'folding art'. This was origami as in 'paper engineering'.

Back to these talented young people.

I hope that they have the space and support to develop those innate talents that they clearly possess.

Just as their drawings had given me so much pleasure in the last few days, I hope and trust that, in due course, they would be bringing much pleasure to many others when they are older.

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