Children all over the world are in desperate need of being given a fairly strict routine which they have to follow. It is the lack of discipline that causes boredom, depression, misbehaviour, addiction, obesity and all other problems faced by modern school-going children and which are then taken into adulthood.

To instil discipline, you must first follow it yourself and our modern lifestyle lays a milliontraps for ordinary parents to overlook discipline and so let go of themselves and their children.

What we now call creativity, imagination and innovation are but the result of constant discipline. In order to be constructively creative, one needs to have discipline because all worthwhile products and services are born out of routine work which involves attention.

Thus, students and people in general need to perform their daily work regularly until they have enough experience and knowledge to think in a different way and so lean towards new possibilities - which is creativity.

Parents and educators should know that children are master manipulators. They can feel the weakness in those around them and are quick to take advantage of it. When children see that everyone of their whims and fancies are paid attention to, they use the indulgence extended to them to avoid doing their work and to create excuses, like being tired or bored, and so keep on idling.

When we ask children and adults to be creative, we must also think if they are prepared to perform the task adequately. For you cannot give a child a piece of paper, order him to draw and then expect a good finished result.

The child must have had enough tuition in tracing outlines, filling them with colour and also know how to decide on style and proportion for his drawing. Similarly, a teacher cannot devise and implement an effective lesson plan or teaching method unless he or she has been teaching for a number of years.

Teachers must have tried and tested their ideas before they can come up with winning strategies that will make it easier for them to teach and for the students to learn.

Therefore, useful and profitable creativity and imagination can only be achieved through years of diligent work, which in turn require discipline.