Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Experiential learning via nature Based activity: Redefining the meaning of Tricolors on 65th Indepe...
Experiential learning via nature Based activity: Redefining the meaning of Tricolors on 65th Indepe...: For last 3-4 days I have been working on some props for my 4yrs old son who has fancy dress show in his school on the occasion of India's 65...
Redefining the meaning of Tricolors on 65th Independence Day
For last 3-4 days I have been working on some props for my 4yrs old son who has fancy dress show in his school on the occasion of India's 65th Independence Day. Theme given to their class was Shining India (English) or Mera Bharat Mahan (Hindi). When I read this topic the only thing that came to my mind was how do I make my son understand the concept of 'Shining India'. Telling him about the past was of no use because he is too young to understand the history and present is again of no use because the maladies with which today's India has been plagued with are too depressing and we as present India are already fighting it, so what I do tell him... I asked this question to myself, and the answer was, make him visualize the future India.
So the idea now had to be converted into what my son had to say, something which he could relate to and not some fancy words, whose meaning I too as an adult Indian sometime fail to understand like- Safforn color stands for Patriotism through its diverse culture- but how often do I follow it. I have been brought up with concept caste system deeply rooted in my head. White is for purity- that's again an illusion for me, as I am still grappling to understand what do I mean by purity when corruption is running in the blood of every Indian. Lastly green, which is for prosperity- with half of the Indian population still struggling to get its complete meals and some others like me reeling under high inflation trying to maintain our basic standard of living.
So the biggest question we are facing now is, how to educate our children on what India do we want them to be make and live in. The props which I made for my son was a life-size cutout map of India which he hung on his shoulders symbolizing-' I am India', a tricolor shield which he would hold in front and say his three lines symbolizing the three colors on the Indian flag- I am Strong India- Safforn; I am clean India- White and I am healthy India- Green.
I think my son understood these lines well, because he could connect with these words and reconnect it with what India is supposed to be. I hope with these words ingrained in his mind he will now grow up and educate himself to make India a Shining India!!
Jai Hind!! Happy Independence Day!!
So the idea now had to be converted into what my son had to say, something which he could relate to and not some fancy words, whose meaning I too as an adult Indian sometime fail to understand like- Safforn color stands for Patriotism through its diverse culture- but how often do I follow it. I have been brought up with concept caste system deeply rooted in my head. White is for purity- that's again an illusion for me, as I am still grappling to understand what do I mean by purity when corruption is running in the blood of every Indian. Lastly green, which is for prosperity- with half of the Indian population still struggling to get its complete meals and some others like me reeling under high inflation trying to maintain our basic standard of living.
So the biggest question we are facing now is, how to educate our children on what India do we want them to be make and live in. The props which I made for my son was a life-size cutout map of India which he hung on his shoulders symbolizing-' I am India', a tricolor shield which he would hold in front and say his three lines symbolizing the three colors on the Indian flag- I am Strong India- Safforn; I am clean India- White and I am healthy India- Green.
I think my son understood these lines well, because he could connect with these words and reconnect it with what India is supposed to be. I hope with these words ingrained in his mind he will now grow up and educate himself to make India a Shining India!!
Jai Hind!! Happy Independence Day!!
Friday, 10 August 2012
Experiential learning via nature Based activity: Connecting and Reconnecting threads of an old less...
Experiential learning via nature Based activity: Connecting and Reconnecting threads of an old less...: In the morning I had written on how we are leading a compartmentalized education system, though reams have been written on critiquing the cu...
Experiential learning via nature Based activity: How civil society when integrated with Education c...
Experiential learning via nature Based activity: How civil society when integrated with Education c...: When I had decided to come back to India after completing my Non Profit Leadership prog at Upenn five years back, I had a dream that I will ...
How civil society when integrated with Education can actually bring a change in the mindset!
When I had decided to come back to India after completing my Non Profit Leadership prog at Upenn five years back, I had a dream that I will begin some social enterprise which will bring a change in the minds of people to the social problems they are facing. For couple of years I struggled myself, on how to bring this thought into reality. Finally one day my mother, who is a primary teacher and the backbone of my thought process, told me "my dear, if you really want to bring in a change in the mindset of people then you have to enter in the field of education, enter schools and catch these young minds and sow the seeds of change in their minds itself. The magic will just begin to unfold in front of your eyes".
Those words led me towards working on developing this format of 'Experiential Learning via Nature based Activities', where in all the stakeholders of society(Individuals, Government agencies, civil societies and pvt institutions) will some way or the other be introduced to children and then all the activities which these children are doing will be integrated back with all the subjects being taught to them. I remember when I explained this idea to my mentors Biz Divas- Sarika GuptaBhattacharya at the beginning of this year, she was excited to work with me only because of my passion but had no clue what I was talking about and how nature activities can be integrated with academics.
Today, the idea of ELNA has become a format and is being implemented in a school in Gurgaon under their Student Community Interface program as Project SAVE- with theme Understanding the 3Rs of waste management- Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
All 3 Rs require children to do extensive surveys among various households, then interact with the NGOs who are working in that field, which would then be followed by an RWA Awareness Campaign where children will be promoting the solutions they have found. Then all this will culminate in the form of a seminar where children present the paper on what all they did in last 3-4 months and how it has helped them in widening their horizons and approaching towards finding a solution.
Yesterday under the Project SAVE we began our interaction week of children connecting with NGOs. One of the first NGOs we had invited is Ashish Foundation for the Differently Abled. The founder of Ashish Foundation, Geeta Mondol, came to school and explained children about the How old clothes and other stuff which is 'my' junk can actually become 'another' person's treasure!
The excitement among children was overwhelming and one could see the joy in their eyes about how their work will actually culminate into something nice and beautiful and help someone in need. A virtue which they had been reading till now in books only but were clueless on how it to do it!!
ELNA has been able to show them the way to do it!! That's exactly what Education is all about, how to bring the out what has been preached via books in the real life.
Project SAVE is an initiative being run in The Banyan Tree World School, Gurgaon by PotsLuck , a small organization which believes in integrating experiential learning via nature based activities with the curriculum.
Those words led me towards working on developing this format of 'Experiential Learning via Nature based Activities', where in all the stakeholders of society(Individuals, Government agencies, civil societies and pvt institutions) will some way or the other be introduced to children and then all the activities which these children are doing will be integrated back with all the subjects being taught to them. I remember when I explained this idea to my mentors Biz Divas- Sarika GuptaBhattacharya at the beginning of this year, she was excited to work with me only because of my passion but had no clue what I was talking about and how nature activities can be integrated with academics.
Today, the idea of ELNA has become a format and is being implemented in a school in Gurgaon under their Student Community Interface program as Project SAVE- with theme Understanding the 3Rs of waste management- Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
All 3 Rs require children to do extensive surveys among various households, then interact with the NGOs who are working in that field, which would then be followed by an RWA Awareness Campaign where children will be promoting the solutions they have found. Then all this will culminate in the form of a seminar where children present the paper on what all they did in last 3-4 months and how it has helped them in widening their horizons and approaching towards finding a solution.
Yesterday under the Project SAVE we began our interaction week of children connecting with NGOs. One of the first NGOs we had invited is Ashish Foundation for the Differently Abled. The founder of Ashish Foundation, Geeta Mondol, came to school and explained children about the How old clothes and other stuff which is 'my' junk can actually become 'another' person's treasure!
The excitement among children was overwhelming and one could see the joy in their eyes about how their work will actually culminate into something nice and beautiful and help someone in need. A virtue which they had been reading till now in books only but were clueless on how it to do it!!
ELNA has been able to show them the way to do it!! That's exactly what Education is all about, how to bring the out what has been preached via books in the real life.
Project SAVE is an initiative being run in The Banyan Tree World School, Gurgaon by PotsLuck , a small organization which believes in integrating experiential learning via nature based activities with the curriculum.
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