Feel. Imagine. Do. Share.

Feel. Imagine. Do. Share. This is the basic principle behind the “Design for Change Contest”, a campaign started by Kiran Bir Sethi, Founder/Director of the Riverside school in Ahmedebad, India. The premise of the contest is to inspire children to act as proponents of change in their own lives, tackling problems which they feel are affecting their schools and communities.   Here is a clip from Kiran’s inspiring TED talk, given earlier this year.

We were lucky enough to meet with Kiran in person today. The focus of this year’s “Design For Change Project” was no longer solely focused on the growth of India but rather of the whole world. As a part of the campaign, Kiran was in the Hyderabad area looking for local schools to partner with. We got to take a break from the normal routine of Nirmal Nagar and Sri Sai Nagar to tag along at one of the schools she was visiting, The Sloka School.

From the minute I stepped onto the lush, expansive campus, I knew that Sloka was a far cry from the Nirmal Nagar and Sri Sai Nagar schools that we were used to teaching at. In comparison our schools seemed forgotten, dilapidated, and bare. The Sloka School is based on the Waldorf philosophy of education, a system that most of us were completely unfamiliar with. The basic premise of the institution is holistic development through pursuing a creative and often off-the-beaten track approach to learning. This alternative system uses music, dance, artwork, and games to combine intellectual knowledge with hands on experience.

When we arrived, many of the younger kids (dressed not in the haggard school uniforms we were used to seeing but rather in brightly colored t-shirts and shorts) were running around everywhere. They were climbing trees, playing games, climbing on monkey bars, and genuinely exploring their surroundings in what seemed like every method possible. There were all sorts of animals strolling freely through campus, from turkeys and bunny rabbits to roosters and hens. It was strange to see classrooms full of furniture like desks and chairs — the only furniture we see in our classrooms are half empty rice sacks donated by the government as a part of a less than effective one meal per child lunch program. The shelves of the Sloka School were lined with storybooks and the walls were filled with artwork depicting everything from sunsets to the early Homo Sapiens.

It was almost too good to be true – how had they seemingly found the right balance between allowing exploration and instilling a sense of personal responsibility and discipline? During my short visit I was unable to come up with a sufficient answer to this query. My hesitation about such an alternative method of instruction concerns the sustainability of its “success”. What happens when these kids leave the eco-friendly halls of the Sloka School?   The “real world” requires us to have a focused knowledge of multiple topics. Many times, as unfortunate as it may be, achievement is measured by one’s academic performance on exams. These achievement tests then serve as a gateway to to the next level i.e getting an undergraduate or graduate education. All in all, the visit to the Sloka School was an enlightening experience: we got to observe a method of teaching which is vastly different from the one that we are familiar with.  Hopefully we’ll be able to apply some of those unique methods at the Sri Sai Nagar and Nirmal Nagar schools in the near future.