Getting to know “the other”

Once upon a time schools were considered as only storehouses of knowledge. Today they are expected to do a lot more. Nurturing empathy among children is one of their primary responsibilities today. With a world that is growing more and more insensitive and selfish by the day, imagining and understanding the lives of people different from us has become the need of the hour.

Back from the vacation!

Sheel

We have just left behind some beautiful memories made during the vacation and it is time now to get back in earnest to classroom work. To make this transition easy why not pull out some of those vacation memories and convert them into teaching points?The author uses her own vacation in Sikkim to tell you how this can be done.

Of how identities get formed

Ankita Shah

Schools are a microcosm of society; they play an important role in shaping children’s ideas and giving them identities which then influence the school-student-teacher relationships. The book, School Worlds–an ethnographic study, serves as a source of reflection for teachers on the part that they directly or indirectly play in forming these identities.

The charm of slow food

Rowan Salim and Manish Jain

Learning of the havoc that junk food can wreck, understanding the enivronmental implications of importing food, encouraging local ingredients when making your food, learning to make fusion foods– these are some of the things a group of young children learnt as part of their summer camp at an unschool learning centre.

Crafting change carefully

Ardra Balachandran

Should art be seen only as a hobby? Is it meant only for children who are good at drawing? Should it be confined only as an activity for summer? In an attempt to answer these questions and give art its due place, Aparna Vinod a young and enterprising mother started The Craft Caravan.

Come, let’s play!

Nirmala Balasubramanyam

Music, conversation and art marked the launch of the book, Aata Aadu in Bengaluru.

Look out! It’s a cockroach

Geetha Iyer

Some of us hate their sight, others squirm at the thought of these creatures. There is hardly any of us who has good things to say about the cockroach. But here’s why all of us should admire them.

Painting word pictures

Kamakshi Balasubramanian

Teaching children to write can be quite a challenge.Here is an exercise that will get the creative juices of your students flowing.

Do you feel what I feel?

Fiona Vaz

Empathy is perhaps the element that makes us different from animals, makes us human beings. Our ability to not just tolerate but accept “the other” is a very important aspect of who we will become. In order to have a better, more peaceful and happy society it is necessary that we create environments that nurture and grow the empathetic feelings that children are naturally wired for.