BENGALURU: In an age when technology is being used in every possible way to make lessons easier for children, puppetry is still something that Lata Satagopan vouches for to educate students.
The topics covered by the freelance educational consultant and storyteller include colours, how a rainbow is formed, waste management, animal welfare.
“These kind of sessions help children understand the lessons easily and it will stay in their mind for a longer duration. For instance, I taught children from rural areas about solid waste management. I used glove puppets for this. The children participated in the activity - from learning to make puppets to performing a play. When I met them after 30 days, they still remembered every dialogue they had said on stage. They in fact even convinced their parents to start following the concept of segregating waste,” she says.
She starts by picking a topic from their books. We sit with them and make puppets. The gloves are usually chosen based on the characters. “If we are not making it using a readymade glove, we make it with cloth or paper,” she explains.
Then the script includes dialogues and songs to make it more entertaining and informative. Then comes the rehearsals before the actual play is performed.
She gives examples.
“Once I took up prevention of cruelty towards animals as a topic. I based it on a story that was going around. I created animals, people, children. The script had dialogues and songs. It conveyed a message on how to be kind to animals. For another show that we did on health science, we made cloth puppets with a thermocol face. I took the help of a few doctors for the script. It spoke about topics like jaundice and cholera and we explained to the children how these diseases spread,” she explains.
Another topic was space science where the students were taught about a rocket launch through a puppet show.
“I worked on it with Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum. We took students to the museum where they picked information for the play. It was later staged as a 40-minute show.
She also conducts team building exercises for corporates where topics like leadership are covered.
“These sessions usually last a day. They find it to be a great way to bond with other teammates,” she says.
Latha herself started making puppets in 1980 when she was a teacher.
“The purpose was to learn the educational use of puppetry. I developed a flair for it and started creating my own puppets. I explored the simplest form of puppet making. I chose glove so that we can use it by hand and have a conversation. Also they can be made without much effort,” she says.
She now also conducts 20-hour training programme for students of colleges like Mount Carmel College and St Teresas College. “They learn to make puppets, come up with a story around it and present it in the theatres nearby. They also take it up as a means to generate income. They present their skills at at places like birthday parties and malls. The workshop that is happening on October 5 and 6 will focus on educational use of puppetry for academics.