CHENNAI: I wish I had been taught in an alternative way.’ These words often simmer in my mind, especially when I learn of innovative, exciting teaching strategies and training methods that are being adopted by educational institutions in different pockets of the globe. For someone who has perpetually been a visual and kinesthetic learner, my alma mater’s approach of catering to one brand of learners — in my case, the aural (auditory) kind, was quite a let-down. As I grew up, I realised that I wasn’t alone. Over decades, the Indian education system’s conventional and one-dimensional pedagogical vision has been nothing but problematic, making several students with varied learning and understanding capacities scramble to rise beyond ‘floor level tasks’.
Krishnakumar Balasubramanian of The Little Theatre points to a similar experience during his formative years as the reason behind the theatre company’s latest offering — ArtsLab 1.0. It is an online creative workshop that allows children to play with and experience concepts in a way that will provide a deep and intimate understanding through the arts.
“From classes 8 to 10, I felt like I was losing out on school because I wasn’t able to relate to how teachers were explaining some subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Math. When I grew up, I felt if there had been a slightly different way of teaching, I would have understood the concepts better. Over the years, this got me interested in understanding and finding alternate ways of teaching children to learn certain concepts,” shares the artistic director of the theatre company.
Every child is different, intelligent, unique and so is their way of learning. A lack of acknowledgement and understanding of this, is perhaps the reason a lot of children lose interest in school, says Krishnakumar, who will be heading the workshop along with singer-musician Lavita Lobo, theatre artist Vikas Rao and artist Ranjani Ramakrishnan.
In ArtsLab’s first edition, visual and performing arts including music, art, dance and theatre, will be used as tools to illuminate the minds of children, to experience and explore the concept of ‘Light’. “One can experience light and sound waves if you engage in interactive projects, where you build or create activities. We will be tapping into that and also weave storytelling as a means of teaching ideas ranging from reflection, refraction to polarisation. This way, the learning process will be different, organic, intimate and will stay with the child. It’ll be an experience rather than just the act of reading from a book,” he details.
Art and learning, according to the performer, are close-knit. “For the longest time, we’ve taken the fun out of learning because we have taken the art out of learning. The idea of ArtsLab is not to put art into science but the opposite,” he says.
With schools in the pandemic-riddled world already adopting technology to teach children and inevitably increasing their screentime, The Little Theatre is treading into this new venture by being mindful of the young participants’ wellbeing by reducing the screentime to a minimum.
“Over the last three months, I have been attending and curating several masterclasses and online workshops. I feel like I am going through a ‘Zoom fatigue’. With kids already stuck with their gadgets and schools occupying a large chunk of their time via online classes, we wanted to be intelligent about how we conduct our workshop. So what we aim to do is, spend five to 10 minutes, giving the child instructions and help them move into their imagination and look away from the screen. It’s enough if they have the auditory help. This way, they don’t have to sit in front of a screen and instead get time to engage in the project by themselves and take adequate breaks,” he shares, adding that based on the response, the company will chalk its next edition. “We will delve into more complex concepts and branch into other subjects as well,” he says.
Month-long affair
The series, which is scheduled from July 1 to August 2
(15 sessions), will cater to children between ages seven to 15. The workshops will be conducted on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 4 pm to 5.30 pm.
A digital certificate will also be provided on completion.
Here’s how you enrol
Fee for participation is`7,500 per child for the entire duration. Registrations close on June 30. For details, visit Facebook page The Little Theatre
or call 9840556200