Do you think education and films have any relationship?
I happen to be a big fan of films. I have been part of Prabhat Chitra Mandal, (Prabhat Chitra Mandal Film Enthusiast Institute, Mumbai) for many years now. At Sadhana LC (Learners Collective – Alternative Education in Central Mumbai), we run a movie club. So also, I enjoyed being part of movie club with BeMe,Bangalore (BeMe | My Shape, My Size, I grow, I move) community, Bangalore. Being a self-proclaimed educationist I strongly believe films can be a great tool for learning.
I got excited when Prakash (from BeMe) happened to mention about this film festival at Bangalore, being organized by Project Nomad (Sourva Dutta, Project Nomad – Making Films To Understand Learning & Education), Schoolscape (Amukta Mahapatra, www.schoolscape.org ) and Abheek Academy (Indira Raju, Abheek Academy – Alternative Educational Paradigm). Not just that it was about Education and Films, both topics close to my heart, but also, because of Sourav and Amukta both being good friends and inspiration.
In spite of getting excited, nothing concrete was happening in regards to planning. But as the teasers of Chalshiksha (https://instagram.com/chalshiksha/) started to appear, it was very difficult to stand on fence and watch. A lot of friends were gathering. Finally, with bunch of 9 children from LC, Kshama (a parent), I made an entry to Chalshiksha 2022!
BeMe, Bangalore
A day prior we were hosted by BeMe, our guide in journey of democratic education. Their kids cooked delicious meal for us, and made a lasting impression on our kids. During reflection circle, children expressed how special they felt, and what take-aways they had from BeMe.
Chalshiksha 2022
As we arrived at the venue, lush green lawns, Mango orchards, calm and quiet and huge campus of Ecumanical Christan Centre brought back the memories of IDEC 2018. The campus appeared to be even more beautiful. For children from Mumbai, such a campus was an invitation to be free, to just run-around, explore, sit on a swing and just to be oneself. It was lovely meeting Annie, Amukta, Sourav, Abhilasha and Indira. Within no time, the third organizer had become a friend too 🙂
Options to choose from
The whole program was so wel-crafted, that it was impossible to believe it was happening for the very first time. At 6/7 different locations, different activities were going on. For those who were looking for deeper dive into philosophy, there were documentaries and movies on alternative spaces like Puvidham (Puvidham – Education for Sustainable Living and Rural Development), Neelbagh, The Learning Community of Auroville (tlcauroville.org) , BeMe, Nai Talim, Gijubhai Badheka’s school, Rishi Valley.
For those who wanted to watch movies and enjoy there was wel-curated collection of movies like – Taashi and the monk, Kishan and the golden chariot, chanda ke joote, Aaj school javanu che?
For those who were interested in trying hands on film making, Naresha had offered a 3-day course. Little Theatre of Bangalore performed and conducted a workshop to demonstrate how dramatics can contribute to education. To others who wanted something apart from films, Rupesh Gesota (www.rupeshgesota.weebly.com) was playing math games, pottery work, Sathyashree’s braiding workshop, Kallaripattu workshop-demo, traditional games and Manish Freeman’s (https://www.instagram.com/manishfreeman/) gamethon.
My learnings
Meenakshi akka’s way of talking to children about failures, suicidal thoughts, sex education, and idea of making boys wear sanitary pads for five days at least once in lifetime were amazing.
Deepa Dhanraj presented her experiments with Karnataka Govt school teachers under heading of ‘Films and pedagogy’ and ‘Young Historians’. The govt school teachers were asked to survey for the increasing dropout rate. Their journey starting from refusal to understanding of different factors was beautifully recorded into the film. There were different issues discussed about financial challenges, safety of teenage girls walking long distances to school, gap in dialects and context of textbooks and real life, fear of being looked down upon parents by learned children. But the last question which left me thinking about the purpose of education was, once the children get educated, will they return to the farming/ family? Will there be guaranteed jobs and social respect? Or even more confused state? All these questions led to the understanding of teachers and I am sure it must have led to change in the attitude and practices in the classroom.
The other session, ‘young historians’ was a video-clip of a school teacher with a group of 8-10 children, making them understand and experience the nuances of studying history. The exercise started by making family tree and understanding history of one’s family, conducting interviews of elders in the family. Teacher also used photographs of Basavraj, famous figure, to come to the conclusion that the drawings in history may come from understanding of narrator. Basavraj’s life stories also provided opportunity to discuss about social and communal aspects. The loveliest activity was to let children discuss, debate and come to a conclusion about a family/house, from where 10 articles were brought and provided to children. Deepa expressed that the condition during this activity was 1. No child will be corrected. 2. No child will be stopped from talking. It was amazing how children brainstormed and arrived at a conclusion.
The above exercise and Ratnesh’s (Aarohi Life Education | Open Learning Community) session about possibilities, where he showed some films of open learners life journeys, BeMe’s film and TLC’s ‘Learning from intangibles’ helped me reinforce my principles.
- Nothing can be taught
- The mind must be consulted in its own growth
- To have complete faith in child’s ability to learn and life providing the opportunities to learn.
I had sort of forgotten it in recent past, though these were the basics with which we began Sadhana Learning Centre
The other interesting sessions were by 1.Kavita Ratna (The concerned for working Children) talked about Children’s rights to be heard. 2. Maya Menon demonsrated how to make teaching visible with the help of two video clips shot in the classroom. 3. Ritika Sahani’s celebrating diversity where she demonstrated how sensitivity towards differently abled can be brought about in easy-going, fun way.
Children’s journey
All our 10+ year old had a wonderful time. It was probably the longest time they spent away from any family member, managing themselves, travelling long distance. They enjoyed participating in film making workshop, drama, pottery and game-a-thon. They played Mafia to their hearts’ content. They enjoyed company of BeMeians. Some of them went through some emotional crisis but managed themselves very well.
A few things brought up in the reflection circles were various people inspiring them, their readiness to take up the responsibility of planning and execution of different outdoor trips, awe about children cleaning toilets in the school, and curiosity if we can do the same, knowing about hardships of working children and thought if children can do something about their own rights, being a generous host and cooking food for the guests, being aware guest and not to climb the trees without saying hi-hellos ;), being helpful in taking care of the friends, so on and so forth.
The closing circle
In the closing circle, I got to meet people who had come with different objectives in mind. Some had no agenda at all, some like me had come to meet friends (which I did to the content of my heart), some were nudged to participate, while some wanted to know whats happening in the alternative world of education. But it appeared that all were happy and wanted more Chalshiksha to come in future, spreading its wings, taking more participants, especially, young ones, going to different parts of the country, even internationally!
I am returning back to Mumbai, with fresh experiences, memories, reinforcements, networks, invitations and am indebted to Project Nomad, Schoolscape and Abheek, for this learning opportunity. I am looking forward to more such events to include our children and parent community at large.
Baawaraa Mann Dekhne Chala Ek Sapana..... 