Manifestations of Art in Children

Take a look at this picture. 

Picture 1 – A child’s drawing

What do you see? A riot of colours and lines. How would you react if a child presented this as his drawing? Would you think it has a meaning, a story? Or would you be inclined to believe it is gibberish? 
Now take a look at this.

Picture 2 – An adult’s drawing

What do see in this picture? Controlled, conformed, structured, lines and a defined form. It looks like the artist had a definite idea of what the objects look like, almost like they couldn’t look any other way.

We live in times of innovation where we constantly look for novel solutions, out-of-the-box thinking, ideas that maybe unconventional but ground breaking. Innovation requires creativity. 

Whereas we teach children, with enthusiasm, how ‘apples are red’. When a child comes up with a drawing of a purple apple, we disapprove and tell them to do it ‘correctly’. We never stop and ask the child what he/she was thinking while drawing a purple apple. We are so keen to propagate norms and teach the child what is ‘correct’, that we overlook something equally important. While criticising a four-year-old for drawing a purple apple, we actually tell him/her that thinking beyond ‘apples are red’ is taboo. Thus instilling in his/her mind a rigid thought. 

Picture 3 – Adult’s drawing of a house 
 
  Picture 4 – Child’s drawing of a house 

Look at these pictures of adult and child drawings of a house. The child’s drawing is visibly influenced by the teacher. Many of us will draw a house similarly when we are asked to draw one. Can we for a moment reflect on where we see such a house that looks like a box with a triangle on top? More importantly, why do we continue to teach children to draw such a house? Since it is a convention? 

However, is it really wrong if a child drew a home any other way? From experience or from imagination. Did you ever stop to think that everything that children draw reflects what is going on in their minds? Take for example, Picture 1. It comes with the most magnificent story of a snake eating eggs from a bird’s nest, while the mama bird is away. 
When you first looked at Picture 1, you may have never thought that it had such a deep meaning for the artist. Imagine if some adult wrecked this wonderful story by saying, “What are these squiggles? Go and colour within lines.” 
This sort of an attitude would just crush the child’s imagination and confidence. He/She would feel uncomfortable when asked to draw again. 

Think of when a four year old says, “I can’t draw.” Such loss of confidence at such a young age! 

That is exactly what happens when we take a child’s mind - unrestricted, free, a riot of colours with no conformity, as shown in Picture 1, and try to add lines, structure and the ‘correct’ way of doing things.

Build the Trust

Today we will talk about the influence teachers have on the minds of their students. We have a lot of stories to demonstrate this, but the ones we have chosen were shared with us by two parents.
The first story is about Ishaan who is fifteen years old and like most teenagers spends more time in the virtual world. His parents often worry about the amount of time he spends in front of his PC. They feel that he is somehow losing touch with the real world and Nature. On a recent road trip to the country side, Ishaan was spending a lot of time on his smart phone updating his friends about the journey rather than experiencing the real journey. As the car was passing near a village, Ishaan suddenly asked to stop. There were sugarcane fields on either side of the highway. He stepped out of the car, entered a field and just touched a sugarcane plant. He then requested one of the farm hands to give him a cane. He turned to his mother and said, "Mom, do you remember in KG we did the theme on sugarcanes? Seema ma'am got some sugarcane for us and we had so much fun chewing them! I never realized that sugarcane plants grow so tall and that the leaves have such sharp edges! It has always fascinated me….and Nature too."
Seema would never have thought of the deep impact her getting sugarcane to class would have on the children. She had simply done what she thought then was the right thing, to help children learn better. It eventually influenced at least one child in the way he looked or connected with Nature.
Here is another story.
A little while ago, when the environmental conservation drive was just gathering steam, prominent schools across the country started a 'Ban Polythene' drive.
Our friend, a parent from such a school was strictly instructed by her son to never pack his lunch in a polybag again. Back in those days, paper bags weren't readily available. Packing anything for school had become a daily battle. Every morning there were tears and fights about not taking poly bags to school. This continued for quite some time, till one day, during a struggle to find paper bags, the son just shouted, "Give it to me in a poly bag!"
The parent was taken aback. After months of abstinence from polythene bags, why did her son suddenly not mind them anymore? More than anything, she was concerned that maybe her son no longer gave enough importance to rules or socially-relevant causes. So she asked him, "Why are you asking for a poly bag all of a sudden? Won't your teacher tell you off?" To this her son replied, "How can she tell me off? She gets polythene bags to school herself!"
Adults have incredible impact on children. Sometimes this influence is way beyond what they intend or expect it to be. This is an important message for all adults who engage in 'educating' children as parents as well as teachers – Practice What You Preach. Always try to be honest in your intent. Children look at 'grown-ups' with trust and expectation. We need to work towards retaining and building on their feeling of deference. For if children stop trusting us, then who will they look up to for guidance?

The Missing Regard for Teaching

Education on one hand can be seen as the most basic route of transmitting knowledge - that schools practice. That is centred on the teacher and her students. 
On the other it encompasses the ever-growing educational publishing industry, school stationery industry, educational service providers, tuition classes, co-curricular training centres, et al.
One can find that the growth of teachers has not been commensurate to the continuing enormous growth in other aspects of the education sector. While the some school teachers are well-paid and some others also enjoy such perks as attendance to foreign training workshops and certifications, the general state of teachers in the country is mediocre. 
In spite of schools being money-churners for the proprietors, one often finds that the most important player, the teacher, is neglected. Why is teaching considered to be the profession for bored housewives and those with a lot of spare time on their hands? Why does every child who is asked want to be a doctor, an engineer, MBA; none wants to be a teacher? Why hasn't teaching come over to the other side, and become an aspired profession?
Many think that those who cannot find other jobs begin teaching. How true is this thinking? Is teaching not one of the most challenging professions, considering the enormous responsibility it comes with? 
Only someone who has engaged with an easily distracted preschooler or an angst-ridden teenager for an extended period of time will understand how difficult it is. A teacher's job is not just to engage a classroom full of them, but guide them; make them learn with interest and understanding; work towards shaping their futures. 
Appreciating this aspect of the job, can make one well agree to have the teacher well paid and satisfied!
Another line of thought is that teachers nowadays do not take their jobs seriously and have let the quality of teaching slip. Examples from Indian legends are often taken to stress on the elevated status in society of theguru – who was knowledgeable, wise and who gave up everything else in life to pursue teaching. The guru therefore was most respected, as he moulded the futures of his shishyas (students), many of whom later became scientists, scholars, famous warriors and great kings. 
The onus is therefore on both teacher and society to reclaim the lost glory of teaching as a profession. Just like in the past, only people who are qualified and trained should become teachers, not those who could not qualify to become doctors, engineers or managers. 
At the same time, society should encourage teachers to be treated as any other person working in corporate – who is compensated according to her qualifications, experience and work profile. 
By doing this the quality of teaching and teachers can see the same proportionate growth that the education sector is currently witnessing. 

Aspects of Education

The education sector comprises of a multitude of things. People who work in this sector are often asked, "So, what exactly do you do?"
The sector is no longer just about teaching and teachers only. People from diverse fields like management, sales, marketing and finance have moved into education.
Opening and running school is as much about marketing it right, as it is about getting the academic curriculum in place. Educational products are related to core curriculum and supplementary learning; language improvement programs; learning games and toys, television programs; and the newest additions – digital products. Marketing for these products is just as important as creating appropriate content and design.
As Inspire does work in different areas of the education sector ranging from curriculum design, to providing infrastructure and branding guidelines, and teacher training, we regularly come across different kinds of people with different approaches to the sector.
Two such interactions made us think about the kind of work we would like Inspire to be known for.
The Inspire team is frequently invited by a key central government educational organisation to offer trainings to groups of teachers from across India.
For Inspire these workshops help to remain in touch with an audience very important to us – teachers. At each of these workshops, our trainers meet teachers from across the length and the breadth of the country.
The regional and cultural differences in the teachers most definitely bring variances in the ways they teach their classes. There is however a quality that most of them possess - passion.
They are absolutely enthusiastic about teaching children. They are also keen to learn. The zeal with which each of them participates in the workshops goes on to show that they take their jobs as serious missions. Teaching may well be the most undervalued and yet the most publically revered profession. While many teachers understand the importance of their occupation, the undervaluation brings their motivation levels down. Each one of us wants to be appreciated for the work we do. But consider this, how many times have you seen a teacher or an educator publicly appreciated for their work? To top this societal undervaluation, we have the 'sarkaari' (bureaucratic) system. So we have teachers being pulled out for collecting census data. Once, an animated discussion during an Inspire workshop was halted midway because it was some senior professor's farewell! With constraints like these, it is justified that the teachers would suffer from low morale and motivation.
Inspire's association on the other hand has been with corporate organisations that operate with an evident focus on bottom lines. One such engagement has been with an enterprise that ventured into education, considering it a noble profession, but more importantly seeing it made good business sense.
Education is currently beginning to see the same high that IT had seen a decade back. It is the bandwagon everyone wants to ride. In that process, academics, the basic A, B, C of the field, sometimes takes a backseat. As the domain gets increasingly competitive - infrastructure, branding and marketing become the drivers, - marketing a school; an educational program; even marketing curriculum.
Ever noticed how every school now claims to 'nurture' a child?
Contrast to ten years ago. How many schools advertised in newspapers or put up billboards? All this shows the infiltration of marketing in education.
While marketing itself is a positive aspect, it is counterproductive for the domain if the focus shifts from quality.
These two associations have been learning experiences for Inspire. We realize that the way ahead is going to be challenging. While many teachers will continue to do good work in their individual classes, the second group can help expand these islands of excellence. This will again have a direct and positive impact on teacher compensation and their motivation.
The challenge is therefore to work with teachers to ensure that they make each school day interesting and enriching for children. At the same time encourage corporate funding to ensure that 'good quality' education is available to many more children.
Inspire is enthused by these recent changes in the sector. It views the entry of corporate into education as positive as it adds value and ensures reasonable returns and growth for enterprises, showing it is possible to do both.
In all the work that Inspire has done, one thing has emerged clearly – education cannot be compromised for the sake of higher profits. While we are a business enterprise, we know that each minute of our existence is because of the child – whose life we intended to influence with quality education.
We also urge the consumers – the parents to be alert and mindful of these influences when deciding on their child's education. After all it is their choice that makes their child's future.

Lesson from a Four-year Old

Warm Wishes for 2011 from Inspire! 

We begin the New Year by sharing some experiences that have influenced who we are and how we work at Inspire. As you read on you may find likeness with something you have seen or been through in your life. 

For every teacher all her students are special. Each class that she has taught stays on in her mind beyond years. Sometimes even a single memory of a student lingers. 

Radhika had a student, whom we shall call 'A' for the purpose of this narration. A was a precocious toddler, who wore glasses, that partially covered his droopy eyes. Even as a child he carried himself with immense confidence, looking his teacher straight in the eye and calling her 'Ms Radhika' instead of the usual 'Ma'am'. He always had an opinion about things and a matching wit too. All in all – he was a little guy who could not be missed easily.

During one time around the Annual Day celebrations of the school, Radhika was readying her class for the rehearsals. The children were not the most enthusiastic considering they had to wait for hours for their turns for practice. They would get restless. Some would even cry. 

Radhika, aware of this spoke to her class "Children, I know it is difficult, I know it is boring to sit still for so long. But we need to do this so that we can put up a good show. So let's think how we can make the waiting time less boring for all of us." The children came up with several suggestions. After hearing them out Radhika said "Okay, while you wait your turn you can choose between blocks or books. As a class let us decide on one of these that we can take with us. Once we have made a choice we will carry it with us to make the waiting time less boring for us. But on your part, you will need to keep quiet during the practice time."

Children chose to carry blocks. Radhika had guessed this would work. She tried this successfully later in many schools during similar situations. Children always chose blocks and remained engaged and quiet after that.

On that day too children agreed unanimously and grew less restless almost immediately. Radhika, satisfied, turned around to see A staring straight at her. Radhika asked him, "What happened A? Why are you looking at me like that?" Taking his time, as if mulling the question over in his head, wondering how to approach it, A said, "I was just thinking, you are a pretty good dealmaker."

Radhika was stumped. This was totally unexpected from a four-year old, whom she was teaching nuances of proper speech. A, meanwhile walked past her to his place in the waiting area, as if he had said nothing out of the ordinary. 

That day, Radhika learnt two things. 

First that children are capable of taking decisions and providing solutions. They do not need to be told always to make them understand. Instead their perception of things needs to be given more respect. 

Second and perhaps a more important one, that children understand moods and situations much better than what adults give them credit for. They are vigilant and pick up cues from adult talk and behaviour. So a teacher or parent needs to be a role model whose conduct a child can emulate. 

Many of Inspire's methods are thus based on lessons learnt from four-year-olds. We have many more such lessons, each unique and interesting. 

If you have a similar incident from your life, do share with us.