Can Parents Be Friends With Their Children

Point of View

A new series

Look around office and workplaces of today.

Have they changed in the last fifty years?
Of course they have. Instead of the individual cabins most work places have opted for open offices.

What about your kitchen?
Is it still the smoke filled place with soot encrusted walls?

Now, think of the schools of today.
Have they changed just as dramatically in the last fifty years?

The class room may have white boards instead of blackboards but schools are still designed as rows of rooms lined along a corridor aligned with some open spaces.

We talk about schools of tomorrow that help our children develop 21 st century skills.  Well, pause and ponder- can 21 st century skills be taught within the confines of spaces that are outdated and inefficient?

Schools can offer fantastic opportunities for young children to learn and grow not just because of the materials and teaching learning opportunities they house but through creative and innovative use of spaces that encourages children to explore, experiment, create, collaborate and express.

And who better to help us visualize the school for the future than the ones who are going to use it the most. Here we have children share their vision of the school they would like to study in and share the rationale for their design.

Indeed a rich food for thought for architects, school owners, teachers and parents.