My daughter loves to paint – she is quite good at it but most
importantly, she enjoys it. Once we took her to an arts gallery and she saw
lots of paintings. Below each painting, there was the name of the artist and
besides it was the price tag. She enquired about it – I explained that these
artists sold paintings to earn money. Innocently, she asked, “Baba, why don’t
they work like you do in an office?”. I replied that arts and painting was
their ‘work’ and that it was the means to earning money for them, just like
what I did in my office. Her eyes lit up and I could sense the wheels turning
in that little, yet fertile brain of hers. I braced myself for what was coming.
Over the next few days, she started ‘selling’ her paintings –
meaning, she started putting price tags on her work and insisted on holding
impromptu exhibitions for guests who came home. The tags had no correlation to
anything. Some paintings were for INR 300 and others were for INR 2000. She
started talking to guests and tried to sell her stuff – during this process, she
got asked questions like, “Why is this painting costlier than the other one, if
it is small? Shouldn’t smaller be less expensive?”, “This painting has more
colors and must have been difficult to paint – so why is it priced the same as
the other one?”.
As she was answering these questions, she started adjusting the
paintings’ price tags - for things like
how beautiful the painting looked, how large/small was the canvas, how much
time/effort it took for her to make and what mediums/ colors she used. After a
few more days, she started including things like the cost of the canvas and the
colors used as a reference point in determining the cost. Later, I saw that she
was changing the price tags – when I asked her the reason behind it, she said
that a few paintings were not getting sold and she thinks it is because of the
price – so she was reducing it for some paintings. Finally, I was amazed one
day when I asked her the cost of a house she had created. She replied, “Who is
buying it? If it is you, then the painting is INR 2000, if it is Poonam Tai
(our maid), then it is INR 200”.
I said, “Asya, why should the painting price differ based on who is
buying it?” to which she responded, “I know you have the money but she does
not. So if she wants something, I will reduce the price for her.” In just a
matter of days, she had learnt so many things on her own – economics & the
law of supply and demand, behavioural sciences, demonstrating empathy, behavioural
economics, mathematics and of course, arts! I did not think it was possible for
a child to learn all these multi-disciplinary concepts in such a short span of
time through the medium of painting – it was almost like several business
school courses crammed into one, albeit with a lot of underlying practical edge
to it.
My reflection: It is very difficult to pinpoint
what and how children will learn through their life experiences. What was meant
to be a simple arts lesson, devolved into a multi-dimensional learning
situation! As I reflect on the education needed for tomorrow, I think it will
be imperative to break down the silos of ‘subjects’ – in language class, you
learn languages and in Maths, you do Maths. This is so archaic – through
gymnastics, my daughter is learning geometry (shapes like pyramids to stand on
each other, physics (principles of balance and weight) and biology (importance
of stretching, need for nutrition). How I wish there were schools which just
had ‘time-slots’ throughout the day and the actual content was determined very
differently – based on say, a song that was being played on the road, or from
the fact that a kid got hurt and blood was spilt on the floor. Such experiences
are far more memorable for kids and can be used as learning moments for
‘lifelong education’ rather than the artificially created constructs taught in
a structured manner.
This also reminded me of
the epic book, Totto-chan (a must read for all parents with school-going kids
and all teachers), by Tetsuoko Kuroyanagi, wherein the Headmaster teaches kids
based on actual events. For example, he tells them about flora and fauna from
different surroundings by asking them to get ‘one thing from the sea and one
thing from the hills’ for lunch and the class has a great discussion on the sea
and hills! Similarly, a walk through the garden after lunch helps the kids not
only to digest food but learn about flowers and plants in a playful
environment. He also uses a ‘visit to a ghost temple’ as a means to remove the
fear of ghosts and demons from the minds of kids. The Headmaster truly redefined
what ‘teaching and learning are’ – the best learning happens outside the formal
classroom, textbook and maybe even outside the school?
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