Broad Picture, Some Perspectives and Personal Reflections
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Issue XVIII, September 2012 in school education Special Issue on Inside : Broad Picture, Some Perspectives and Personal Reflections Editorial Team Advisors Ananda H N Hriday Kant Dewan Chandrika Muralidhar S Giridhar Madhumita Sudhakar Neeraja Raghavan Designed & Printed Prema Raghunath SCPL Design Bangalore - 560 062 +91 80 2686 0585 +91 98450 42233 www.scpl.net Please Note: All views and opinions expressed in this issue are that of the authors and Azim Premji Foundation bears no responsibility for the same. “Learning Curve is a publication on education from Azim Premji University. It aims to reach out to teachers, teacher educators, school heads, education functionaries, parents and NGOs, on contextual and thematic issues that have an enduring relevance and value to help practitioners. It provides a platform for the expression of varied opinions, perspectives, encourages new and informed positions, thought-provoking points of view and stories of innovation. The approach is a balance between being an ‘academic’ and 'practitioner’ oriented magazine.” irst, as the new Editor of the Learning Curve, legacy and, more than the legacy itself, of the good I want to say a big Hello to everyone reading it does to us when we learn and practice any art, Fthis issue of our magazine. I’ve been a school whatever it may be. In earlier times, some one or teacher for over 30 years and while I think I am other form of art was automatically learnt, if not familiar with the workings of a school, both as a formally then by default because homes were system dispensing literacy and education as well as repositories of art. Singing, whether solo or in a a social edifice, this particular experience- that of group, dancing were all part of everyday learning. editing a magazine that reaches the hands of an Schools encouraged the art class. extremely conscious sophisticated readership is a new one. And one that I welcome with excitement Then, sometime in the late sixties and seventies, and anticipation. came the great divide. Technical advancement became the mantra of success, which itself took on a As everyone is aware, the Azim Premji Foundation new definition, and the arts were as a result has been concentrating on specific subjects in each sidelined. issue, so that the needs of particular subject teachers are met while informing other subject The humanities were renamed ‘arts subjects’ and teachers of the nuances of that particular theme. were looked down upon. From here it was easy to There have been issues which have concentrated on enter into a life that ignored the arts, thereby doing Maths, on Language and on Sports. The purpose of great emotional harm to subsequent batches of these specialist issues has been to provide a students who were left with no time to pursue spirit- platform for expert views as well as specific enhancing subjects like drawing, painting, experiences in that particular arena. weaving, singing, dancing. These were relegated to the category of hobbies, to be pursued or not as This time we are presenting an issue on the Arts. Art time permitted. And in most cases, time did not is everywhere around us – in Indian life, artistry is permit. all encompassing, from the early morning practice of drawing patterns outside our homes, whether Increasingly, though, the ill-effects of this myopic they are called alpana, rangoli or kolam. In passing policy have begun to be apparent. The burthen of it should be mentioned that these intricate drawings the collective message of this issue is: in the life of depend not only on a steady hand or artistic eye, our children, Art is as essential as any other they are also highly mathematical. Then, homes subject. Art sharpens perceptions of the world across the country, especially in rural and semi- around us, it increases awareness and sensitivity. It urban India are seamlessly designer. The simple also enhances human relationships as we discover lota, with its perfect shape, which comes in all sizes the similarities of the artistic experience. There is a and is used ubiquitously in our homes, is a marvel general recognition of the fact that the word ‘art’ of designing genius. encapsulates within itself a wealth of meaning, as witness phrases such as the art of writing, of Our walls decorated with all kinds of human, communication, of social and political exchange. animal and bird figures, not to mention drawings of the plants and trees. A short walk down any village As for art and the child, there is ample scientific will reveal temples and homes which are unique in evidence to prove that art intensifies a child’s their beauty. understanding of the world around her, helps to organize experiences which, in later life, create Of course, we take it all for granted. The richness of personality. Children with special needs respond to Indian fabrics, the weaves, the pattern, the colours art in the most mature and unexpected ways. come into our consciousness as things of beauty Outside of school, children who attend arts classes, and joy only when mentioned by a non-Indian. Then whatever the form, are much better adjusted with there are the varied art forms across the country in the extra dimension that art provides in their lives. dance, music, sculpture, puppetry, woodwork, and ceramics. So here it is. Your feedback is eagerly awaited. Please tell us what you liked – and did not – so that With such a breathtaking array of art around us, it we can improve our future issues. is easy to ignore it all and succumb to the nitty- gritty of everyday living which has become so Go ahead and enjoy – while I get my paintbrush demanding that we have to be reminded of our out! Contents Section A Section B Broad Picture Some Perspectives Art, Politics, Perception 01 Transformative powers of the arts with 31 Kaustuv Roy a focus on theatre and its related arts Sanjna Kapoor The Arts as Core Curriculum 06 Tara Kini Learning to see, awakening the senses 35 Jinan Learning in Joy 09 Rati Basu Bridging the Great Divide - 40 Rediscovering Rabindranath Tagore When Art becomes the Artist 13 Vijay Padaki Srivi Kalyan Using Puppetry in School Education How Art Develops Children’s 44 18 Dr. Mirella Forsberg Ahlcrona Critical Abilities Deepshika Khaitan Traditional Performing Arts in Education 48 V.R. Devika Aesthetics in Everyday Life 22 Tarit Bhattacharjee Theatre and Science 52 Nilanjan P Choudhury Art in Education in India’s ‘top’schools 25 - A Quality Education Study Theatre in Education: 56 Vyjayanthi Shankar and Boundaries and Horizons Archana Dwivedi Lakshmi Krishnamurty The Oscillating Note in the 61 Age of the Great Dumbing Down V. Prasad Going Deeper Than Words 64 Facilitating a Journey 92 Chandini Harlalka Natesh Ullal Child’s Play – 67 Space of their own: 96 Set and prop design as a collaborative Creativity and personal time - notes and creative process in schools from a children’s workshop Kalpana Balaji Umashankar Periodi Film-making as part of Education 71 Creativity Workshops 99 Ankit Pogula Creating child friendly spaces Rudresh Section C Playing with clay 104 Personal Reflections Sumanth Sampath To live out your child’s dream And Dance We Did 107 77 Vani Brahmachari Chitra Chandrasekhar Dasarathy Yakshagana - Hypnotic and Liberating! 111 Music - An Equal Career 80 Ini Periodi Sharik Hasan A workshop to make you think 114 Art Education, The Art Teacher 86 Karishma Ajmera & Rahul Ajmera and The Artisan Neeraja Raghavan Street Theatre as Art that Educates 116 Uttara Bharath Kumar Growing with Art in Shikshamitra 119 Sudeshna Sinha Section A Broad Picture 01 Art, Politics, Perception Kaustuv Roy Art instructors are used to the question, sometimes wonder then that questions such as the ones above benign, sometimes inquisitive, sometimes disparag- are asked. For if art is only measured by its artifacts ing, sometimes hostile, from myriad sources includ- and has no other ramication in schooling or in the ing parents, teachers, administrators, and certainly social collective then of course it is best left to prac- students, “What is the point of learning art?” This ticing artists who may be able to produce valuable question of course rides on the shoulder of many objects. But let us inquire if art is something more other unstated underlying questions such as “Is not and therefore we have to ask if there is some other art a luxury or a middle class pursuit?” “Can we not signicance to the learning and teaching of art that is leave art to those genuinely interested or talented not easily visible, that does not coincide with artifact, in art?” “How is art practically useful?” “Is not art and if so what is its conceptual basis, how should we redundant in the age of digitalized production and determine its qualities, and what are its practices? reproduction?” And so on. Certainly, to my mind, these questions are askable, and I have not typically The Politics of Art snapped back with the retort: “If ‘mathematizing’ of Like mathematics, art is a distinct mode of apprehen- children’s thinking can be accepted without batting sion of space apart from other things, and hence has an eyelid, why not aestheticizing of the same?” In the potential to be deployed for describing the world; fact I have mostly received such pointed queries in and since any process of description of the world a polite spirit. However, since every question has makes choices and selections, even minimally the underlying presumptions, to be able to even super- language of art becomes political. Further, when art cially respond to the above question one must begin is introspective, as it often is, it probes and intervenes with, in this case, the image of art in the collective in the psychic theatre making art’s function micropo- social mind from where it springs.