Feeding Curious Minds
A child is a natural learner. He learns more by example, than by advice. He is not a lump of clay which may be shaped according to conventional notions of propriety, growth and success. Seldom do people realise that for a child, knowledge is the outcome of his own interactions with the world. It cannot be foisted from above. An ideal educational programme, hence, would comprise of the realization of a child’s unique potential and his bubbling mind, effervescent with curious impressions of the world around him.
A group of children were taken through the process of growing coriander leaves, with an idea to familiarize them with nature at the most basic level. Once the leaves blossomed forth in their perfect green colour, students were asked to rub them in between their palms and breathe in the fragrant flavours of coriander. In an interesting observation by one of the students, coriander leaves to him smelled of aloo-tamatar ki subzi prepared back home. Amusing, yes, but when left to explore by himself, a child learns to associate things and arrive at his own grand structure of conclusions. This is the inherent learning capacity of a child that we, at Shiv Nadar School, seek to tap into.
Our educational programme has evolved out of an in-depth engagement with a child’s psyche. It seeks to stoke the element of curiosity to facilitate knowledge delivery. We are firm believers in the fact that education is a process that continues through life. School is but one of the phases – not the first, not the ultimate – in an individual’s journey of learning.
A special effort at Shiv Nadar School is, hence, made in the direction of building intellectual and emotional capacity and helping students identify patterns which they may synergise into new concepts of their own. Our curriculum, while facilitating a child’s understanding of his own self, also seeks to establish his connections with others, which includes his ability to empathise and to understand the subtleties of human interactions.
In an attempt to engage better with all partners in our endeavour to deliver the best and most innovative education practices, we are enhancing our presence in the virtual world. This blog is one of the several attempts in that direction. Through this forum, we will update all readers with school activities, events, as well as throw light on various issues concerned with growth, development and education of a child. We will bring to you stories which will help you connect better with different faces of the Shiv Nadar School family. We do also hope to elicit responses from our readers about how processes at Shiv Nadar School can be made more effective and fruitful.
Children change and grow every day, in a process both fascinating and endearing. While teaching them, we ourselves get to learn much. These learnings will be converted into narratives via which you may get a peek into our daily trysts with curious little learners. Have a nice time reading the blog!
Jul 11, 2014 by Shiv Nadar School Noida