We the children, together
Aditi Mathur and Ratnesh Mathur
The true assets of any nation, society, or organization are its people. If the above is true for classrooms as well, then this asset has been misunderstood and grossly under used in the business of learning. In fact, one wonders why somebody had to coin the term cooperative learning and “sell” it for schools to take notice.
A look inside the staffroom will tell you that we do our best and enjoy what we do when we learn from each other and work together. It’s ironical that as students we are supposed to work individually, and when we step inside an organization, its HR department spends thousands of rupees training us to work in teams. It’s time we understood that one of the purposes of education is to help build people skills – essential skills not just to succeed in life but also to be happy.
Here are some ways of visualizing the “people power” residing in your classroom.
The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bangalore that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.