Library, the favourite room
Revathi Radhakrishnan, Madhan Mithra, and P Gayathri
If the school is a building and all rooms, other than the restrooms, are classrooms then our Vanavil Sankar Narayan Memorial Library is the favourite classroom for the children at Vanavil School. It’s also the favourite place for many teachers and other staff members. Through this article, we try to explore the reasons why this room is a favourite among our children.
Vanavil School was opened in 2005 under critical circumstances with minimal resources and capacities. The school came up as a response to the conditions in which people from the Boom Boom Maatukarars community (a nomadic community) were surviving after the Asian Tsunami, which ravaged the coastal town of Nagapattinam. Most adults and children from the community were seeking alms to survive. Vanavil was started as a play-way school for children from the ages of 5 to 15, who have never been to school. Nutrition was a core function of the school. We were an unconventional school, and we learnt by doing and experimenting. As the founder was an avid reader, books were an important part of the Vanavil pedagogy. However, since regular textbooks were far removed from anything the school was grappling with, story books and picture books were used as the only texts in the initial days. We had access to some good children’s books. We used them in a random and unplanned manner. Over the years, we also received grants to expand our library. In January 2023 when we went to Bookworm Library for the Introduction to Libraries workshop, a library existed in our school, but since then (over a period of 18 months), our library has come alive and taken on a personality of its own.
Why is the library the ‘Favourite Room’?
The ambience
The display racks with colourful books facing the visitors are the first big attraction. The classrooms in Vanavil school are spacious, but the library is the most adorned one. It has paintings, sculptures, activity corners with art supplies for all, a bean bag, floor cushions, and a bed. Overall, it has a welcoming, warm, and free atmosphere with many beautiful objects that attract and make the children happy. We realized that even if there are attempts at keeping the whole school warm and friendly, the specific ambience marked by many kinds of visual aesthetics and seating very unlike a classroom make the library more endearing to the children. Suitable display racks were crucial to draw children in and spark off initial engagements.
The freedom
“In the library, we choose the books we read,” said Sakthivel. He and a few other students keep reading the same books. Being able to read a book quickly makes some happy, for some it’s the story that excites them every time they read, and a few children resort to this as a comfort activity. In another case, we have observed a child who has some learning difficulties going back to a picture book and creating their own story from the illustrations. Some children keep a book on their chest and daydream during the quiet reading time. This freedom to explore, to learn in their own way, and in their own time could be some reasons why the children are attracted to the library. Finding such a place and space is important for a child. It nurtures a sense of belonging and wellbeing, which strengthens the child.
The art
Vanavil follows an arts and performance-based pedagogy, and our school campus is filled with art. Our library also has books that introduce us to many different and fantastic artworks. Recently, the class 6 students had done a project on vocations. They had made a booklet on their parents’ and grandparents vocations and the people they see working at school. The children also made posters of what they wanted to become. Muthupandi’s poster was different – it had his name on it with the caption, ‘I’m an artist’. At first we missed the connection. Later it dawned on us that his poster was inspired by Dulari Devi’s book Following my paint brush (The Tamil translation of the book is called Naan Oru Oviyai/ I Am an Artist). He had made all the drawings in his booklet in the same style as Dulari Devi’s.
When Gayatri did a ‘Character Alive’ activity with the children from the book I Will Save My Land by Rinchin, two girls said that they also wanted to become characters from books through this practice. They enjoyed seeing Gayatri dress up and emerge from a story. Art creates a level-playing field for all children and helps them observe, concentrate, and focus. It can help children make decisions and build creativity, which is an important life skill.
Exercising choice
In the library, children exercise choice. They can choose to just draw, read a story, create their own story from the illustrations in books, or look at the art that’s hung in the space. We have some children who want to write about the books they read/saw or about the library display theme. Spontaneous writing and drawing are two different activities that some children indulge in after reading/browsing a book. We find this particularly worth mentioning because it is fascinating for us to note that a child who does not write on their own in a classroom is sometimes the most prolific note-taker or writer in the library. The library is the space in which the child has choices, can voluntarily explore and learn through self-discovery.
Window to the world
Reading about book lovers, libraries on donkey backs, the journey of a folk song, what women can do, about huge parks in mammoth cities at the other end of the world, or about the imagination that is inside every child and the potential for every child – it is the library that lets the children travel to different places, reflect on different values, be immersed in landscapes, feel a deep connection with books. Even though our children have not said this explicitly, we see that their grasp and access to a wider world is growing because of their time in the library.
Why the library
As we reflect on our forays into the children’s library, we realize much was possible because of the professional development opportunities that we have had. The field activity, as part of the Introduction to Libraries Workshop that Bookworm, Goa, conducts, enabled Revathi to begin the practice of children maintaining their own library cards. It also helped initiate a change in the physical setup of the library and the organization of the collection to make it more accessible. Gayatri and Mithra recognize that it was their immersion in two professional development courses that made them readers. Now, they read a variety of books and also discuss them with their team.
Gayatri feels that creating monthly book displays – right from discussing various themes, selecting books, creating activities, and a display with children – has deepened her understanding of the books in the collection. Slowly, her perception of the library as a quiet place for serious reading has also changed. She now sees the library as a vibrant space where people can do different things – quiet reading, book discussions, and art projects.
Mithra is now more confident with open discussions and doesn’t hesitate to ask children for their opinions. She has come to realize that workshops and library professional development programs played an important role in helping her become a good librarian.
The Vanavil Library has come to be an integral part of our school. Various library practices have also helped us move closer to our vision of our children having equitable opportunities and living with equality and dignity. To a certain degree, the sense of freedom that the child experiences in the library builds the child’s sense of self. It has also become central to the way we want to enable learning – by seeing, observing, doing, making, and experiencing.
As we worked our way through this essay, listing reasons, we also realized it is probably the happiness that children feel in this place that makes it their favourite room. Working with children in the library has helped us understand autonomy in children and the quiet happiness it invokes.
Revathi Radhakrishnan is the Founder of Vanavil. Madhan Mithra is the After-school Coordinator and P Gayathri the Librarian. They can be reached at team@vanavil.org.
