Jane Sahi
How can the school, home and community converge to create a third space to help children’s literacy learning? Schools need not be the only domain for children to learn literacy. Each and every home is characterised by its memories, stories, languages and cultural resources which can enrich a child’s literacy learning at school. This article gives several suggestions on how a third space can be created where re-contextualisation can happen and literacy practices at home and school can merge.

Usha Mukunda
How can a library space in a school bring about a culture of freedom and enquiry? Can a school library sow the seed of thinking differently and nurture young people to grow into strong individuals? The author points out various ways in which a library can be used to effectively bring home the idea of what culture is all about — it can be an inclusive or diverse space, it can create room for conversation and dialogue, or even a collaborative and compassionate space with no bias and dogma. Read on to find out more.

Aruna Sankaranarayanan
Diversity is practically synonymous with India. From the towering Himalayas to coastal Kanyakumari. From the arid deserts of Rajasthan to the lush greenery of the Sunderbans, India houses an array of geographical features that form the context for the range of our cultures.

Anjana Nayar
Melania Trump recently made a gift of some treasured children’s books – a set of 10 classic Dr. Suess books – to various schools across America. The First Lady of the United States, making the gift on the occasion of US National Read-a-Book Day, has said she constantly reads the Dr Suess books with her son.

B. Ramdas and Rama Sastry
Every classroom, every school, whether we like to admit it or not, reflects, in effect, a microcosm of the society we will have. Teachers and school administrators always forget this. Our schools have become such disjointed arms of society that school administrators feel that their roles are different from what the child has to do when she steps out of school.

Thejaswi Shivanand
Selvi is a nine-year-old attending a middle school in a town in south India. She has been the target of attention from some of her classmates ever since she joined this school late last year, and this attention has resulted in her being bullied and excluded from her peer group.

Roshen Dalal
If we can create a culture of non-violence today, beginning with the classroom, we will move towards a better future. There may be many ways to do this, but here are two possible suggestions. Before focusing on people, religions, and different groups, we can begin with plants, insects and animals.