30-hour Project, The School KFI

Event News from Chennai: 

Last week I had been to The School, Krishnamurthy Foundation, for a presentation by the (now) XII^th Std. students. These students were involved in a project called the 30-hour project the previous year. The deal was that during that year, each student would spend a total of 30 hours doing / learning something new, besides his academics. The objective of this activity was that s(he) gets to do something that s(he) loves and wants to do, besides being a shift away away from their scholarly pursuits. Each of the 20-odd students made a presentation on their 30-hour project.

Just before the programme began: the Assembly Hall in their school made colourful with different displays around the hall, students from other classes gathered to watch their seniors, parents and others joining the crowd, and the persons to be on stage busily tinkering around the place in preparation.

The event started with music and jamming. Three guys with their guitars, and drums playing an orginal composition. They then got the corwd tapping their feet to a spontaneous rendition of Jamming. The result: raw energy, pulsating music and high talent. There were other music sessions – one girl playing the veena, and yet another singing. There was one who said she didn’t know her own mother-tongue, and so started learning it – malayalam. She recited nursery rhymes in malayalam, and then went on to sing a malayalam song too. The business magnate shared the business experience that he got by working in his mother’s two-wheeler Showroom. The historian shared his learning and titbits from a book on Indian History that he had read, became quite impassioned with his subject until he was told to stop by his co-presentors. The pioneer who learnt and practiced tentpegging and proudly announced that she is one of the first tentpeggers in the country. The sportsman showing off the smart and smooth moves that he practices now while playing basketball and confounds the opponent. Besides these, there was capentry, origami, tye-and-dye, mehendi, camera-making, sketching, design / art, model-making, cooking, embroidery, and welding.

On the surface it might have been just another cultural event. But the students themselves and what they shared with the audience made all the difference. All of them were candid, simple and unassuming about what they had to say. They all shared the difficulties they had faced during the course of their project, new learning that they acquired, ideas that struck them etc. The student who made the camera said that there is some problem because of which it does not take the photo now but he hasn’t yet solved it. Another who said he wanted to study literature in his mother-tongue (telugu) but gave up because it was too difficult, and instead made models of a bike and a monster both of which run on motor. The potential entrepreneur who displayed a lamp shade that he had made, and spoke about how he did not just learn carpentry from his teacher but also how this can be made in to a profitable business and developing his entrepreneurial skills and abilities. The novice chef admitted that she does not enjoy cooking much, and so decided that she had to learn it and get acquainted with it. She brought some dishes for sampling, which were pronounced delicious. There were others who not content with just learning the skill or art, did some background study about it and presented this information too. Like, who started the practice of wearing Mehendi, when and the evolution of the art. Each one of them had their unique style of presenting their stuff, and each had something new and different to offer.

Above all, the knowledge that this team had to share with us was of learning itself and work– that ways of learning and education is not simply within the textbooks or inside the classrooms. Education is for all times and spaces – one only has to look for it and be aware of it. And in this learning and awareness, there is only the healthy drive to excel in whatever one is doing and enhance each other’s development. This cooperation, harmonised effort and an aware learning is what is needed to transform education to success and achievement.