Introduction : Shanmuga welcomed the participants and described the concept of the Learning Network. The initiative began earlier this year following a conference held in Bangalore. The idea is to bring together groups that are doing pioneering work on exploring alternatives in education and help them network among themselves and also outreach to others. Since the formation of the network several teacher training workshops have been held including one by Ravi Aluganti and Chitrakka in the use of art and craft in teaching and learning. A camp involving children of different schools is going to be held at the Timbaktu Collective. In course of visits by Shanmuga and Ravi to several groups during the few weeks prior they had invited four good groups for this North AP meet. Thanks to Pushpa, Dr.Satyalakshmi and Dr.Ansari, the arrangement for this meet was taken care of, while Shanmuga and Ravi were traveling.

The groups were invited to share about their work and experience with the rest of the attendees.

1. Haritha Ecological Institute :

• Description: Dr. Sudhakar from Haritha Ecological Institute described work they are doing in Paloncha near Bhadrachalam.
  

  In a residential setup, they seek to bring education that is in tune with nature and also promote dignity of work. By linking education to productive activities, they also seek to offset some of the economic opportunity costs education requires in today's setup. The focus is on the use of topics within the existing curriculum itself and not create new ones. Using the Kitchen and the agricultural activities on the campus, different concepts related to science (eg: Newton's laws through flapping of bird wings and swimming, heat transfer through design of basket containers that conserve energy and prevent heat dissipation), language (children have a nature period where they go out and just observe nature and then encouraged to express themselves creatively through poems), social studies (eg: map making detailing important locations on the campus, concept of scale etc) etc. There are about 150 children in the Haritha school studying upto 10th Std. The Institute is also building technologies that would help the rural folks in an environmental friendly fashion (eg: the Bamboo-bow technology, driving of wet-grinder through pedal power and generation of power out of the running of bullock carts). Several booklets have been brought out since documentation has been recognized as a key for sustaining and outreaching the activities.

• Discussion:
  
  • Shanmuga: When I  was  there previously, I gave the children a topic ‘India of my dreams’ or ‘World of my dreams’ on which to use their creativity and come up with poems. There was a flood of  poems in response. The children are so in tune with writing poems and rhymes on their own.
  • Dr.Sudhakar: One child (14 year old) had written in his poem,
    

    Nalugu godala madhya chaduvulaku swashti cheppali.
    Prakruthi badilo patyabodhana jaragali.
    Punaruddarinchabadani vanarulaku swashticheppi,
    Punaruddarinche vanarule mana aashtani palakali.
    

    which means,
    

    Bid farewell to education within the four walls.
    Education should take place in natures lap.
    Bid farewell to non-renewable resources,
    Stress that only renewable resources are our assets.

    I had no time to brief the children about what to write or not write when Ravi and Shanmuga asked for this exercise. I was surprised at the maturity of the children to write something like that.

  • K.B.Murthy: It is excellent that you are teaching children to respect nature. But what happens after they leave school? Do they simply go and do what other children do?
  • Dr. Sudhakar: The school actually shapes the children and their thinking right from the young age. So, no matter where they are or what they do for a living, what we’ve taught them will remain with them for life.