A Tale of Two Schools

When visiting Limtara and Puri M/S to coordinate the painting/drawing of greeting card for teacher’s day, I cannot help comparing the students and their learning environment of the two schools. One of the schools is a ‘model’ school with all the basic infrastructures including library and computers in place whereas the other school is struggling to meet basic infrastructural requirement.  Besides the infrastructure difference, when it came to drawing/painting, the freedom with which the children expressed their imagination was contrasting between the two schools.  

Which of these two drawings exude more creativity?

In both the schools, before we started, we told the students (class VI to VIII) the purpose of the drawing, and encouraged them to ‘draw/paint/write whatever they want’ telling them that the blank page in the greeting card was for them. 

The first school that was struggling with basic infrastructure and has a ‘lesser reputation’ compared to the other, showed two observable features. Firstly, there was little interference from the teachers, which can be interpreted in different ways, i.e. the teachers didn’t care, or that the teachers trust their students, or that they expected us to interfere on their behalf. Secondly, the drawings of the children came out very vibrant and colourful, and most importantly, very original in such a way that just by looking, we know that the drawing come from their own imagination.

On the other hand, the students of the ‘model’ school saw lots of interference from the teacher, beginning with one of the teacher twisting our words to tell the children that it was a painting competition and the best will get printed in the newspaper. The teachers also played vigilant, checking the drawings from time to time and telling the children ‘what to do and what not to do’.  One of the teachers also apparently advised the students to ‘copy’ picture from their textbook resulting in majority of the drawing being a reproduction of the illustrations from their text-book like the solar system, human digestive system, etc.  

In more simpler words, in the model school, the students were more dependent, in the sense that they were waiting for us to guide them and tell them what to do, and asking us from time to time if what they did was right or wrong; and most importantly, the ‘fear’ of being wrong or being reprimanded was observable which was not there in the other school. 

Incidentally I recognized the Head-teacher of the ‘model’ school as one of the participants in a CCE Review meeting I attended earlier wherein he argued about the need for disciplining students.  And, from my observation of the two schools, it is apparent to me that the kind of environment in the school (i.e. interfering teachers, disciplining) can breed dependency and kill all confidence the children have in their own ability and capacity, and thus kill their curiosity and creativity.