Don’t perch- take flight

An interactive workshop using the medium of story telling, conversations and origami; attempting to make children understand the importance of speaking out when they see something bad happening around them and actively executing their opinions.

byPushpi Bagchi VCD301

Participants•Mallya Aditi School: students in the 3rd and 6th standard

•Nagarjuna Vidyaniketan: students in the 5th standard

•Sheshadripuram Public School: students in the 6th standard

The above schools were chosen for their proximity to college. I chose to work with school children because they are at an impressionable age and I would like them to start being responsible citizens. Their opinions and actions also matter and can make a difference in society.

Workshop FormatCreating a fictional scenario: an example where being passive to things happening around eventually harms you.

Story telling

Role play: imagining yourself as a character in the story and talking about your reactions to the group

Origami: creating a three dimensional object to represent your character in the story. Group Discussions: relating the fictional scenario to our every day lives.

StoryThis telephone line is a resting spot. These

birds have sat here for years. They look

down upon earth and see things

happening. Things that are good and bad.

They see things that many others don’t.

Yet no one knows what they think as they

perch on the line- silently.

One day a child was being quite bad, taking

aim haphazardly with his new sling shot.

He broke a window. Crushed some plants.

Hit a dog that was taking a nap.

The birds watched from above in silence.

Suddenly a stone went quite high and hit a

bird on the line. Its left wing bent, how will

she fly

again? All the birds were shocked! How

could this have happened?

They could not stay silent anymore.

Questions asked:•How did you feel when you saw the boy hit the dog? What would

you like to do?•How do you feel as the bird who got hit? What will you do now?•How would you react if you were in that situation? How did you feel when you saw the boy being naughty and harming others?•Can you think of any real life instances similar to what happened in the story? When you saw something happening that you knew was wrong?

Feelings towards the bird•Sad•Lonely•Sorry•Upset

Reactions to/as the bird•Help the bird recover•Call the animal ambulance•Take the bird to the vet•Help the bird in every possible way•Crash land on the boys head•Commit suicide as I cant fly anymore

Responses

Feelings towards the boy•Angry•Vengeful

Reactions to the boy• Punishment

Trouble the boy and rob himLeave the boy alone in the woodsTake away his precious thingsSteal his underpants

•RevengeDrop fruits on himAssemble all the birds and attack himPoop on his headPeck himAsk the dog to eat himHit him back

•Get helpCall the policeTell his mother to punish him

•Explain to him that he shouldn’t hurt others•Ask him to stop and not be rude

This is wrong:

•Littering roads and other public areas•Spitting pan on walls and roads•Not being sensitive to pedestrians•Shoving and pushing people while walking

on the road.•Yelling at and hitting street dogs•Yelling at people at home, e.g. maids•Hitting people and getting into fights•Using water wastefully/wasting water•Plucking flowers and leaves

Hurdles•Time constraint- 40 minute periods•Getting each child to speak up and participate in the discussions•Not allowing some of the children to be frivolous with their remarks•Making an origami swan in the given time turned out to be quite difficult so I switched to swans

Taking this project forward•Creating a manual that would give specific instructions to teachers and any facilitator interested on how to do this workshop with children. •Make the underlying meanings and scenarios of the workshop more complex. E.g. give the boy’s side of the story, create more scenarios. Include the boy’s thoughts and feelings in the role play exercise, etc.

For my next workshop and for taking this workshop further I should focus on the motivational aspect of my project rather than the methodology. That is getting children to speak out and act when they feel something “wrong” is happening and not concentrate on discussing ways in which one can intervene. Yet at the same time the flow of discussions are not very predictable and should be kept open.