Posted by leesa (59.144.96.119) on September 25, 2005 at 11:44:51:

 In Reply to: ?

Posted by Vinod II on September 25, 2005 at 10:48:39:

 I think it will be be better understood If I make clear what I do not refer to as unconventional - it does not refer to the traditional method of teaching in Gurukul. In orissa, pupils are taught through exercises and theory which actually becomes difficult for a 6,7 year old child to understand and on top of it remember those theories which he/she has to.

However, I think in today's world when children are burdened with studies, they look forward to such courses as a means of not only keeping close to tradition but, for taking their stress out. They should enjoy this process of learning. Even in school, new concepts of learning through fun have come up and has turned out to be an effective way of teaching.

Similarly, can we make the whole process of learning dance enjoyable? I will give you an example from my own session to elaborate on this concept. I just started with my dance school at Hiranandani, Powaii. MY class is on weekdays from 5-6 pm. PLease note that the children come back home at 4 pm. Whenever we start any classical dance form we begin with "Bhoomi Pranam". In bhoomi pranam we use three hand gestures with body movement. I thought of using a different langugae which they would love to listen to and easy for them to remember. If i would have told them that for bhoomi pranam we use shikhara followed by chatura and end with pataaka, they might not have remembered the hand gestures. so, I asked them to use thums up followed by come here and finally ending with "salaam Namaste". I was surprised to note that most of them had remembered the hand gestures and the movement in the second class. Whereas, I have seen in Orissa where we introduce them as mudras and their true names, for next one to two classes the children keep looking at their fingers and trying to get the mudra right. The best part was that the children were not blank rather they enjoyed doing it agagin and again and i told them we will learn the actual names later when we talk about the mudras.

Similarly, I plan to introduce various theoritical concepts through games.

I hope that clarifies my point.