Culture is the result of how aesthetic sensibilities of people get manifested in the things they make and how they live. Contextually rooted aesthetic sense is what once created the diverse cultures around the globe. The real issue is to understand how culture is formed and how to retain cultural diversity.
Most important and crucial period in human life is childhood and it here that utmost importance should be paid so that the total human potential is awakened. Children imbibe the beauty inherent in the nature as it is, as they are biologically equipped to do this. Human beings are biologically equipped the learn/ imbibe what they experience. Children are the continuers of culture and traditional knowledge. But the way modern knowledge system works it is ensuring the death of culture and traditional knowledge.
The biggest threat of modernity is homogenization of the human cultures. About a century ago we had diverse cultures with distinct way of life which developed our aesthetic sensibilities that are contextually rooted. The real issue is to understand how culture is formed and how cultural diversity could be retained and how to re align the present schools for the continuation of traditional wisdom knowledge. In modern situation, education conditions and homogenizes the sensibility of people by teaching de contextualized 'knowledge'. All over the world the same kind of space is provided for children!
It is important to delve deeper in to the mechanics how children imbibe or awaken sense of beauty and also what is really the function of beauty. Can this be taught? Is sense of beauty rooted in the being? Is it rooted in the material? Is it rooted in the context of where we live? Is it part of our biology? Or is all of this together influencing the formation of aesthetic sense?
1. To understand the development of aesthetic sensibility in children
2. Integrating aesthetic and cognitive experience
3. Creation of learning/ awakening environment instead of the present 'teaching' environment
4. Re orienting the 'teacher mindset' to 'learner mindset'.
Re imagining art is a proposal to explore how to awaken the aesthetic sensibility in children by creating situations for them to connect with the beauty of nature. Senses are the tools that are connected with beauty as well as cognition. This approach could also help children to retain the integral nature of aesthetics and cognition.
The program is to be established as a research in 4 to 5 institutions around the country. The first step is to organize workshop with each of the schools so that the teachers are totally involved in the program. The 'teachers' of the participating institutions are motivated to involve in the observation, study, documentation and reflection.
Beauty of the world/ nature/ life is what should be the source for the children for the awakening of their aesthetic awareness.
Most important and crucial period in human life is childhood and it here that utmost importance should be paid so that the total human potential is awakened. Modernity in general and education in particular takes children away from the real world and is replaced with its simplified, codified, miniatures and distorted version (the way adults do baby talk, the silly songs and stories adults tell children, toys, children's books/ digital tools, comics) and are treated as idiots by the modern people.
Development of value in children will depend on how we treat them. Children need to be respected and treated with dignity and they will grow up with respect and dignity. Even though they are fragile, vulnerable and helpless they must never be given these feeling. Instead treat them as if they are completely capable and children will respond accordingly.
Drawing as seeing the form, coloring as seeing the colors in nature, making as feeling the world, playing as re experiencing the world and theatre as imitating the world.
By ensuring that children have more and more opportunity to pay attention to the beauty, workings of the world, the cognitive aesthetic awakening will happen on its own.
It is important that at early stages children need maximum autonomy for their independent evolvement of various attitudes and abilities. So no instruction as much as possible! Provide opportunity for various activities. This will lead to the natural and organic development of both the inner world as well as their construction and understanding of the outer world.
1. Re imagining art as a means to learn the world instead of the world.
2. Integrating aesthetic and cognitive experience. (It is as if beauty and creativity belong exclusively to art and all the other subjects are readymade and just has to be stored in the student's brain either by memorizing or by reasoning. )
3. Making use of the natural cognitive possibilities in children. (Children are biologically equipped to learn the WORLD but through schooling they are trained to learn the WORD. This damages/ rewires their cognitive system)
4. Making world the cognitive source or the formative source children are formed as per their real nature. (We become what we learn or we are formed by the object of our 'learning')
It is important to delve deeper in to the mechanics how children imbibe or awaken sense of beauty and also what is really the function of beauty. Can this be taught? Is sense of beauty rooted in the being? Is it rooted in the material? Is it rooted in the context of where we live? Is it part of our biology? Or is all of this together influencing the formation of aesthetic sense?
Then the question is what kind of cognitive space needs to be created so that every generation is re awakened by the first principles of beauty that enable them to be authentic and rooted and at the same time learn from the abstracted knowledge.