7 Feb 2025
A School That's Facing Reality and Imagining Harder (Part 1)
I’m happy and excited to share this inaugural “Confronting Education” video and podcast, especially since it elevates the voices of students.
Sparkling Mindz (https://www.sparklingmindz.in/) is a Reggio-inspired global school in Bangalore, India, a place in the world that is staring collapse in the face on a daily basis. Droughts, floods, pollution, violence…it is a challenging place to live. And yet, its fascinating history and alluring beauty are the focus of the students at this school who are not shying away from the big challenges in their community and the world.
The school founder Sreeja Iyer (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreejaiyer/) and two of her students will be participating in the first set of Confronting Education workshops (https://futureserious.school) that begin next week, and after having this conversation yesterday, I’m more excited than ever to get started.
As I say in the intro, this isn’t a question of “How can we?” I know many of you will watch and think “this is amazing, but there’s no way we could do that.” That misses the point, however.
The better question is “How can we not?” at least try to create experiences in schools that mimic this one, where students are being told the truth about the difficulties we’re facing and then supported to imagine harder and do real work in the world that they care about to make their communities a better place. And, importantly, to create safe spaces where children can work through their personal struggles in difficult times.
The author and education reformer Seymour Sarason defined “productive learning” as “wanting to learn more.” He said if students didn’t want to continue to learn, then the experience was “unproductive.” I hope you’re as inspired as I am by how much these students want to continue to learn, about themselves, their communities, and the world.
As always, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.
(Note: For clarity, use the closed captioning tool.)
Some links referenced in the discussion and others:
Aashna’s (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aashna-raghu-sankar-234192314/) project on Cultivating the Future: Climate Resilient Agriculture (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cultivating-future-climate-resilient-agriculture-aashna-raghu-sankar-xibtc/)
Nikhil’s project on Mixed Gender Sports: To be or not to be? (https://www.sparklingmindz.in/blog/mixed-gender-sports-to-be-or-not-to-be)
A book of poetry written by all students at the school (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simran-jain-1aa286226_poetry-changemaking-art-activity-7276107415928905728-RY42?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAA7xRsBEoZCybpPXsAWXyQHqDHGoXJozNI)
Child in the City Heritage Walks (https://www.sparklingmindz.in/blog/bengalurus-stories-brought-to-life)
A collaborative dive into the causes and impacts of flooding in the region (https://www.sparklingmindz.in/blog/bengaluru-floods-when-it-rains)
The Surprising Ways Bengaluru’s Students Are Tackling the City’s Water Crisis (https://thebetterindia.com/387852/bengaluru-water-crisis-sparkling-mindz-global-school-student-changemakers-urban-planning/)
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