As Heritage Regulation Bill gathers dust, experts reach out to school children.
BENGALURU: Members of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Bengaluru are going back to school these days. Not to study but to teach children about historical narratives of the city that extend beyond Kempe Gowda and Tipu Sultan.
They have launched a pilot six-week module for Class VII students at the Government Urdu School in Goripalya, which uses storytelling, games, maps, field trips and visual materials to talk about the value of heritage. A wide spectrum of themes will be discussed ranging from life in the British cantonment and people who shaped the city to the preservation of lakes and trees.
“The National Curriculum Framework and the National Education Policy already talk about the importance of heritage, sites of archaeological significance and the desire to explore and understand their importance. The intention is already there but most schools don’t quite know what to do to teach local history and heritage,” said Meera Iyer, convenor, INTACH. The organisation is working with Mantra4Change, a nonprofit in the education sector, to identify more schools like the one in Goripalya.
Given the absence of strong regulatory framework for heritage preservation in Bengaluru, experts and enthusiasts are realising the importance of educating children about the importance of local history from a young age. While the draft Heritage Regulation Bill gathers dust, they are aggressively collaborating with educational institutions to help youngsters take ownership of their collective past.
“Children are the future of the city and if they become guides and ambassadors of local history, it will ensure that officials take conservation seriously,” said Githa U Badikillaya, founder, Destination Heritage. After conducting heritage walks for over 180 students in Christ University (the next one is in Basavanagudi this Saturday), she is in talks with the management about introducing local history as part of the curriculum. She is also expected to launch heritage walks for the students of PES University and Jyoti Nivas College soon.
ADVERTISEMENT
Rajeev Nrupathunga, founder, Revival Heritage Hub (RHH), is taking pre-university and masters students on field trips where he also teaches them research methodologies and conservation. What started as a small initiative with six-odd students at the Oxford Group of Institutions (where Nrupathunga is a history professor) has now expanded to include SSMRV College, Surana College, two schools and three government colleges in Kanakapura.
When Being A Lefty Helped Ratan Tata, Mark Zuckerberg And Others With Life Lessons
1/6
A recent study in Biology Letters suggests that lefthanders have an advantage in high speed sports. It's time to pay homage to quick-reacting lefties in the boardroom.
A recent study in Biology Letters suggests that lefthanders have an advantage in high speed sports. It's time to pay homage to quick-reacting lefties in the boardroom.
When Ratan Tata took piano lessons, he had a problem. "I could not relate my left hand to do something different from my right hand," he said in a television interview. But when it comes to running his group of companies, even from behind the scenes, Tata's left arm has few equals. Till 2015, Tata's trusts would even give scholarships to the Indian Left-Hander Club. Perhaps it is one of the reasons some Tata vehicles in overseas markets have a left-hand drive.
When Ratan Tata took piano lessons, he had a problem. "I could not relate my left hand to do something different from my right hand," he said in a television interview. But when it comes to running h..
Read More
If Ratan Tata learned piano, Amar Bose tooled around with a violin. And like Tata, his musical talents were not much to sing home about. However, the violin lessons helped him develop an ear for high quality sound. It set him on the path of launching audio products that played a seminal role in enhancing the experience of listeners. Tata spoke of his admiration for Bose in the interview referred above. Bose is also known to have been a lefthander. Great minds work alike.
(Image: www.rle.mit.edu)
If Ratan Tata learned piano, Amar Bose tooled around with a violin. And like Tata, his musical talents were not much to sing home about. However, the violin lessons helped him develop an ear for high..
Read More
Some guys have all the genes. Jobs had personality, drive and a powerful intuition. He was also blessed with ambidexterity. "I'm ambidexterous," he said in an interview to Newsweek in 1984. At the time, much of the Apple staff was left-handed. Jobs, a rebel and aesthete, seemed proud of this fact. "Most of them are also left-handed, whatever that means," he told Newsweek of his colleagues. "Almost all of the really great technical people in computers that I've known are left-handed. Isn't that odd?"
Some guys have all the genes. Jobs had personality, drive and a powerful intuition. He was also blessed with ambidexterity. "I'm ambidexterous," he said in an interview to Newsweek in 1984. At the ti..
Read More
Some 20 years after Jobs made this comment, another great technical person in computers was getting ready to take on the world while at Harvard University. With the help of smart colleagues, he set up Facebook. And he too, reportedly, was left-handed. Zuckerberg has not said much on this important subject. But there is one photograph that proves beyond doubt that he is handy with his left hand. It shows him feeding a calf on a farm in Wisconsin.
Some 20 years after Jobs made this comment, another great technical person in computers was getting ready to take on the world while at Harvard University. With the help of smart colleagues, he set u..
Read More
Codex Leicester has nothing to do with Jamie Vardy's goalmouth strategy. It is a 16th century notebook of scientific ideas and diagrams belonging to Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian inventor and artist. In 1994, Gates bought the 72-page journal from an auction for a record $30.8 million. The great Italian, whose intellect and skill had far reaching impact on science art and life as we know it now, was a lefthander. And so is Gates. "There's a little bit of higher variance of talent, high and low, for left-handers. But it's never been explained," Gates said.
Codex Leicester has nothing to do with Jamie Vardy's goalmouth strategy. It is a 16th century notebook of scientific ideas and diagrams belonging to Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian inventor and artist..
Apart from field trips, students are also involved in creating scale-models of heritage structures for public exhibitions and preserving inscription stones. “Studying history theoretically does not always get people to care about them. Actively involving them in conservation efforts will have greater impact,” he said.
Prashanth Vepuri is one such youngster who was inspired after studying local history with Nrupathunga’s help. The 22-year-old M.Com student at SRN Adarsh College said that he now convinces fellow students, parents and teachers to join the movement.
