Make drama a part of school curriculum, says actors, academicians

MUMBAI: "As a child, I was a zero in academics," said Kanwarjit Paintal, the renowned Bollywood comic artiste and character actor. "When I boarded the train to go to Pune and join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) after faring badly in school, my father tearfully told me not to waste this last hope that I had. But it turned out that I found my true calling, went on to carve a career for myself.I have been teaching people drama and mime over the past 36 years, I feel I am creating beautiful human beings, and not just actors. Drama is a necessary part of education, and should be made part of curriculum in schools," he said, speaking at a seminar for educationists organized by Helen O'Grady International at Hotel J W Marriot here yesterday. "Somebody please bell the cat, bring the change and usher in a better generation of human beings" he pleaded, choking back his emotions during his talk.
His plea was echoed by two other stage actors on the dais — Joy Sengupta and Ananth Narayan Mahadevan - who narrated stories of their childhood.
Dramatics and performing arts had proved to be their salvation too, in an otherwise drab childhood, as their parents coaxed and cajoled them to seek conventional careers.
Joy Sengupta said that he was able to empower many youths, whom he taught drama, to find joy in their academic lives and gain self-confidence even if they were not academically brilliant.
Anant Mahadevan, whose parents had tried to groom him to be a scientist or chemical engineer, said, "Theatre disciplines you as much as the army does. It compliments science perfectly, and indeed, drama is like sugar-coated pills of knowledge!"
The plea of the actors did not go unheard. Indeed, the dais as well as at their audience was packed with leading academicians who agreed and stressed the same message in diverse ways, and spoke about the various methods by which drama could be incorporated into the regular curriculum.
Among these were Julia Courtenay-Tanner (international trainer from Hong Kong), Dr Swaroop Sampat-Rawal (who has a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Worcester, UK, with a doctoral thesis on use of drama), Dr Rita Wilson (secretary for ICSE Council and former Principal of Auckland House School, Shimla), Dr Reeta Sonawat (Dean and HOD of Human Development dept. SNDT University) and Dr Samir Dalwai (Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at LTMG (Sion) Hospital and Medical College), who together cautioned teachers and other educators against their tendency to always wear "an adult hat" and fail to see the child's point of view. "Nobody knows what a child's potential is", stressed Dr Samir Dalwai. "If you think you have assessed a child's potential through aptitude tests and exams, you have effectively damned him," he warned parents.
Julia Courtenay-Tanner, who has been dealing with ethnic-Chinese Tiger Moms, Cop Moms and Helicopter Parents for three decades, said that it was necessary to devise a course to teach parents some basics of parenting. "The onus is on us, educators, to educate the parents and bring in a new era of education. Because we cannot continue to educate tomorrow's citizens with yesterday's methods as we have been doing."
Svati Chakravarty Bhatkal, who was co-director and head of Field Research for Aamir Khan's television show Satyamev Jayate, and was now writing a book on extraordinary women, however opined that educators tended to be hard on themselves.
She recounted many instances of out-of-the-box-thinking by village school teachers and principals, which she had observed while touring the country doing research for Satyameva Jayate. "Schools and educators all over the country are innovatively coping with resource constraints and enabling children to acquire concepts," she said.
Referring to their work in the villages of Gujarat, Dr Swaroop Rawal and her colleague Neema Parekh (who teaches a village school in Gujarat's Gandhinagar district, and is a member of the State Resource Group for science and technology), talked about how easy it was to take children out of the restricting world of textbooks, and into the fascinating world of role-play for understanding even scientific concepts.
Rita Wilson pointed out the children were born with the natural desire to learn, and therefore learned rapidly upto the age of five, before going to school. "After that, teachers and parents effectively crush the child's natural instincts with their pressures. The Horizon Beyond Academics is about re-igniting the the child's mind, and letting him use his right brain with drama and role-play," she said.
Dr Reeta Sonawat talked about her research work in socio-dramatic play, where the child is allowed to decide what he should say or perform. "The script changes everyday, enabling us to assess the child's progress," she said.