Echoes of Play: When Children Took the Mic

The hippocampus in the brain is responsible for creating memories, which are then stored in the neocortex (cerebral cortex) and become parts of stored memory, which can be accessed at any point. New memories are important for a child's learning process, as they constantly create new ones. A child, while learning a language, is constantly engaged in creating new memories, such as remembering a phonics sound or recognizing an alphabet. When a child has repeated opportunities to create memories through exposure to phonics or the alphabet, we say that the child is learning. Therefore, the hippocampus is an important part for a child to learn and develop. In the life of a growing child, the work of the hippocampus is affected by various factors, and emotions are key in it to reduce its efficiency. Many scientific studies have shown that the hippocampus underperforms when a child is under constant stress and lacks the ability to create new memories. As a result, it leads to poor or no memories of creation, which later cannot be accessed during a task that involves recollection of previous knowledge. For example, if a child in a stressful environment is forced to learn the alphabet of a language to which he/she has been recently exposed, then it leads to poor memory formation. Later, when the child is trying to read a word, the recollection of that alphabet becomes a challenge for the child, which therefore leads to poor learning outcomes for the child.

Picture: Brain diagram with hippocampus

Understanding this as a problem that will not have an immediate surface-level impact, it is hard to track as well. The NEP 2020 and NCF 2005 have emphasized a stress-free learning environment and have made provisions in the form of a bagless day, and an andam curriculum has been introduced in the school curriculum. We also know that corporal punishment has been remarkably reduced, and we seldom hear any case of a teacher scolding a child. With all these provisions, it is expected that learning will become a joyful experience for children, and children will start coming to school. However, this has not contributed significantly to the improvement in learning and attendance in schools. Therefore, in order to understand ‘play’ from the lens of children, many grassroots organizations have come together to prepare a manifesto to give a stage to the voices of children.

Picture: Poster of the online event

Picture: Girls participating in the online event

One such event took place in June, known as ‘Voices of play’, where children from various parts of the country took the stage and participated in an online event where they shared their thoughts about play and what play means to them. The event has children in the limelight and adults as listeners to what children think about play, and they discuss various challenges and obstacles in play that they witness. As a succession of this event, we are going to organize a school event to collect the thoughts of children on themes like

• The Heart of Play—Why We Play & Our Rights

• Our Playground—How & Where We Play

• The Hurdles—Identifying Play Blockers

• Our Wishlist—What We Need for Better Play

• Our Part—Play Promises & Teamwork

• Our Play Dream—Vision for the Future

These themes shall act as guiding tools to organize events in the schools/clusters, whereas the idea is to document the voices of children as candidly as it can be. We aim to prepare a manifesto that has the voice of children documented and present it to the wider audience, such as parents, teachers, speakers, influencers, etc. 

We look forward to sharing our experience from these events in the schools/community in the next newsletter with you. If you have been following our work for some time, I would appreciate your taking a look at the fundraiser that we are doing to maximize our impact. link: https://give.do/fundraisers/educate-children-from-remote-tribal-forest-dwelling-rural-communities-in-uttarakhand?ref=BK6ny2Mn&type=copy-link&utm_source=CopyLink&utm_content=educate-children-from-remote-tribal-forest-dwelling-rural-communities-in-uttarakhand&utm_campaign=CampaignShare&utm_medium=ShareButton&utm_term=ShareOnDesktop

Photo credits: www.brainframe-kids.com

By Guneet

CXO, Samanta Foundation