Dear Jeyamohan,
I have long heard about the philosophy and arts workshops conducted under the auspices of your Muzhumai Arivu initiative. It brings me great joy to see that you are now organizing programs specifically for children—activities such as birdwatching, plant observation, and painting. In the current climate, it is absolutely essential to take children out into nature and teach them something through which they can learn by doing—by engaging in hands-on activities themselves. The only way to ensure that children do not lose themselves in the digital world of the internet is to connect them deeply with nature.
In my opinion, I feel you could conduct workshops like birdwatching on a regular monthly basis. You need not even be concerned about aligning them with school holidays; you could simply aim to hold such sessions at least once a month whenever possible. Children could participate even by taking just a single day off from school. Instead of a three-day format, if you were to conduct them over two days—specifically on Saturdays and Sundays—it would make it much easier for children to attend. Alternatively, these events could be scheduled to coincide with national holidays.
Educators worldwide have observed and documented that, through these types of workshops, children’s attention is significantly diverted away from modern internet and computer games; furthermore, these activities foster the development of their imagination and powers of observation. When such events are organized on a massive scale—involving very large numbers of children—the children often experience a sense of tedium. Moreover, taking such large groups of children out into nature to provide training is simply not a practical undertaking. Therefore, it is precisely these smaller-scale events that hold the greatest significance. I earnestly request that you continue to conduct these programs on an ongoing basis.
S. Isaacraj
