By Volunteer Aashi Gupta, FHI Bangalore
A lot of questions were playing dodge ball inside my head as I waited for the session to start. One of the most awaited session by Ms. Vaishali Chakravarty, the founder of ‘Joy of Drama’, an organization working to instil life skills in kids, using drama as a tool, was finally LIVE.
I was curious to know that out of all the ways, why did she specifically choose Drama as a tool for instilling life skills in kids? By the end of the session, I was well convinced by her WHY, and I hope that you all will be too!
Drama is an important tool because of a lot of reasons. It gives a person the chance to step into someone else’s shoes and look at a certain situation from a different angle. This way, they are able to understand the other person’s perspective in a better way and hence empathize with it. Drama also gives a chance for self-reflection. Say, when a person is doing any role play wherein they are in a certain situation and they have to find a way out of it, then they will try to find creative ways to get out of it when given a chance to think. Drama is always unscripted, as Ms. Vaishali likes to put it. So while doing drama, one becomes the scriptwriter themselves. This way, one is able to introspect and search for answers within, while being at their creative best. So, drama gives us the best of both the worlds, wherein we are able to self-reflect as well as empathize, hence leading to better decisions.
But then, why kids? How is drama going to help them? There is no better way to answer this question other than what Ms. Vaishali said, IT SAVES TIME. But how can this save time? This is because when it comes to kids, they are like wet sand, easily impressionable. Whatever they see, learn, or observe, it is bound to leave a long-lasting impression on them. So, if we try to instil life skills in kids through drama, it will help them utilize the advantages of drama at an early age and hence grow up to be a more confident individual. If they are able to self-reflect and find creative solutions at an early age, they will get to know and understand themselves better, and this is surely going to help them as adults when they are trying to make their niche in a cut-throat competitive world.
Commentaires