Tweenagers can design the change

A unique endeavour – ‘The Change Initiative-Design for Change’ (TCI-DFC) – entered its fifth edition on Thursday, bringing with it ‘Design Thinking Textbooks’ for the young change leaders. This book will be unveiled at TCI-DFC Conference, which will be held at National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad on September 28-29.

“This textbook is designed in a comic-book format thereby keeping the children glued to the activities in the book,” said Kiran Sethi, founder director of Riverside School and TCI-DFC. “There are numerous sections in the book with activity pages to enable children create designs for change around them.”

Sethi and her team of designers have targeted this book at thirteen-year-olds. According to their research, children of this age group are the biggest change agents and can do wonders, if given the opportunity.

Actor Rahul Bose, who is the brand ambassador of this movement since its inception, said that adults should teach children to do things, which they have not done. “As adults, we tend to ignore some very obvious facts surrounding us, but children have questions for these facts and the very existence of it,” said Bose. “They might want to change and we adults should give them the platform to support their thoughts.”

He added further, “Gone are the days when learning was from textbooks. Today, children require hands-on training. The process of learning has to be real and experimental.”

In addition to reaching out to 40,000 schools across India, the movement this year will also include 1,000 schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme. Last year, it received participation from 18 countries.