Special heritage walk for children to teach them city’s history.
Those who forget history run the risk of repeating it, goes a saying. But try telling this to school children who forget their lessons the moment the bell announces the end of the history period.
Well, this may be a thing of the past, for an archaeologist has come up with an innovative way to make lessons about history of the city as interesting as possible.
Under the project titled Maru Amdavad school children will get to learn the city's history and archaeology by taking a walk along the narrow lanes that connect Kamnath Mahadev temple to a Pol house.
Archaeologist Jeetu Mishra, who runs History Speaks, has come up with the concept to change the way history is taught in schools. Maru Amdavad will get its first batch of school students on Tuesday.
The concept goes beyond class room activity and narration of history from books. "Maru Amdavad" includes three sessions to educate school kids about the city's history- class room activity to explain children about history in general, a visit to the walled city area to point out special aspects of the history and architecture, and answering their queries," said Mishra
"I wanted to come up with something for kids to make them understand history. I believe that history teaching should be enquiry based and it should generated the interest and curiosity of the children," Mishra said.
"If I want an out of class activity I need to take students to places associated with history and architecture.
The AMC's heritage walk which we have at present is a good source of information for tourists but not good enough to evoke curiosity in kids. So, I thought of developing a different sort of Heritage Walk for children," said Mishra.
The programme includes two hours of classroom session to explain four points including the concept of city and its origin, a short film on Dholavira and the earliest city of Gujarat.
Apart from this, history and legends of Ahmedabad, the Walled City and major events in the Walled City, explanation about the housing patterns of pols and their aesthetic elements like chabutara are also part of the project. Children will also be told about the architecture during the Sultanat, the Mughal period, Maratha period and colonial times.
"The heritage walk will start from Kamnath Mahadev temple and will cover eight places in a 1.5 km stretch within the walled city," said Mishra. A part of the session also includes discussion on a topic chosen by the students.
Mishra has approached several schools about the new method of teaching history and the response so far has been encouraging. He says a single batch will have around 25 students and the fee will be Rs150 per child.
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