The book is primarily based on the initiative 'RE-IMAGINING SCHOOLS' at the Sadhana village school, near Pune from 2011-2014. During this period an environment was created where complete autonomy was available to children and there was no teaching and no timetable. This initiative was based on 'the learning paradigm' which in turn is based on the question “how children learn?” as opposed to 'the teaching paradigm' of modern schooling which is based on “how to teach children?”.  This was perhaps one of the most audacious experiments in the field of education in recent times and this book has captured the spirit of it.

 

Drawing has the potential to connect the real world with the two-dimensional realm that printed word creates, provided children’s autonomy is not interfered with. But their natural tendency would be to make sense of the real world in terms of the three-dimensionality of the world itself. Drawing will not come naturally to children unless a condition exists for them to draw.

 

The two-dimensional experience which the text brings in, is fairly new to human beings and we have not yet adapted biologically to this. This is clear from the way the ‘educated’ become alienated from life and, in fact, works against life or nature itself. But if children have the condition for using their inherent ability to adapt, they will find ways to retain the role of senses while accommodating the role of thought when it comes to reading. They might also retain the nature and function of language as an integral part of the real experience which only comes when children are rooted in the real world. As of now what we - the ‘educated’ - have is conceptual language, as reading fragments the body and mind, denies experience and creates an imaginary experience with the mind.

 

So autonomous drawing, as a cognitive activity, has the potential in the natural cognitive system and accommodates various changes that printed word has ushered in. The language will have a primary role as a communication medium and not a primary source for cognition, the experiential nature of language is retained instead of the conceptual nature that literacy brings in.

 

what children were drawing not only exhibited connection with their experience and play but also showed a clear parallel between various stages of development seen while acquiring the ability to talk, walk, etc. These drawings were very telling of the connection between what they experience, what they play, and what they draw.

 

Drawing, however, does not come naturally to children.

 

How we initiate it would require extreme sensitivity on our part.