The Story -->
Once upon a time a big soap making factory faced a petty problem. However petty the problem may sound, it caused great losses in money and reputation. The problem was with a machine that often missed packing the soap into its cover/packet. Everyday millions of filled and unfilled packets of soap would pass through a moving rack and reach the market only for the company to bear the b
runt of customers (who felt cheated to have bough a packet without the soap) and more monetary losses. The Management of the company called engineers to rectify the machine, which the engineers couldn’t. The best of consultants, chemists, gold-medalists were called and after long days of technical and scientific analysis the best solution that could be gathered was to employ 50 people who will check every passing soap-packet on the moving rack. With no alternative, the company hired 50 people. Seeing the daily commotion, one young woman, working in the factory, approached the management sighting an easier, effective and less expensive solution. She said, “Why don’t we just put a fan beside the moving rack, every empty packet will simply fall off”. We all go through these sparks of insight which sometimes we call as Common Sense, however, the question is, can we repeat this every day, is there a process – a method to do so, and, even when if we can do so, can we then pass this unique skill onto others, that’s when a mere technique when applicable universally takes the shape of a philosophy. The Concept -->
Sometimes the toughest of problems can be solved by thinking what no one thinks and by doing what no one does. Unfortunately greater part of the world has fallen prey to pre-defined systematic thinking & action which never encourages one to think or act beyond what seems obvious, limiting one to achieve its full potential. Time and again it has been seen that those who employ creative and purposeful ideas have revolutionized the world. Few examples are Mahatma Gandhi, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Beethoven, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and many more. And yes creativity or out of box thinking alone is not sufficient; it needs to have a purpose. Design Approach is the key to effectively combine creativity with purpose where the purpose could be problem solving, innovating, disciplining, decision making, etc
But what is Design Approach? Generally speaking Design is understood for Industrial Design i.e. Product, Fashion, Textile etc. However, what we emphasize here is a “Design Approach”, i.e. a way of thinking / action / attitude (i.e. working). So Design Approach will not just talk about creating designer clothes or an industrial product like a car but it also contributes in problem-solving utilized in the corporate sector, designing system and policies in governments, creating a musical piece, creating a sustainable life & environment, a better world and many more things. In short it’s “a planned contextual creative activity with or for a purpose”. Most successful of the industrialists, CEOs, government officials, artists, doctors, revolutionaries, etc have knowingly or unknowingly used design approach to pave way for a better, efficient, joyous and a meaningful world. Imagine when someone like Einstein who worked with mathematical problems said that “Imagination is more important than Knowledge”. He used to say that he could find solutions for problems of mathematics when he used to play violin. Similarly when he said that, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”, it clearly shows that our last 100 years have been years of discoveries & scientific inventions that led to the industrial era where logical & analytical thinking worked better. However, with unprecedented changes happening in this millennium, time has come when a new approach is required. Design 4 School -->
Various scientific researchers have concluded that the early years (age 3-18) are the most formative years of one’s life. It is during these years that children develop notions, fears, mindset, skills, attitude and many other foundations which evolve slowly aiding in achieving their full potential. Here is a taste of what children go through every day:
• Greater information clutter with greater competition but total lack of self expression.
• Higher exam pressure and the pressure to perform only against a set designated yardstick and therefore lack of risk taking (zero exploration & experimenting).
• Lack of time to think (so as to dream) or act freely (so as to observe & discover) the known as well as the unknown.
• Where information rules and a big disconnect is present between the ‘Real World-Real Experiences-Real Life’ AND the ‘Text books-Curriculum-School Education’. (But how to understand, store, retrieve & how to make use of that information, in short “how to learn” is itself missing).
• An education system that is based on accepting all theories without questioning & challenging them and to answer only in ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. We all know that the Current Education Scenario is based on the Industrial age. The overall emphasis is still on reading, writing, arithmetic, and this comes from the industrial age where solutions of problems were mostly logical and certain. In fact when the child grows to a mature adult, he is then confounded with (what we often hear today) lack of leadership, thinking-out-of-the-box, entrepreneurship, innovation, dealing with real life situation etc. Design by its very nature seeks to develop a different approach with the focus on the 3 Ds --> Diverse, Dynamic and Distinct. Design 4 School inculcates design approach among school children as we feel that this is possibly ‘THE’ missing link that will revolutionize the way children will develop into problem solvers, solution providers, thinkers of the future, passionate innovators, leaders & entrepreneurs. Design Approach provides a systematic way of questioning, observing, preparing, understanding, thinking, discovering, ideating, discussing, exploring, experimenting, prototyping, finally producing a new product / communication and not just stopping there but exhibiting the work along with selecting & communicating through the right medium / mode so that its easily understood by all. Design 4 School is spreading Design Approach through Schools as well as Activity Centers. The major strength of Design 4 School is that it is providing an age wise systematic, planned & tested curriculum of how to go about making Design Approach a way of life. Not only does it give an approach but also gives the students a method & a step by step, year wise growth plan to move from one level to another. And all this happens without using any books or learning aid, done through Assignments, Projects, Workshops & Field Trips through a ‘learner-centric’ & ‘learning-by-doing’ approach where teacher is not a teacher to teach anything but help students to learn by themselves. Imagine when children are equipped with such a technique as Design Approach, whatever be the situation faced by them in the present or the future, they will have the method to not only question, challenge & defeat it but also be equipped to equip others with the same approach…that’s the power of Design Approach!
