the earth school

We all love winners!

The fastest, brightest, biggest, strongest are celebrated.

We ignore that winners have also been losers at some point in the past and will be again in the future.

We forget that the adrenaline from a good match, a play well done, or a test cracked open is as fleeting as a whisper.

The one who shows up time and again, who tries untiringly even when winning is a distant dream, is often left with no accolades.

This morning we walked into class fresh from the exuberance of India’s T20 World Cup win, and our conversation naturally turned to the awesome skill, endurance, and grit displayed last evening.

Quite as naturally, our conversation turned to how we view failures — our own and those of others.

Ask a six- or eight-year-old about errors and losing, and you will be immersed in a dialogue worthy of a sage — a dialogue of growth, learning, and empathy.

The older children, however, were more cerebral in their responses. While they gave trite, politically correct answers, they were visibly uncomfortable sharing their own experiences of losing and missing the goalpost.

Though all the children have experienced a non-performative, non-competitive school environment, the older ones had already absorbed society’s love for winning and our quiet shame around losing.

This conversation was beautiful — one for philosophers.

Kindness for ourselves, our ability for growth and empathy for others shone through.

Our children remind us what truly matters.

Children's Day Bubble , Ice Cream Pop and Dance party!

We made our own bubble solution, magical metal bubble wands, 3 D bubble wands and ate and danced the noon away!

The mathematical mind is innately human and the elementary child is fascinated with the BIGGEST things and the smallest, too.
It tickles their imagination and lends a concrete wonder to everything.

When counting beads on a chain, they want to go to a thousand.
When making strips of paper to denote age they want to pin down the mayfly with an average lifespan of 1 day to the Glass Sponge that can live to ten thousand years! How does one show both on a timeline of paper?
The Milky Way is not enough - They want Laniakea-520 million light years across!
They measure everything, at work and at play...themselves, the tiger burning bright in the forests of the night, the pages upon pages of their work exploring countries that share their borders with 3 or more other countries.
They glue paper upon paper to make timeline trails spanning scores of centuries. They contrast major events of history on it - from the birth of the universe to the Chinese court eu**ch who invented paper that looked a lot like the paper they just glued together!

Mathematics is a language and our children speak it with joy and ease, gaining fluency and refinement throughout their years until we hammer down one right way and choose what they should and should not learn. We undo what they naturally do with our adult will and arrogance of 'knowing' what is useful and what is not.

Instead we flit from one theory to another stating which is better, finally boiling it down to text books and adult dictated projects.

Banish those horrible mathematics and let our children's mathematical minds unfold in an atmosphere of fun and wonder!

A meaningful and fun graduation ceremony for our children moving on to new adventures ... Sings were sung, stories read, poems penned, gifts made and exchanged and love all around!

One is on her way out of the elementary and The Earth School and the other is on his way in.

Today he got his locker and 'diary' for the first time. This simple act signals that a younger child has officially moved to the elementary environment. An exciting, much awaited moment.

For her, it's the last few weeks before she moves to another school saying goodbye to the space and people who have been a part of her life for the last 9 years.
She wonders if she can decorate her diary again, one last time ?

Together they sat for the morning cycle.
She took him under her wing, showing him the many possibilities for wrapping and illustrating his diary. Much like someone did for her when she first entered the same environment.

The everyday poetry of mlulti-age classrooms that are child directed.

Today, we came together in a circle of hands and hearts to sew.

We embroidered images drawn from the Five Great Lessons—stories that have shaped our understanding of what it means to be human on this marvellous planet. Each stitch carries intention, hope, and joy.

Together, we are creating a patchwork canopy—one that will shelter and honour our graduates. As our children pass beneath it, stepping onward from The Earth School into the wider world, they will carry with them the experiences and teachings of this little community.

We hope that this canopy, like the school itself, reminds them always of where they came from—of the stories that connect us, the beauty of learning, and the love that held them here.

Theatre meets story readings and choral poetry.
The elementary children put up several performances based on books and poems for our younger primary children.
The children performed 'Magpie and the Milk - A Caribbean Folktale', 'Sand' a poem by Lillian Moore and ' Flying Squirrel' by John Gardener, two poems on chess, one penned by the children themselves and ' Hungry Thing' by Ann Seidler and Jan Slepian.

Our last volunteering session at PfA.
The children were proud to hand over the money they earned to Dr. Col. Nawaz.