About the Ragi project
This is a year long project (June 2017-April 2018) where children of Poorna will grow, harvest, and cook Ragi. By doing so, they will learn hands-on and age-appropriate Science, Ecology, Economics, Mathematics, Geography, History, Language and Culture. The children will grow Ragi in a half acre plot at Radha's farm who has generously agreed to let the children experiment with farming. The classroom learning will be facilitated by Poorna teachers while our farmer friends will guide the children on the farm.
Farming as a Learning Activity Growing food is an important step towards self sufficiency, at an individual level as well as at the small group/ neighborhood/ community, city and regional level. The goal of The Ragi Project is to teach students how to grow their food, integrating health, ecological, economical, and social concerns; encourage them to critically examine the connections between people, food, and their environment. This hands-on project will encourage Learning by Doing inspired by the Gandhian pedagogy of Education through Work. |
Choice of Ragi
What should we grow? This question was couched in a larger understanding of changing food habits and a growing awareness of the wonders of millets in our diets. In that framework, what could be a better and more culturally appropriate millet than our humble Ragi which many of us have embraced slowly or enthusiastically in our urban diets? Given that Poorna is fortunate to be situated in a peri-urban area of Bangalore and its member, Radha, allowing us the use of her farm located nearby, cultivating Ragi seemed to click with everyone!
We hope as parents, friends, and well wishers, you will join us in our journey. We hope that you will enjoy the Ragi recipes we collect; enjoy eating some interesting Ragi preparations made by the children or even teach us a few; generously share your family stories and traditional knowledge; and encourage children to immerse in this experience.
We don't know how "successful" we will be . We will be designing new lesson plans, connecting the world of urban and rural farmers and of educators and development practitioners with an attempt to build appropriate knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Each one of us involved will be working a bit extra and out of our comfort zone but hopefully our enthusiasm will carry us through. We will regularly update you through entries on this blog.
Feel free to connect with us on this. From Azim Premji University, Pallavi Varma Patil, who is also a Poorna parent, is leading the project and from Poorna Learning Centre, Roshni Ravi is coordinating as well as keenly participating. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected]
Other partners in crime are Vasantha, Sreeja, Asha, Indu, Vinitha, Ashwini, Jalaja, Dipika, Madhu, Padma, Shubha, Sripriya, Banu, Reena, Kalyani, Kanchana, Arundhati, and Radha. YES! A whole bunch of dynamic women! :)
What should we grow? This question was couched in a larger understanding of changing food habits and a growing awareness of the wonders of millets in our diets. In that framework, what could be a better and more culturally appropriate millet than our humble Ragi which many of us have embraced slowly or enthusiastically in our urban diets? Given that Poorna is fortunate to be situated in a peri-urban area of Bangalore and its member, Radha, allowing us the use of her farm located nearby, cultivating Ragi seemed to click with everyone!
We hope as parents, friends, and well wishers, you will join us in our journey. We hope that you will enjoy the Ragi recipes we collect; enjoy eating some interesting Ragi preparations made by the children or even teach us a few; generously share your family stories and traditional knowledge; and encourage children to immerse in this experience.
We don't know how "successful" we will be . We will be designing new lesson plans, connecting the world of urban and rural farmers and of educators and development practitioners with an attempt to build appropriate knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Each one of us involved will be working a bit extra and out of our comfort zone but hopefully our enthusiasm will carry us through. We will regularly update you through entries on this blog.
Feel free to connect with us on this. From Azim Premji University, Pallavi Varma Patil, who is also a Poorna parent, is leading the project and from Poorna Learning Centre, Roshni Ravi is coordinating as well as keenly participating. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected]
Other partners in crime are Vasantha, Sreeja, Asha, Indu, Vinitha, Ashwini, Jalaja, Dipika, Madhu, Padma, Shubha, Sripriya, Banu, Reena, Kalyani, Kanchana, Arundhati, and Radha. YES! A whole bunch of dynamic women! :)