Creative learning: Students learn how to voice their opinions

Students share their interpretation of the world in exhibition.

KARACHI: In a room full of art depicting war and chaos, deep in the corner there hung from the ceiling a white circular installation made from paper mache with little cut-out paper mache pigeons on it that represented peace.

The artists of these installations were the students of the new course introduced by the Haque Academy titled, ‘eARTh’. The admissions and special programmes director Saubia Fatemi said, “We do not let young children express how they feel about or how they view the social issues of the world. This course is designed to give them the opportunity to raise these issues and express their emotions by creating art.”

Kiran, a nineth grade student, said she was thrilled to have her work included in an exhibition. “It feels great to be recognised.”

The showcase also included the work of textile design students who painted various kinds of clocks on canvases. “The students are trained to use different mediums of textile designing and try to connect them to what is happening in the real world,” said Fatemi.

Third grade students displayed home appliances robots made by them for a basic computer programming course titled, ‘Tynker’.

Fourth grade students made the model of a factory complete with all the machinery used in a factory while ninth grade students created mobile applications and games.



An unconventional style of photography without using the professional DSLR cameras that are so popular today was seen in the pictures taken by the seventh grade students. Each picture was an interpretation of different object as an alphabet. “The students were assigned to take pictures of the first alphabet of their name. The idea of this course is not just to teach them about light and composition but to focus on the concepts behind the pictures,” said the photography instructor, Ahmed Shajee.

The director of administration, Shanul Haque said, “I think it’s exciting to see the variety of work that the students are doing and how different everyone’s vision is of the world that we are living in.”

Another treat for the audience were the vivacious performances and displays of gymnastic, tae-kwon-do yoga and dance. The crowd at the show cheered on as the young six-year-old students came up on the stage beaming with confidence and enthusiasm. The most thrilling performance was by the dance group that broke out into a flash mob style dance which dazzled the viewers.

While viewing the plethora of work, one young mom lightheartedly commented, “We weren’t nearly as creative when we were this young. I wish I had done some of this when I was in school.”

The other showcases included ‘blockbusters’, ‘bookmunchers’, creative writing, comic illustration, journalism, cooking, ‘Design Your Own Art Show’ and public speaking.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2014.