RailEnquiry

COIMBATORE: The world came to know of the unique school founded by Sosaku Kobayashi in Tokyo much after it was destroyed in World War II bombings when an old student and a popular television personality, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, published a highly acclaimed book Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window. Totto-Chan, which showcases the unique method that Kuroyanagi followed to impart knowledge to children, has since become a cult book among educationists on the look out for alternatives to educate children other than force them through rote learning. A firm believer in freedom of expression and activity, Kobayashi ran the school by converting old rail road cars as class rooms. Now, a Coimbatore-based corporate trainer-turned-educationist, Sandhya Vikram, is all set to start a replica of the school close to the city. "It would be like the same school where Totto-Chan learned many things by sitting close to the wind. Teachers are getting trained in Kobayashi style and the classes would be conducted in the same way helping kids to use their creativity to the maximum. After all, the school will have the same ambience and the outlook of the Japanese school,'' says Sandhya, who started the city's first kindergarten with Waldorf education some years ago."The school will have real railroad cars as class rooms. We are purchasing rail road cars from Indian Railways and they will soon arrive at our campus. Like in Totto-Chan's school, we will set up both class rooms and libraries in them,'' she said. The school will also have underground class rooms apart from plenty of play spaces, open spaces and waterways.

Bangalore-based award-winning architect Chitra Viswanathan is recreating the Totto-Chan school. She has designed creative spaces for many institutions of learning including Ramana Maharishi Blind School. "The only difference for this school is that students would get either ICSE or IGCSE certificate at the end of they course. Everything else would be in the same Tokyo school way,'' claims Sandhya.

According to her, the school is being built amidst an organic farm where children will have land to work on as part of their curriculum. "An artisan's village with potter's wheel, a carpentry studio and a handwork studio will provide inspiration and will help build skills in children. The classrooms, play spaces, library, resource rooms, amphitheatre are all innovatively designed so that children find it inviting. The rail road car adds to the magic of the space,'' she says. According to her, it would be an inclusive school with space for differently-abled and economically-weak along with children from higher income families. "It would be a different school with a different approach to learning,'' she says.