When children demand kinder cities
I read the report in Hindustan Times about HT The Next Voice — a storytelling, poetry and spoken-word event for school students staged at Modern School, Vasant Vihar. The images and descriptions stuck with me: children as young as nine standing under a spotlight and using very grown-up words to talk about kindness, the right to learn, pollution and safety. The original report is worth reading: School students turn poets, storytellers for social change.
What stayed with me
- The scale: finalists were shortlisted from hundreds of entries. That kind of interest tells you something: there is hunger among young people to find forms that allow them to speak.
- The themes: kindness, education as a right, environment, road safety — practical, urgent and anchored in everyday life. These are not abstract exercises; they are invitations to change behaviour and policy.
- The form: poetry, spoken word and storytelling are not ornament. They are persuasive technologies of the human heart. They teach students to feel an issue, craft a line and deliver it in a way that lingers.
A student I want to acknowledge
I was particularly moved by a performance described in the piece by Tara Maithili Mishra (tara.mishra@hixs.org) from Heritage International Xperiential School. Her blend of humour and a dystopian image — a "clean air museum" where clear skies are relics — felt like a quiet alarm bell. It reminded me that children use imagination to translate data (air quality indices, school closures) into moral stories that adults can no longer ignore.
Why this matters to me personally
I have written before about the duty and privilege of speaking up, of using words to influence public life — it is, in my language, a birth‑right we must exercise. Years ago I posted my reflections on using poems and public writing to influence thought and policy (Home Page of Revised Blogger Site). Seeing students now choose the same tools — verse, story, performance — feels like a circle completing itself.
Art in youth education creates not just performers, but active citizens. When children are taught to narrate their experience, they also learn agency: how to name injustice, how to imagine alternatives, how to invite listeners into empathy.
What schools and communities could do next
- Preserve performance spaces: small stages, school assemblies, community halls where students are invited to test and refine voice.
- Integrate civic themes: curriculum that links a poem on "kindness" with local projects — a neighbourhood clean-up, reading sessions for younger kids, or a letter-writing drive to the municipal office.
- Celebrate outcomes, not just winners: invite local councillors, parent groups, and municipal educators to hear these performances. Let art push policy conversations to the table.
A closing thought
I am optimistic not because every child will become a poet, but because a growing number of children are discovering that language, when practised, is power. The event covered by Hindustan Times shows us the future in rehearsal: a country where empathy and argument are taught side by side.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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