It is important for all people, children and adults, to be able to express themselves. Self-expression forms the basis of how we identify with ourselves. Expression can also be considered on the level of a family, neighbourhood or community. To be able to express we first need to know what we want to say and how to say it, and then be in an environment that is conducive to being able to express.

It’s an amazing tool, expression is the mother of creativity, innovation and problem solving. Expression means communication, which means spreading out ideas and being able to listen to other peoples, allowing us to develop our perspective on ideas and, even if we still don’t agree with it, understand the view point of other people.

So in Hunar Ghar, children are free to express. That means they can talk to each other, take a wander outside, or do things that they’ve chosen to do, not just learn how to do what they are told. It’s an amazing thing, to be autonomous, and children have has much right to autonomy as adults.

Beyond it being a basis right of being a human, expression is great for the classroom, which is great for us running a school!: Children learn a great deal from one another when they chat, so we encourage peer-peer and group learning – lessons are structured so that children do some things on their own and some in groups. We ‘allow’ the children to talk so they can share what they learn with each other and increase exposure to different ways of seeing things. Don’t understand what the teacher is on about? No problem, just ask the person sitting next to you.