Why Exposure to Different Professionals and Creators Matters for Students

Credits: Pehchaan The Street School

In some cases, the child needs someone else. Not a teacher, but someone who would make him or her feel that there is another future.

It is only through what a child has seen, heard and experienced that he or she can imagine the world. A child who has not met a filmmaker before will never think of making movies. A student who has not conversed with an entrepreneur will never know that it is possible to create his or her own business. This is the significance of exposure.

By meeting specialists and creators, students will get to realise that there are many ways to achieve success. A profession will stop seeming like a foreign word out of a textbook and will appear as a living person sitting opposite and talking about his or her experience and way of becoming successful. This is what helps students become closer to distant things.

Such is the philosophy of Pehchaan The Street School. Pehchaan The Street School gives its lessons in education that go beyond school subjects. It builds confidence, creativity, communication skills and helps children realise their potential. By giving its students opportunities to communicate with people who do different jobs, Pehchaan The Street School opens up a much bigger world for children.

Sometimes it is only one talk that helps to open up this world. The professional who talks to the students can help them answer questions that textbooks cannot answer. Why did they opt for that profession? What are the difficulties in that profession? Are they doubtful at times? What does their job involve? Such discussions humanise success. It makes the students realise that not all professions sail smoothly and that failure, doubt and experimentation are an integral part of choosing a profession.

Credits: Pehchaan The Street School

“Pehchaan The Street School’s “Freedom to Dream — A Creator’s Day Out” event beautifully encapsulates the very philosophy of such initiatives. It gathered 11+ creators, 400+ students and 100+ volunteers to give children a chance to connect with the creative and digital world. Instead of focusing on social media and publicity, the event made the connection happen via interactive sessions through conversations, creativity, games and lots of laughs and joy.

This difference is significant.

For many children, meeting the creator of the digital world may not only remove the fear of the unknown but also inspire them. A creator is not just a face on the screen any more. It is a person with a story behind him/her, with a profession, struggles, skills and dreams. A camera can turn into an instrument of storytelling, and a creative idea can become a career option. And through conversations, the child can ask a simple question: “Can I do something like this?”

And perhaps this question holds greater value than any speech.

Exposure helps them realise that they are not necessarily restricted to the professions that they have always known. There are endless possibilities that exist in art, technology, media, entrepreneurship, science, design and communication. The more the children experience these possibilities, the greater is their imagination.

This is exactly why the work being done by Pehchaan The Street School has such significance. It does not merely tell children to dream big; it allows them to experience parts of this bigger world.

It is not enough to educate children; they must also be given exposure to the opportunities that lie outside of this education. Because the dreams of children should not be limited to the lives that they have experienced.