By Poonam Bhonsle, LEC 2020
I thrive on stories. As much as I love listening to stories I equally enjoy narrating them to others. This year the pandemic exposed me to different kinds of stories – of despair, of suffering, of anxiety and of grief. Amidst all this, I was worried whether I will be able to participate in the LEC or will have to give it a miss this year as well. And just when the world was adapting to function in this crisis, LEC came to me in the virtual mode. Being someone who believes in immersing myself in spaces of learning through being physically present in that space with co-learners, I was very skeptical about how I will survive this online course. But as I read Sujata’s blog that reflected her worries of the new method and mode, I realised the facilitators of LEC were themselves navigating through this new challenge of going virtual with the course. I realised we all are together in this and the need to trust each other in this journey became more pronounced to me.
When I reflect over what happened over the last few months to begin with Jane’s invitation to explore the world and word through a peek into Paulo Freire’s experience of reading was a remarkable way for me to begin this journey. It allowed me to reopen myself to experience feelings and emotions. I discovered a space where I could critically analyse the formal education system with Paulo watching over me with his experiences which are still relevant even after so many years. I felt I found a community that appreciates how learning can happen experientially based on lived experiences and hence the need of libraries. Maya Angelou’s experience of being encouraged by her teacher for discovering the joy of listening to her own voice, learning to read independently and how libraries can be safe spaces for children who have experienced trauma still stirs me from within. Maya’s teacher embodies the qualities to celebrate in a library educator which involves being observant, accepting, listening to the silence and respecting different abilities.
The human element is so critical to the library space and it got reinforced time and again through different interactions and activities that the team planned for us throughout the course. Despite, not meeting we all met over phone calls, zoom sessions, online groups with thoughtfully planned activities in between our weekend classes as well. The parcels with our compendium, art and craft material, book and embroidery that I received from the Bookworm team gave me the delight that a young child experiences while opening a birthday surprise and I showed it off to the family. Activities like creating my library card, guided drawing, sensory reading of the world and drawing alternate narrative for the story allowed me to intentionally spend time doing some art which gave me immense joy. My 5 years old nephew, Dhruv and I created our own library cards and began to maintain our reading journeys in them.
Having access to a carefully curated collection of books made available through a virtual library, meant the world to me during this period. The stories I read for the activities in the course as well as for my personal reading mirrored so many of my lived experiences as well as allowed me to become more aware about the world around me. These stories created space for me to imagine, empathise and sometimes grieve too. Some of my new favourites that I discovered through the virtual library are the books I recommended to many of my friends who I felt were seeking stories of this kind. Writing an assignment on some of these books gave me more time and space to reflect on why some of these stories matter so much to me and how have they made me feel in times of happiness as well as despair. Assignments were one of the great opportunities to look at one topic of interest with great detail and practice writing a piece about it. The interactions with Nayan – my mentor during these assignments gave me direction to think and write more critically. If it had not been for her, this experience of LEC would have not been so enriching. It underlines for me the importance of having a supportive mentor who perhaps tells you where to look but not what to see. Exchanges over email with Jane on some of the poems we liked was another relationship that I could build during the course and will always cherish.
The virtual mode gave me an opportunity to listen to so many voices from the LEC Alumni who are a community of practitioners. The need to understand readers whom we engage with and the context they live in was a learning for me that I took away from many of them. Listening to everyone speak during the sessions was one thing that I enjoyed the most. I couldn’t stop admiring and reflecting on perspectives shared by many of my fellow participants in the course. I resonated with so many experiences they shared and some of their experiences opened up a new way of thinking for me. I particularly remember Theju’s session on the status of children’s publishing industry in India and how publishing houses like Adivaani, Panther’s Paw Publication are striving for a space for diversity and representation in children’s literature. I learnt how asking critical questions and analysing why things are the way they are, is important within as well as outside the library space, especially if you hold social justice as a value at your core. LEC certainly created these spaces to question, express and participate in many ways. Through experiential learning activities I saw demonstration of how library spaces can be the safe spaces to read, think, facilitate, discuss and debate. I am sure being physically present in a space would have even more enriched this experience for me.
Sometimes I would be overwhelmed with so many spaces that were created in this seven month journey of LEC that I felt I couldn’t get enough from them. But I enjoyed listening to journal entries, sharing poems, book talks, discussing readings and films, and understanding that reading is so much about relationships. I missed listening to many of my co-participants due to the internet connectivity issues on either my or their end. I also feel that due to the virtual mode of learning this year as much as it benefitted people who could not travel due to the pandemic it also privileged the ones who had better internet connectivity. Although the virtual mode is also a great way of learning, I strongly feel that a course like LEC is also so much needed to be experienced by people who work in libraries in remote places in the country which may have limited or no internet connectivity. And this is why I hope LEC gets back to its in person design. Technology can always add on the experience of learning but I believe it cannot replace what we do when we meet and share.
Apart from the content of the sessions I would quietly enjoy observing how the facilitators facilitated the sessions and interaction with the group. A lot of it I carried along with me to the field project that I did during LEC. The field project gave me an opportunity to practice what I learnt in theory and wanted to explore in the library. As book talks were something that fascinated me I worked with children on this topic. I missed reading from the virtual library due to no internet connectivity during my field project but I thoroughly enjoyed reading with the children in the library. The project gave me an opportunity to explore my idea in a practical setting and enriched me as a person in my journey to become a more thoughtful library educator. I can’t wait to meet the co-participants who also were on their journeys of learning through field projects, listen to their experiences and share mine with them. It is difficult to believe that in next couple of days the course for this year’s cohort will come to an end but I am hopeful and assured to have found a community of library educators and practitioners for my journey ahead. And I stay committed to remain curious and open to experiencing and sharing new stories of learning as I journey onwards.
