It is a matter of concern for parents how studying for their children has become all about mugging up the facts, and it is not at all the real training of the mind. It perturbs them to see the little shoulders slouching while carrying the burden of studies, as heavy as their school bags. These prodding issues have inspired Stuti Agarwal, an IIM Udaipur alumnus to create ‘Prodigy’, a unique centre that is literally teaching children how to think, and not what to think. 

Breaking through today’s obsolete education system, Stuti’s efforts are making learning an engaging and interesting process. Her classes are designed around a remarkable model where the knowledge and information are imparted through experience-based learning processes. She makes the students fall in love with studies and teach them to comprehend the world with a deeper perception.

Tracing the Roots:

Our Indian education system has been plagued by rote learning. Students from a very young age are expected to mug up loads of information, instead of grasping the knowledge in its true essence. And the pressure to perform, without the understanding of its application, often stresses the students to a level of desolation. Prodigy acts as a training centre that helps children to get out of this passiveness and feel inclined to learn. It is a known fact that the grasping and retaining power increases twice if a child learns something through practical demonstration or doing active participation. Stuti’s customized games and activities do not even feel like studying to the kids, while in the process, they not only understand better but are able to relate it practically. The hands-on learning they experience during the classes stay with them long after it is over, and a majority of it goes to the subconscious mind. It targets and stimulates the cognitive thinking, through which the children not only retain things for a longer duration but also get clear and sound concepts to rely on. This, in turn, boosts their confidence, polishes their speaking skills, upgrades their vocabulary and enriches their thinking pattern and overall personality. But most importantly, these modules heighten their knowledge level and help them come at par with international standards. Stuti’s sensibility to break complex bookish matters into a simple activity-based self-explanatory topic touches the right chord in children.

A Regular Day at Prodigy:

The colourful, 3-storey bungalow serves as the centre for Prodigy, where a number of children from age to 6 to 14 years old are seen indulging in the classes of fun and practical learning. Each class buzzes with energy and enthusiasm of these young minds, who keenly participate and learn a topic in depth. From Science and Mathematics to English and Social Studies, all the chapters of these subjects, for students of standard 1st to 9th, are converted into board games, experiments and different interesting activities, through which the children understand the concept with a sound perspective of its application. Its model is purely based on experience-oriented learning, where children do not have to mug up the textbooks for exams. For instance, instead of mugging up the formulas of the area and volume, the students see, analyze, comprehend and learn it through practically measuring containers of different shapes and sizes. To learn the volume of a sphere, they first did the basic calculations, then filled water in a spherical tank and later verified the amount of water through emptying it in a measuring jug. This active indulgence in the whole process gave the kids a better insight on how and why they should know these topics.

Educating the Mind and the Heart:

I feel, that the younger we start to train them, the better results we will get from the students. I have seen tremendous improvement in the thought process of the first batch of students who have still stuck around with me, and are part of my regular courses now – and that is inspiring me to take Prodigy to even more kids in and around Surat.”, says Stuti.

Her methods encourage the children to ask the necessary ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of things happening around them and are inquisitive rather than blindly accept things. Started a year ago with mere 20 students, Prodigy is now a family of 150+ members. The secret of Prodigy’s extraordinary expedition lies in the light-hearted nature of the model. From curriculum-based courses and Olympiads to brain and skill development to personality development, Stuti focuses on everything that will make a child a real-world ready. Her framework also helps one in interview preparations, knowledge building, IQ strengthening, and public speaking. Through various games, practical experiments, group discussions, storytelling, videos, demonstrations and other activity-based methods, her model targets a child’s subconscious mind. While building in-depth knowledge and strengthening the IQ through conceptual-learning, Prodigy brings about visible improvements in a child’s academic performance, as well.

To know more about Prodigy Camps, click here.