In a compelling conversation Anamika Dasgupta, Director, The Wonder School, Pune, delves into the rising popularity of summer programs and the broader shift towards self-directed, experiential learning. Drawing from her school’s pioneering work, Dasgupta discusses why families are moving away from conventional factory-style schooling and how real-world learning—through clay, code, farming, or film—can help children discover who they truly are. From community impact projects to collaborations between academia and industry, she offers a bold, empathetic vision for education that is rooted in purpose, presence, and possibility.
What’s driving the growing demand for summer programs, and how do they contribute to a more holistic approach to education?
I think families and educators are waking up to the fatigue of factory schooling. Summer is now becoming a precious syllabus-free window to let children breathe, play, wander, wonder. At our school we have used summers to incubate identity. Summer programs are becoming spaces where children can discover what makes them come alive…be it clay or code, farming or filmmaking. Summer camps contribute to holistic education because they restore the wholeness of the child—learning with hands, heart and head.
Why is there a shift toward self-directed and experiential learning models among educators and parents?
Because children have changed. And our world has changed. But our systems haven’t. They remain trapped in the same old patterns. Parents who are paying attention are realizing that passive learning no longer works, and that children are asking for autonomy. Many are quietly (or sometimes loudly) opting out when they don’t get it. There is a clear shift toward self-directed and experiential models – rooted in real life, emerging from questions, and driven by curiosity. At our school, a seven-year-old once led an entire unit on waste segregation after asking why garbage smelled. You can’t manufacture that kind of learning—it can only be lived.
How can programs outside formal curricula help students make more informed choices about their academic and professional paths?
Don’t ask children what they want to become, just help them become themselves, one experience at a time. When learners try growing food, pitching a startup idea, documenting oral histories, or mentoring younger peers, help them live the experience. These experiences outside formal curricula allow them to test their interests against reality. That kind of clarity can’t come from exams and aptitude tests. It can only come from a continuous cycle of act-reflect-repeat.
How does project-based, community-focused learning shape students’ skills, mindset and sense of purpose?
Community projects are where children meet the world. Real-world community impact projects are special, in a way that that are not just ‘projects’. They are opportunities to develop empathy, ownership, initiative and responsibility. Skills like research, negotiation, documentation and critical thinking become necessary—not because they’re in the rubric, but because the work demands them. Purpose comes from actually doing something small that matters, and makes a real difference to someone’s life.
How can academia and industry collaborate to create meaningful, future-oriented learning experiences?
Academia and Industry need to stop operating in silos and start building together in the same room. They need to ask “what future are we preparing learners for?” and then go about fixing the ways to make it happen. Provide students mentorship from practitioners, provocateurs and problem-solvers. Bring in industry expertise not only to plug skill gaps, but to co-create real-world problems that learners can work on. And while we are at it, why stop at a customary ‘guest lecture’ where we bring industry to schools? Why not also take schools into industry, communities and the bigger world out there? That’s where learning gets real.
What’s your vision for the future of education, and how will it adapt to changing learner needs and societal expectations?
The future of education must be less about control and more about trust. We need schools that are more like living ecosystems—rooted in purpose, evolving with context, and generous in spirit. I see a future where learning doesn’t happen in isolation from life, but is woven into it—where teens apprentice with craftspeople and artisans, run local governance models, build social enterprises, and study mathematics not for exams, but to build irrigation systems.
As a country, we need to stop making education all about upward mobility, and recognise that it is first and foremost about but inward mastery and outward service. My hope is that instead of chasing success, we raise seva-driven youth, young leaders who can think, feel, build and give. That’s the future I am working towards everyday.
