ahmedabad schoolchildren can develop superior cognitive skills and the ability to learn different subject areas if they are made to interact with traditional artisans at an early age this is the finding of krinal patel a research scholar from the prestigious harvard universitywho is originally from nadiadpatel who is currently in gujarat proposes to team up with ngos like sristi run by anil gupta senior faculty at the indian institute of management ahmedabad and schools like sonal ambanis international institute of excellenceopen to being part of the network ambani says introducing children to artisans helps in opening up a wide area of cognitive skills i experienced that with my own children whom i introduced to potters and weavers in their early years she sayspatel who took her masters degree from harvard graduate school of education is studying embodied cognition thinking in work and social situations and linking it to the idea of experiential learning her findings of the last four years have thrown up interesting results which include doing away with myths about skilled physical labourit is perceived that skilled physical work including artisanry is mechanical restricted to exclusive castes like kumbhars or suthars who have inherited it or have a natural aptitude for it in reality skilled physical work involves a complex thinking pattern where the mind and the body work in tandemchildren exposed to this way of thinking and working will develop their thinking and problemsolving skills she notes teaching a child to make a clay pot at a hobby class is completely different from getting an artisan to teach him the same says patel who had taught puppetry to children with special needs in ahmedabad before she went to harvard to put her findings in practice patel set up the community learning and knowledge network an inclusive partnership between local schools government agencies ngos and commercial organisations it is already at work in schools of the tribal district of jhabua in madhya pradeshin ahmedabad patel proposes to get schools to invite local artisans for conducting demonstrations of their work older students can then turn apprentice with these artisans artisans in turn will commit to opening up their work places to these studentsit would mean updating their work places to make them inviting for students to visit and work for this they would need assistance from ngos and government agencies she says