Before Maekido...
Maekido didn't begin with workshops.
It began much earlier.
It began through two very different journeys that eventually led to the same belief about learning.
For Krishna, that journey unfolded inside classrooms.
Through teaching with Teach For India, leading experiences like Halla Bol, exploring inquiry-based science through the Catalyst program, and later designing experiential learning at Better By Design, she witnessed one pattern again and again: children learn best when they're given opportunities to question, explore and discover ideas for themselves. One lesson stayed with her throughout those years:
"Always keep the child at the centre."
For Vinay, the journey looked very different.
As a designer studying and working across India and later at Kingston University in London, learning rarely happened only inside lecture halls. It happened through design studios, projects, critiques, exhibitions and countless conversations with people from different disciplines. Every project demanded curiosity, experimentation, feedback and the courage to build before everything felt perfect.
Although our journeys looked different, they kept leading us to the same conclusion.
The experiences that stay with us are rarely the ones where someone simply tells us what to do.
They're the ones where we discover, question, create and reflect for ourselves. As we began working together, those conversations became increasingly frequent. We often found ourselves asking the same questions.
Why do children spend so much time learning answers, but so little time learning how to ask meaningful questions?
What would happen if classrooms created more opportunities for children to think like designers, artists, scientists and innovators?
Those conversations eventually became Maekido.
Children Don't Learn Like Sponges
One belief has shaped almost everything we build.
Children don't simply absorb understanding. They construct it.
Real learning doesn't happen because someone explains something well.
It happens when children wrestle with an idea themselves.
When they ask,
"Why?"
"What if?"
"Could there be another way?"
Educational thinkers like Jean Piaget described learning as something learners actively construct rather than receive. Later, Lev Vygotsky expanded this idea by showing that while children need opportunities to explore independently, they also benefit from thoughtful guidance — adults who scaffold their thinking without taking away the discovery.
That balance has become central to how we design every Maekido experience.
Inquiry Is More Than Asking Questions
People often hear the phrase inquiry-based learning and imagine children simply asking lots of questions.
That's only part of the story.
Inquiry begins with curiosity. It grows through exploration. It becomes meaningful through discussion and reflection. And it deepens when learners take what they've discovered and try again.
The goal isn't simply to have children asking more questions.
It's to help them investigate ideas, make connections and build understanding that belongs to them.
That's why our facilitators rarely rush to provide answers.
Instead, they ask another question.
Not because we don't know the answer — but because discovery is often far more powerful than explanation.
Experience Comes Before Explanation
One of the biggest shifts in Krishna's teaching happened during her Teach For India fellowship.
Initially, the focus was on making explanations clearer.
Over time, she realised students remembered far more when they experienced something before it was explained.
Whether it was investigating a science concept, debating an idea or solving a real-world challenge, the most memorable learning rarely happened during the explanation itself.
It happened when students observed.
Questioned.
Tested.
Reflected.
And then tried again.
Later, while exploring inquiry-based science and designing experiential learning curricula, she found language for what she had already begun witnessing in classrooms. Learning became deeper when children weren't passive listeners, but active participants in making sense of the world around them.
Those experiences quietly became one of the foundations of Maekido.
Experiential Learning Is More Than 'Hands-On'
Experiential learning is often mistaken for simply making classrooms more interactive. But hands-on activities alone don't guarantee meaningful learning. Children can be busy without necessarily thinking.
For us, experiential learning follows a different rhythm.
Children experience something.
They reflect on it.
They discuss what they noticed.
They make sense of it.
Then they apply those ideas in a new way.
This cycle of experiencing, reflecting and experimenting is where deeper learning begins.
Not every first attempt works.
And that's exactly the point.
What This Looks Like at Maekido
Every workshop begins with an experience — not a lecture.
Students don't begin a Board Game Design workshop by learning game mechanics.
They begin by playing.
In Legal Literacy, they don't start by memorising laws.
They start with exploring situations through questions, discuss perspectives and debate possibilities.
In UI/UX Design, they don't begin with design principles.
They begin by observing problems around them.
In Maker's Canvas, they don't start by aiming for a perfect artwork.
They begin by experimenting.
Knowledge comes afterwards.
Because understanding grows much more naturally when children have something meaningful to connect it to.
Every workshop begins with an experience — playing, observing, experimenting
One Question That Shaped Everything
While designing Maekido's very first programs, our founders and partner facilitators kept returning to one question.
Not,
"What should children know by the end?"
But,
"What do we want children to feel when they leave?"
Curious enough to ask another question.
Confident enough to try something unfamiliar.
Comfortable enough to make mistakes.
Excited enough to continue creating after they reach home.
That single question quietly shaped almost every decision we made — from the activities we designed to the role facilitators would play in every session.
Perhaps Education Needs More Questions
The world children are growing up in is changing faster than ever.
Facts will change. Technology will evolve. Careers will continue to look different from what they do today.
But curiosity, creative confidence, empathy, the ability to ask thoughtful questions, the confidence to explore unfamiliar ideas.
Those are qualities that will remain valuable, regardless of what the future looks like.
Perhaps education isn't only about helping children find answers. Perhaps it's equally about helping them ask better questions.
That's the kind of learning we're trying to build at Maekido.