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Learning and growing together

Piramal Foundation
May 06, 2020

Today we all are busy in the rat race forgetting the essential and crucial motive of education that is building perspective and constructing a positive mindset. As a Gandhi Fellow, I try and make sure that whenever I engage with children, I shape and facilitate their perspectives, understanding, and beliefs. I always try to put there thinking direction towards a growth mindset.

The power of your attitude is your choice; a growth mindset is your choice. The Dalai Lama said it best: “Today I am fortunate to be alive; I have a precious human life; I am not going to waste it.” For many of us on this planet, we have the power to choose happiness over despair, to be the architects of our own destiny. The truly poor souls are those who don’t have a choice about their circumstances. So, I felt that learning and growing together are two best things that we can propagate to the children, in the era of competition. During my classroom interventions, I give children space for cooperation, where we not only study but also enjoy and play ever line we read in order to learn and understand better. The kids in the schools where I intervene will change your belief. They love studying and learning is fun for them because here we believe in growing, learning without burden. A Classroom that celebrates your unique Identity and your eagerness to learn rather than your weakness because together we learn together, we grow.


 

Despite the best efforts of so many devoted educators, children who struggle with mental health and learning disorders still face an array of serious challenges and obstacles in school. Schools today are ill-equipped to evaluate and provide or refer for treatment, and we face major problems with the way we mete out discipline and promote the school-to-prison pipeline.

Nevertheless, there is a silver lining for a nation that has a history of advocating for children who face barriers to learning and where there is a consensus regarding the need to allocate more resources among the political and educational communities. The tools to improve the school environment for all children are being developed, and our task is to bring these promising, evidence-based approaches to more schools across the nation.
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Mental health in school means many things — from social-emotional competence to an atmosphere of respect to supports for children with learning disorders, ADHD, PTSD and more. In order to ensure the mental wellbeing of children, I came up with the basic practice to ensure better physical and mental health. In addition to the normal assembly, at our school Devda, we decided to play, laugh, and learn together and here we come with laughter yoga to be fit together not physically but mentally as well. Because mental health is equally important.