A bouquet
of love
Quality is never an accident; it is
always the result of a conscious mind. Ignorance is bliss until it hits you in
the face. The real education is
the one that will set you free to enrich your mind and enlighten your soul. It
is noteworthy that you can't be a great teacher if you stop being a student. We
should not forget that we are all students
in life. To stop learning is to stop
living. Hence, quality is that potential which we need to recuperate in our
dealings with others throughout our life.
Quality in an educational institute is one
that is pedagogically and developmentally sound and educates the student in
becoming an active and productive member of society. It is not one that is
measured purely by a test scorer. Rather it fabricates the young minds and
builds the pillars of a nation.
“To educate a person in mind and
not in morals is to educate a menace to society." -Teddy
Theodore Roosevelt
 |
| Love strengthens all the values |
It was five years back, the teacher reminisces the incident
that opened a new avenue of outlook in her life. On 23rd June,
unexpectedly there was a call from Grade VIII. It was the dispersal time, she
was waiting at the door to hear the announcement, and that very day, the
teacher’s duty was on the 5th floor. So, she took the stairs to
reach the class which was on the 7th floor after handing over the
duty to another teacher. As she stepped into Grade VIII, the entire class
welcomed her with a loud cry of elation. She was touched by the greetings
and wishes profusely of her little sweethearts and they made her feel that it was only
her day. The teacher was flooded with loads of wishes and gifts. Eventually, she
was empowered with her so-called emotions. Her tears trickled down her cheeks
and really it was that day when she was moved by the love of her young minds.
She was the class teacher of these children when they were in Grade VII. To her
great surprise, she couldn’t imagine that these youngsters would remember her
when she was not teaching them. The love that they displayed it was a laurel for
her.
The appreciation as a token of love that she received was
sown long days back.
White,
fluffy clouds drifted across the clear, blue sky. Generally,
during morning time of the summer before the children arrived, the teacher
closed her eyes while sitting near the window of her class and felt that the
meadow and floral blooms were as much within her as they were around the
vicinity, she loved to sense the warm earth.
On such a bright sunny day when the teacher triggered the mood of the children by
assigning them an interesting project.
“Let us start with a community development programme by upgrading ourselves. We will first start working
on our school campus by educating our ancillary staff. What do you say?” the
announcement of the teacher-created exhilaration among the learners. To teach
someone is perpetually a matter of enthusiasm for the kids.
Punit was selected as the team leader for this new endeavour. There
are more inquisitive children to take part in teaching in comparison to the number of ancillary staff.
“Ma’am, I need your guidance while making the schedule for training
the staff” Punit mumbled and looked at his teacher anxiously.
“Why not, I will help you at any cost. Don’t be bothered.”
Punit noticed the sign of reassurance in his teacher’s voice.
“We have to give scope to everyone to teach”, Punit showed
his concern for his fellow mates, he continued, “we need to work united to make
the project a grand success.” His confidence was echoed in his voice.
“ Yes, of course, Punit,” the teacher’s
words impacted upon him as a great solace. The teacher had a strong trust in
Punit because she knew that Punit had that intellect to shoulder the responsibility
of this project. His patience, sincerity, understanding and thoughtfulness
always reflected in his behaviour while dealing with others.
Punit took the help of Shivam to
plan the schedule and the topics to be taught. It was decided that they would
first teach the auxiliary staff how to do signing instead of thumb impression. Then
they introduced the soft skills by training them how to attend a visitor in the
school, how to greet the children, they enlightened them by sharing information
related to the women empowerment and so on.
Patently, the entire project brought
the children close to each other. It built simplicity, tolerance, trust,
courage, understanding, cooperation and respect for the outside world. They realized
how to be caring and humble towards the community. Quality in their thoughts, quality in their action led them to develop a love for learning.
As said by Dalai Lama,” It is
vital that when educating our children’s brains we do not neglect to educate
their hearts.”
Harmony @ Billabong High International School, Thane
- Abira Chakraborty, Pooja Khona, Bhumika Ailsinghani, Rajshri Rane, Soniya Kuril, Poonam Choudhary, Kavita Shetty
