Hope and Friendship go hand in hand. These two values make the world move with the courage to face difficult situations and times. A friend is the one who gives us hope to rise whenever life is unfair. Friendship is a bright house of hope where no one is left alone in the darkness of loneliness.
A student who has lost all hope and has no friends in school
In every teacher's life, there are times when he/ she gets to meet a child with less confidence, hope and sometimes No Hope. This reminds me of a student in the current session of my class. I met her for the first time a week after this session's beginning. She was a quiet child with no friends. Though she was not a new student but still hesitant to speak with anyone. I went to say to her, but she was not really comfortable talking to me. I thought of giving her some time, assuming her being uncomfortable in the new class and meeting her new mentor. We started revising the concepts of the previous grade and observed that she got restless in class with the thought that the teacher might ask her a question. I did exactly what she was scared of. I asked her a question regarding numbers, and she was quiet. She was so negative and hopeless that she didn't focus on the question. I was just asking her to recognize a simple number. She knew the answer already but didn't have trust in herself that she could give the correct answer. I didn't pressure her but tried to learn more about her from the previous year's mentors and get in touch with the parents. I knew that she was irregular in school, because of which she was missing concepts. Her father is in sales and generally out of town, and her mother has delivered a baby. Nobody has time to speak to her. As she is irregular in school, she has no friends. She had no confidence, hope or friends.
I decided to do something to change her mindset. I used to ask her questions and move on to the other students very quickly without saying anything to her or giving her any look after receiving no answer from her. Then, I would call her separately at my table in every period for every subject. I would make her understand the concepts and discuss the answers separately. I became her friend and created a trust that I would never make fun of her, and together, we will learn everything. She started giving me the answers, and gradually, she became confident enough to answer in front of the entire class. She now positively takes any feedback. The full class is her friend now. She knows that we are there to help her whenever she needs help and support her in every situation. She is sure that no one will make fun of her and treat her as inferior. She is now at par with other students. The magic of friendship brings her to school every day. She is bright and full of hope. Here, we got support from her parents as well. They have been sending her regularly to school. She is not missing on concepts, which has created hope that She Can and She Will….
Shalini Solanki
Gyanshree School
