Hope and Friendship - Roopa Bhattacharyya and Mridula Renjit

A child who has lost hope

In Primary classes, there generally are no children who have lost hope. But if there is such a child, the child will feel left out. She will not participate in group activities, which will affect learning outcomes. She will feel demotivated to even come to school. The unhappiness will affect all learning areas like reading, numeracy, awareness, observation and communication.

The intervention on the teacher's side is, first of all, the identification of the child. The child will be made to sit with a vivacious child who will try to rope her into activities. Conscious efforts will be made to engage her in classroom discussions.

One-on-one discussion with the child about why the child feels less hope. If there is a specific incident or incident, it will be discussed and dealt with. All the other subject teachers and activity teachers will be sensitized about the child so that all efforts are synchronized. A lot of encouragement and a rewarding small attempt by the child will help fill the child with hope.

Lastly, the parents and friends will also be part of this project, so everyone is in sync.

A child who has no friends

Friends are what childhood is punctuated with, and a child with no friends is indeed a sad thing which calls for intervention. Such a child will find no interest in coming to school and lag behind in

learning parameters. There was one such child in our class; let us call him X. He hardly ever smiled and showed no interest in work, play, or other class activities. It was observed that the child did not mingle with anyone, not even during the lunch period. So the child was talked to, which revealed the sad reason that the child had been in a coma for the past 2 years.

The child was assigned a buddy to share lunch with him, play with him, and engage him in group games during lunch break. X was encouraged to participate in group recitation and plays, which he slowly started participating in as he felt less threatened in such situations. The other subject and activity teachers were also sensitized about the child so that all efforts were synchronized. By the end of the session, X had made a few friends and started looking happy.

Mridula Renjit

Roopa Bhattacharyya
Ahlcon Public School

Caring For Others - Kusum Sharma

Hello Everyone

Today I am going to share my views on caring for others, so I am sharing a story related to the topic. There was a farm, where lived farmer John with his wife Molly. They had pigs, cows and many animals on their farm. Also, there lived a little mouse.

One day the mouse looked through a small crack in the wall and accidentally saw the farmer opening some package. The mouse was curious about what food may it contain and discovered that it was a mousetrap. The mouse was determined to run around the farmyard and warned all the animals regarding the danger. First of all, he met the chicken. “There is a mousetrap in the house! “, the mouse declared with despair. But the chicken answered with indifference, “It doesn't concern me, as this is a danger for you, but not for me. It cannot bother me“.

Then the mouse raced towards the pig and the goat and told them about the mousetrap. But the pig and the goat were not impressed too. They said that there is nothing to worry about this and promised to pray about the mouse. Sad and depressed, the little mouse returned to the house. In the night the farmer‘s wife Molly heard a sound of a mousetrap. She hurried to see what was in it, but due to the darkness, she did not see that it was a poisonous snake, whose tail was caught in the trap. Suddenly the snake bit Molly.

The farmer rushed with her to the hospital. Later, when they returned home, Molly still had a fever. John remembered that it is good to treat the fever with chicken soup, so he went to his farmyard to bring the main ingredient, the chicken.

Whereas Molly‘s sickness continued and many friends came to visit her, the farmer butchered the pig so he could feed all the visitors. Unfortunately, as time went by Molly became weaker and weaker and one day she died. Many neighbours, relatives and friends arrived for the funeral. John had to slaughter the goat to feed all of them. The mouse watched all this with great sorrow. Remember, when we learn that someone is facing difficulties or dangers, we all are at risk. It is better to help and encourage one another and don‘t leave anyone alone with his problems.

Kusum Sharma

The Fabindia School