Humility and Appreciation - Ruchi Chaudhary

How many times have you avoided an arrogant person? Whether it be the kid in kindergarten who boasts about his toys, or the coworker that never seems to accept any advice, I’m sure you’ve never been in a rush to collaborate with those solely and blatantly concerned about themselves over others. Naturally, individuals want to collaborate with others who will listen, respect, and value their input. Applying humility to your own life opens up the opportune door of collaboration!  

Activity: 

I ask my students to greet everyone, say ‘Thank you’, and ‘Please’. Similarly, teaching them to apologise and say ‘Sorry’ when their actions hurt another person is essential. Helping them understand how apologising is a form of giving respect. Teaching them to accept a compliment genuinely. If they are appreciated for the smallest of their work, like handwriting, ask them to get the praise with a ‘Thank you’ and say something they like about the other person. 

Lesson on Humility  

Humility cannot be imposed. It is important not to confuse humiliation, bullying and beating down with education in humility. When you put humility in your own life, you immediately set yourself up to inspire others — that’s a special gift. So, it’s time to start practising humility! 

Appreciation  

Students, especially those in high school, face enormous pressure to succeed. Add to that hormonal and physical changes and non-stop digital media streams — students can lose sight of the good things in their lives.   

When was the last time you took a moment to appreciate the students around you, not for what they’ve learned, accomplished or done for you, but just for being in your life?  

In my recent class, 9 B, most of the students are average in their studies, but they all are different in their everyday behaviour. They are well-behaved, disciplined, and always follow the teacher’s direction; after getting appreciation from almost every subject teacher, they are improving their grades too, which happened because of the power of appreciation.  

Ruchi Chaudhary 

Mussoorie Public School  

Humility and Appreciation - Shivani Rao

Humility is the feeling or attitude that makes you realize that you do not possess any special quality and you are normal as others. At first glance, humility seems like a negative quality, almost a sign of weakness rather than a strength. But a person with humble nature is always welcomed and appreciated. Humble people apologize after making a mistake. They help others who are below them in skill. Humility is an asset for self-improvement. By living a humble life, you recognize the areas of your life that need work.

If we can admit and recognize our part in the downfall we can work towards changing it. A person in his life journey continuously plays both the role of a teacher as well as a student. That's why it is said that learning never stops. A person who lacks humility is arrogant. An arrogant mind reduces the ability to learn more. There is no room for an arrogant person to improve themselves because they do not recognize their flaws.

 Humility begins with accepting who we are and what makes us human. As a result of this, you gain control over your attitude and outlook on life.  Humility is not something we can just achieve; it is so much more than that. We need humility to become better people.

Confidence in oneself is important but having too much self-confidence can ruin a person. A person with immense self-confidence thinks too high of himself and becomes egoistic. He feels that he has achieved all his objectives and does not have the motivation to strive harder.

 Humility keeps a person on the ground and makes him aware of future goals that are pending. One way to be humble is by acknowledging that you may not have the answers to all the questions and that you have a lot to learn. By doing so, you automatically open the doors of knowledge and are on a road of lifelong learning. By gaining more knowledge, you gain confidence and self-respect.

Praising anybody for his or her task can increase the confidence of a person. Appreciation can help in achieving anything if used properly. It has the power inside and can turn negative thoughts into positive. If this word is used for a person, he/she can carry out any difficult task with low input energy.

Everyone in this world loves to get appreciated for their tasks. If someone has done something for you then saying thank you is a formality. But if you provide motivational words like “Good Work”, “Keep it up!” or “Excellent” along with thanking you then next time that person works with full energy. They appropriately use appreciating words for other people to carry out effective and fruitful results. Appreciation can be done everywhere. When you appreciate someone you respect their efforts. When someone appreciates you, they trust you, you should always work to maintain that trust.

Shivani Rao

The Fabindia School

sro@fabindiaschools.in

Privilege - A Misfortune: Bharti Rao

What does a child need to grow? A child needs grit, resilience and conscientiousness to grow and develop. But what are the parents doing today? They try to give all the privileges to their child to make his life comfortable in all means.  

Parents try to give the best to their child to make them happy and successful. But do you think is this correct? No, a parent by giving privileges is spoiling his child by giving this bait of worldly pleasures.

If we remove all obstacles and barriers from the child’s path, then how is he going to develop? We are robbing away all the opportunities by doing this. The need of the hour is not to give a child privilege, but to offer challenges to them which help them to grow and develop.

A privileged child as he grows up becomes egoist, arrogant and helplessness for no one likes such behaviour. The parents and educators need to collaborate to help a child to grow. School is the place which helps it to grow. We need the child to learn that they do not need the material possessions at their age.  Boarding schools are the best places where they learn the value of money, to be self-dependent, etc.

Exchange programs, trekking, night camps are some of the activities in which a child learns to lead a normal life, life with fewer resources, leadership qualities. They also learn to take up challenges and remove the obstacles that come in their way.  School is where the child inculcates to be empathetic and responsible. Children learn what is right or wrong for them.  Children should learn to think and explore on their own. We as Educators and parents should encourage the students to know themselves. When a child learns the sense of self then he will take up challenges, explore himself and be successful.

Bharti Rao

bro@fabindiaschools.in

The Fabindia School, Bali