Simplicity and Trust - Shalini Solanki

Simplicity is beautiful as it is away from all complications, complexities, distractions and confusion. Simplicity and Trust go hand in hand. It is difficult to achieve simplicity ultimately. But regular practice makes one closer to it.

Activity: We recently conducted an exercise on simplicity and Trust. The name of the activity was 'Scavenger Hunt', where students were asked to draw clues on A4 sheets like walls of mirrors, beds, many books, computers, flowers and bushes, water, a smart board etc. They were asked to leave some space to write after each image. The children were very excited and curious about the next step. They were informed that they would be going for a school round, where they were asked to observe their surroundings and find out the room or place matching the images drawn by them and tick the same. They were discussing with their peers, excited to find something resembling their drawing, listening to the teacher and each other, using each other's back to tick, disciplined, happy and trusting each other for their ideas.

We returned to the classroom, and the children wrote the room names or places where they saw the things drawn by them. We discussed the entire activity, and without opening any book or smart board, we were done with the topic of 'Different Places in School'. I was pleased and satisfied with my students' clarity of concept and responses. It is fantastic that we can simply make little ones understand anything with clear and simple ideas.

Initial responses from students: They were curious, excited, happy and eager.

My role: Facilitator 

Impact on students: They were more observant and calculative (e.g. they found 5 rooms of mirrors, where I was expecting one) 

My Learning: By being simple or making things simple, we can build Trust and make anyone understand, even the most challenging problems/ situations.

Shalini Solanki

Gyanshree School
JOL Cohort 2022

Courage and Patience - Nikita Rajpurohit

Courage refers to the strength of overcoming a fear. It is very important as it helps the child to grow bold. It boasts a child's confidence. Whereas, patience refers to staying calm in a situation and waiting for your turn to act. Every child is different in their own way so we can say that some children are naturally more patient than others. But we can teach patience to children by taking the same simple steps like teaching them self control, having purposeful delays and making them wait for their turns.

These strategies could help the children to make patience a habit. I remember an incident 7/8 years back when an adventure was organised for our school students in the school. It was paragliding. Everyone was excited about it because most of them had never seen it or experienced it. It was happening for the first time in our area. So they all were eagerly waiting for it.


When the day arrived, all the students were taken to the nearby ground. They all were getting impatient and wanted to do it first. Then the teachers advised them to patiently wait for their turn saying that everyone would get a chance to do it. When the trainer showed them how it's done, many students got excited but some students got scared on seeing him flying in the air. When their turn came, they got very nervous and frightened. Then they stepped back saying that it's not their cup of tea and they ended up refusing for the event. After that, a few teachers called the students and asked their reason for the refusal. After listening to them, the teacher called the event officer and informed him about the situation. Therefore the officer went up to the students and told them that it's not at all a risk for any one of them and they supervise each and every second of the event and they guarantee students' protection. This gave a major relief to the students and they started their way back to the event.

This shows us a scenario where at a moment, students were impatient and had great excitement for the adventure but then they lost courage and patience and how the teacher and the adventure officer made it a successful adventure trip. This was just an example of a single scenario, but there are numerous scenarios where the teacher can preach students about the lesson of courage and patience.

Nikita Rajpurohit The Fabindia School

Happiness and Tolerance: Swabhi Parmar

Happiness is a sense of contentment and joy. Yes, it is not permanent in life but we cannot

say it is temporary either. Happiness is something which is obtained from inner peace. Now, How do we inculcate this value in ourselves is the question of the hour. This can simply be accomplished by developing the quality of tolerance in us. If we are tolerant, then this quality will be reflected in front of our children. I would share a small story of how tolerance led to happiness in The Fabindia School, Bali.

It was a happy day in the school and everyone was excited because the school was going to organise a night camp. Children were very happy and excited to join the night camp. All of them started planning what things to get, what clothes to wear and so on. Finally, the day of night camp arrived. The chilly wind blew because it was the month of December. Educators and children were distributed in teams for various activities. 

The classrooms were converted into restrooms and the students were distributed class wise. But there was one issue which Priya faced. Priya was a shy girl. She didn’t speak too much with anyone. She was excellent in studies but not good at communicating with friends. She also joined the night camp but soon she felt alone. All her friends seemed excited about sharing beds, food and so on but Priya was a little bit uncomfortable and then she started crying and she wanted to go back home. 

The students of her class rushed to the class teacher and said, "Priya wants to go home and she is weeping continuously." The teacher took this situation as an opportunity to make Priya friends with other girls in her class. She went into the room and told all the girls to gather in front of her. The teacher told the girls to be friends with Priya and made her feel comfortable. All the girls followed what the teacher told them to do. All the girls went to her, they asked her to play games, gossip about favourite movies, cartoons etc. After the persuasion of the teacher, all the girls became friends with Priya and they altogether enjoyed activities which were carried forward in school.

This small incident of Priya taught all the girls the value of tolerance, acceptance, cooperation and kindness. This tolerant behaviour of other girls led Priya to happiness. By a small act of motivation, every child can be benefited. This is how Priya attained her happiness and she enjoyed the night camp.

Swabhi Parmar

The Fabindia School

Courage and Patience - Penta BHIS

It was a breezy afternoon when I asked my excited learners:

“Who was the first Prime Minister of India?”

Even though Cather knew the answer, she always seemed hesitant to respond. When I beckoned at her, she could only mumble. Cather wanted to answer. I could see that eagerness in her eyes. However, under the waiting gaze of all the other students in the class, she felt anxious and scared. Having got nothing but silence from her, I asked Cather to sit down. As though on a cue, the lunch bell rang. Everyone rushed out to play, except Cather.

She sat in the class alone and quietly ate her food. I called out to her; she did not move for a second. Then very slowly she walked up to me. Cather was apprehensive of being pulled up for not answering. She knew where she was lacking and thus felt anxious and unsure. I handed over a slim book (from my little collection in the Teacher’s drawer) and requested her to read it.

The name of the book was ‘Courage’. It narrated a story about a seagull who wanted to fly but feared to do so. Despite the best efforts of its family and loved ones, the seagull was terrified of using its wings. It thought that it would fall if it ever tried to fly. I was certain that Cather would relate to the seagull, as I saw her settle down with the book. In 

In the story, the seagull mustered courage, moved up towards the edge of the cliff, near its nest, and jumped off it. Initially, the little bird nosedived straight down, sure of a rather painful injury, if not death. However, just when it was about to touch the ground, something magical happened.

Something inside the seagull made it spread its wings and fly; and fly it did – really high! The seagull had patiently borne its weaknesses and had finally mustered the courage to overcome them. It perfectly embodied the values of patience and courage, which could magically transform lives.

Cather now knew exactly what she had to do. When the class returned after the break, she raised her hand to say something in front of the class. As I encouraged her with a nod, she took a deep breath and answered with conviction: “Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India”.

The entire class clapped with joy, seeing this new confidence in Cather while she grinned with the radiance of self-discovery. Just like the baby seagull, she had gathered courage at the opportune moment. Just like Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam had said “The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.”

Penta @ Billabong International High School, Thane
-Jeeji Sanjeev, Sanika Joshi, Arpita M.G., Muskaan Menda, Radhika Anand, Supriya Naravankar & Bhavani Swamy.