Quality and Love - Rachna Bharrdwaj

Love is timeless; it has existed before you, and it will last after you. It is said that love grows by sharing. Love yourself and spread that love, and if you are a teacher, it is one of the indispensable values for you. It is giving your best without expecting anything in return. It is a feeling of a strong attraction and emotional attachment. It helps to gain the confidence of your students. It opens the door to conversation. 
I share one of my experiences. Dakee, a quiet girl from my House at school, was an excellent basketball player. She was passionate about her game and never used to miss her practices. One day a teacher brought to my notice that she had missed her prep (self-study time). It shocked me as she was a disciplined girl, very particular about her studies. As she was new to the school, I thought she was not aware of an additional prep during the Half Yearly exams.

At night I was waiting for her in the dormitory; she came and threw her books on her bed.

“So good that you’re here with your books,” I said to Dakee. “I was just thinking about you.”
“Would you like to talk? You look unhappy, or are you upset?”
“I don’t want to talk to you, to anyone. Leave me alone.” There was silence. The clock could be heard ticking softly on the wall.
“Not a good time to talk, I can see that,” I replied.” But if you ever want someone to listen, if you ever want someone to try and understand, sign me up, coach.” There! You could actually see some of her anger melting as she quietly moved to her bed. What had happened? What was essential but invisible to the eye?
Dakee wasn’t angry with me but with that teacher who had called her in for prep as she was playing basketball. That had made her furious. I felt compelled to drop a pebble in the pond and see where the ripples went. The reason was simple: she couldn’t concentrate on her studies till she had her evening games. Perhaps love is the ability to see more deeply, understand the changes in the lives of the teenagers, and know that love heals their wounds when all else has failed.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou.
So it is love that will help bring quality in the class, create a happy environment in the class, a solid student-teacher relationship, good communication skills, listening skills, patience and a friendly attitude. 
Rachna Bharrdwaj - The Doon Girl’s School, Dehradun

Humility & Appreciation: Harmony BHIS

-A Great Awakening

"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less." - C. S. Lewis

The subtle sunshine of the winter appears to be singing soothing lullabies, spreading its sweet warmth through your senses, lulling you to sleep. Yash stands at the window of his room enjoying the hue that the sun spreads equanimously. The cold wind blows across his face and makes him thoughtful about the incident that had taken place in the first period today. He is really ashamed of his conduct. He doesn’t know why he is so insolent sometimes. The situation always gets out of control due to his transgressions.

“Will she forgive me for my misdeeds? How do I approach her? What does she think of me? Why did I annoy her?” All these thoughts are eating him up at this moment. He closes his eyes for a while wanting to breathe in the fresh air blowing gently. The entire incident replays itself once again:

Today is Rohan’s birthday. Last night the children had planned Rohan's birthday celebration over the phone and Yash had allocated duties to the others.  They desired to give Rohan a surprise. He is completely different from Yash. He is quiet, well-behaved, with a lot of respect for his teachers. That’s why he is much adored everywhere. Sometimes he looks at Rohan with fascination, wishing to be like him. But what invariably takes over, every time is his short temper. At times his ill behaviour seems to be obnoxious to himself and he becomes helpless to control it.

To his surprise, during the Morning Assembly, they were caught red-handed by the teachers while decorating the classroom for Rohan. Everything went wrong. All the items were confiscated. He knew that the school doesn’t allow anyone to celebrate birthdays. They were at fault as they had violated the rule. The previous day, Yash retaliated at this restriction imposed by the class teacher over the same issue.

At once he sensed a kind of palpitation, he had an intuition that the class teacher would be furious and would punish all of them. Unexpectedly, nothing happened. The teacher maintained a calm and composed demeanour but seemed to be disappointed at their behaviour. Stealthily, he gathered the courage to look into the eyes of the teacher; he felt that she was trying to hide her emotions from them. Probably, she was ashamed in front of the other teachers for the wrongdoings of her own class.

Involuntarily, his hands reached up to his collars and folded them neatly. He had been pulled up a number of times by his teacher for putting up his collar and his defiant body language. All of a sudden, he wanted to do the right thing and became cautious.

Now he is in Grade-IX, this same teacher had been teaching him since Grade –VI. As a result, only she knows him almost as well as does his mother. According to him, though she is strict at the same time, she showers abundant love upon him. How can he forget that once she rewarded him with the best student of the month Award? Yes, he is grateful to his grade teacher, it is only due to her, there is a lot of behavioural change in him. Suddenly he comes back to his own world looking around at the growing darkness.

During her next class, he feels restless from inside, waiting as he had been for the opportunity to speak to her alone. He becomes more apprehensive when she is about to leave the class-

“Ma’am, I want to tell you something!”

The teacher, his mentor, continues to look at him with the same affectionate expression.
 “Yes, Yash! What is it?”

“Ma’am, I really repent for my mistakes. Please forgive me as I put you down in the presence of so many teachers,” he almost chokes over a lump in his throat as controlled tears roll down his cheeks.

The teacher touches his head with more care than before, thus wiping out all his turmoil within a second. He feels whole again. All his turmoil gone - disappears in a blink. It is noteworthy to mention here that the greatest wisdom consists in knowing one's own follies and this act make the person humble.

Yash promises to himself to remain modest and to obey the rules of the school. Further, he doesn’t want to be the cause of disappointment to others.

Let us reverberate with the great poet, Rabindranath Tagore-“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.”

Harmony @ Billabong High International School, Thane 

- Abira Chakraborty, Pooja Khona, Bhumika Ailsinghani, Rajshri Rane, Soniya Kuril, Poonam Choudhary, Kavita Shetty