Teaching kindness- the second grade way

I realized that I complain way too often about what all goes wrong, especially where school is concerned. So I thought, why not share something that cheered me up immensely. Now you must be wondering, what on Earth can cheer an unwilling student up. Let me add this: it was on a Monday morning, and the entire school was smiling, with not one yawn noticed anywhere.

It was a Monday morning. I was tired (yes at 6 a.m. after getting 8 hours of sleep I was tired), and didn't want to go to school. The bus was late. Another bus had broken down and all the people on that bus squeezed onto ours and we were on our way once more. By the time we'd reached, the assembly had started. All I could hear was slow music playing. I walked up to Jai and asked him what was going on. He said "Random acts of kindness. Watch."

And I did. I watched a little girl walk up to one of the seniors and hand her a piece of paper. I watched another give her big sister a sash. Mark ran up to our transport-in-charge with a letter of thanks. Shruthi gave our Vice Principal the cutest hug ever. Grade 12 got a big card from the entire Grade 2. Two of us got balloons. The 'chechi' who takes care of the kids got a card as well. One boy got a flag, another gave his mom a photo of both of them together.

These are but a few examples of what the kids did. And thanks to them we kept smiling the entire day. I keep thinking, one random act of kindness can cheer up someone so much, why don't we all do it? You know once in a while, share chocolates for no reason...buy your friends' food...do something to make someone smile. Because there is nothing better than knowing that you made someone smile.

Back in class, I walked over to the display board to see our timetable. And I saw a box of Tic-Tac. The little ones had not forgotten even a single person. They'd given the box to our lab assistant with a little 'thank-you' note :)

Keep smiling. Keep making others smile.

Finding happiness

I love this photo. It's one I clicked recently and I love it for a lot of reasons. I love it for the light, which by the way came from a paper lantern (see below). I love it because at that moment I was surrounded by children working on lighting and letting go of their paper lanterns with so much concentration that their teachers would have been wistfully staring wondering where this side of the kids is in a classroom. But mostly I love it for the expression on the child's face. 

Last year a newspaper article urged us to write in about what a child loses as he or she grows up. I was among a lot who wrote in. I said the saddest thing that happens to one as they grow up is that they lose the sense of wonder. As you grow, I feel it even among my peers now, you have this "been there, done that, seen that, nothing new can happen" attitude. One memory which sticks to my mind is of when I was in Grade   8 and we had gone to a planetarium. Because it was a school trip, we got to stay on after closing hours and use the telescopes. I remember standing on the terrace and pointing out a plane's twinkling lights excitedly to my classmates. A classmate's retort to this was a mocking laugh and the words "Have you never seen a plane before?!"

This expression was one filled with such wonder, and just a tinge of apprehension as he wondered if the lantern is actually going to rise. And as soon as the lanterns rose above us, and made their way across the sky as if making their way towards the moon, a huge cheer rose. There were smiles and whoops of joy all around, and kids running up to me saying "Look at those lanterns go!! May I please click a photo with your camera??"

Once in a while, you need such a boost. You need to surround yourself by people who find joy in the littlest things. That evening will remain a very sweet memory for me, because after a long time I saw wonder, joy, and a strange sense of satisfaction surrounding me. We often tell people we teach these children. We couldn't be more wrong. It's these children, in their own special ways who teach us something, every single time we meet them. 

Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to wish all of you a very happy new year! It's been a hectic start to the new year with falling ill, my laptop crashing and getting into trouble as soon as classes started again. Hope you had a better start :D

Once again, Happy New Year folks!

Things teachers do that make no sense

Last week we had an episode. My regulation shoes tore. I couldn’t get new ones, because classes ended late that day (for a reason which didn’t affect seniors at all) and I got home pretty late. So I wore the only other pair of black shoes I had, which just happened to be sports shoes with pink laces. The trouble started in the morning.
Teacher: You can’t wear these shoes today!! Not today of all the days! We have to get the authorization today! How could you?!
*To a senior teacher*
Look at her shoes! I told her to get them fixed.
Me (lame attempt to defend myself): I did try. They tore again. You can ask any of my classmates. I had to borrow shoes yesterday because I couldn’t walk around in those.
Senior teacher: See, we can wear whatever funny costumes we want on other days, but today is important. You can’t do this today.
Me: Ma’am, I had no choice. What was I supposed to do??
Senior teacher: Find shoes now. We have to get the authorization.

I honestly fail to understand how my shoes were the reason for us to get or not get authorization. Why on earth would someone be staring at my shoes and deciding, “Hey people here wear shoes with pink laces. This place isn’t good enough to get authorized by us.”
After many hours which included constantly being told what I was doing was wrong, that I better get “proper” shoes, trying to exchange laces with a classmate and being told “Now both of you look peculiar,” and running around, I finally got the so needed “proper” shoes. For nothing. No one on the authorization team came to talk with me, much less stare (with expected distaste) at my shoes.
And “funny costumes”?? Madame, I wear what I wear because I’m told to. I have no interest in wearing what I have to. You all are the ones who decided on the “funny costume” in the first place.

The week before, my mentor comes to me and tells me that I should go talk to her more often and I never do that. Why I have been assigned a mentor who doesn’t teach me anything is something I can’t figure out. She asks me if she should write something negative about me in my report. I shrug and reply “Sure.”
That seems to fluster her so she covers it with irritation.
“You don’t mind whatever I write in your report?!”
“No Ma’am, you can go right ahead.”
People nowadays! They even have problems with honest sincerity.

The most recent! We have term exams coming up. And we decided to make a revision timetable for Biology. 4 lessons, 4 days. Then the teacher says, “So on Friday, I’ll consolidate all this and give you a test.”
Why? Why would you give us a test, when we have a (let me make this clear) TERM EXAM the following Monday?

Either there is something wrong with all of them, or with me. I really can’t figure it out. There is a longer list of things teachers do that don’t make sense to me that I’ll put up soon. I wish I could tell them that words hurt more than they understand. I wish I could tell them that I’m tired of getting yelled at every single day. I’ve come to expect it. But I fear they won’t listen. And I fear even if they do listen, they won’t understand.

Goodbye

What happens when you love someone

And then you have to leave

Your heart with anguish heaves

And you feel yourself come undone

What happens when you walk away

And he will not be there on a rainy day

When you both know you can't stay

And without him things always go astray

What happens when it finally hits you

And you trudge alone down the lonely lane

Your love stands the test true

Of time and distance, yet again

I know what happens when hope fades

And numbness engulfs me

Tears and pain, like a waterfall cascade

And you feel cold, colder than the deepest sea

Untitled

This is a poem I'd written a while ago when trees were burnt down near my house. I'd recently read 'The trees are down' by Charlotte Mew, and I guess the two together are what inspired this poem

The air fills with death
Your last sound, a crackle
An unfair fight with demons
With blazing hands of red

The air fills with white
The colour of purity
The colour of death
And you are both

Is it an honour
Or a pity instead
That death for you
Is unlike the human?

You will not be buried
Nor cremated with anguish
Nor ashes floated in holy water
But swept by the wind instead

You give them life
And they, you, death
Yet useless you die
In an unfair death

The Lie

I’d write you a song
To tell you how I feel
But why waste the words
When you already know
And everything that I
And nothing that you
Will say is true

We would talk about us
And I would tell you that
I love you,
You would say the same
But everything that I
And nothing that you
Say is true

I’d remind you of
The promises we had made
The ones we had promised
Not to break
But everything that I
And nothing that you
Said was true

And even as you read this
With a grimace on your face
I know that
Everything that I
And nothing that you
Felt was true