Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:12:23 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: something in common
To: [log in to unmask]

Hello,

I want to share with you ‘tactic' used by one of my trainee teacher. I am merely using the word trainee to clarify that that teacher is working with me in my training project -- Life skill enhancement using drama. He is a skilled teacher and has been teaching for a few years.

Teaching children – emotional understanding was apart of the module. Enhancing the emotional lexicon was one of the steps in Understanding Emotions (you can read Chapter 6 www.actionresearch.net/living.shtml) . He came up with a few very innovative ideas….

He would stand at the school gate and ask each child to give him one emotion before leaving school. Like Happy…with a smile. Angry… with a frown. etc.
Then to involve the community...he lives in a very small village.. he sent Happy Diwali postcards made by the children to all the important members like the police station, the Member of the Legislature Assembly (MLA), parents…and even me…The postcards besides having the message –Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year had a emoticon. Now everybody in the village wanted to know what the children were learning.
Then each child had to go to certain shops and ‘give’ an emotion. Well, one shop-keeper confronted him and asked why such and such child came and smiled at him everyday. He was a bit suspicious ..So my teacher explained and then told the child not to go to that shop. After a few days the shop keeper confronted him again saying that he liked it when the child came to give him an emotion and asked why he had stopped coming!!!!

After a bit the whole village, even if they did not have children studying in that school, were involved. We plan to take it to the next level by arranging a Life-Skill fair. As we all believe everybody, young or old, can benefit from enhanced life-skills.

Love, Swaroop

Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:00:28 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Drama camp in Gujurat
To: [log in to unmask]

Dear Swaroop

All that you say is true!

From our perspective, we have difficulty persuading certain groups of parents that they can take part in certain activities and that it is OK for them to do this. Traditionally, many people in this area do not go to the theatre, or a museum, or a gallery or a concert, or other cultural activties. When questioned about this they said that it was only for 'posh' people who were well off and could afford to go, and that anyway they didn;t think they would enjoy it. Some of them have not got the income to pay for cultural activities, but would like to do them.

S! o first we took the children and they enjoyed it and told their parents. They are now interested in going. Then we had an exhibition in a local gallery which was of the childrens work from the 15 schools, set out and marketed properly as would be a professional artists exhibition -all work framed up and proper booklets about the work. The children brought their parents. We had 6,000 visitors. Astonishing.

I have now managed to get a group together and have creative evenings and they want to go to the local musuem, so we will work with them and get an exhibition going about the life of miners and the mining community in the past here. For many of them their own relatives were= 0involved in mining, so they are part of living hist ory. We also want the children to be proud of their own heritage.

But it is diificult to get people to do this kind of thing - and like I said - change their thinking about traditional ways of behaving. In our case, it is because, sadly, they dont feel that they have the right to do this.

Despite new thinking, class systems still prevail in many spheres.

It was interesting reading your approach to it all - I feel much in common!

I loved the quotes, so here is one of my favourites....love Karen (see below)

For those who strive…….

It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points

out where the strong man stumbled, or where

= 0A

the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually

in the! arena; whose face is marred

by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who

errs and comes short again and again; who

knows the great enthu! siasms, the devotions and spends

himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows

in the end the triumphs of high achievement; and

who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails whilst daring

greatly; so that his place shall never be with those

cold and timid souls who knows neither defeat nor victory.

E. Roosevelt

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