Learning with Fun

The morals and ethics which our education system imparts to our Children has been decreasing day by day and needs immediate action. Though our system produces a lot of professionals and graduates, it has failed in its main goal of make a person capable of thinking and acting of his/her own.

Vidial was presented with an opportunity to address this situation by Shanti Ashram. Shanti Ashram wanted to conduct an Ethics and Values Workshop in association with Vidial.

We didn't want to miss this golden opportunity, since we believed these kind of ventures are extremely vital in improving the society. When we were pondering over where to conduct this workshop, the Mayiladuthurai beneficiary meet came into our mind, the enthusiasm, foresight and the hard work of Kumar sir during the meet made us believe that we can have the workshop at Mayiladuthurai. Though Sathish (Mayil) [the only vidial member from Mayiladuthurai] was onsite. Santhakumari from Vidial took the responsibility of all the arrangements to conduct the workshop on 20th of April.

On 20th of April at a hall in Mayiladuthurai, Parthi na and Dhivya from Shanti Ashram, Coimbatore along with Kumar sir conducted the workshop which was attended by around 50 students. The Workshop theme centered around 6 Topics : Respect, Responsibility, Reconciliation, Empathy, Reforming the world and Understanding People. The day started with 'Tamil Thai Valzthu' sung by 3 kids attending the workshop followed by a crisp welcome address from Kumar sir.

The first event of the day was a witty treasure hunt game. Kids enjoyed the game (It was new to them) and after 30 minutes of excitement found the final treasure which was the "Respect, Responsibility, Reconciliation, Empathy, reforming the world" (written in a small paper :-)) . After the game, Parthi anna spoke on Respect, Responsibility, Reconciliation, Empathy, reforming the world explaining it to the kids.

It was followed by a small empathy skit, which was not a normal skit done on stage. It was a skit enacted without the knowledge that it is a one. Divya hid a 100 rupee note in one of the kid's notebook without the Child's knowledge, later Parthi na started the drama saying he lost his 100 rupees and asked everybody to check for it. At last it was found in the girl's notebook, the girl started crying and her innocence. Though Parthi na knew it, he asked the crowd for their opinion. Many believed she is not guilty, while some wanted her punished. When the girl's friends also started shedding tears, the ice was broken and the empathy which surrounded the place was explained. Also it was explained that a judgment won't be correct unless we know the person.

After this, Kids were asked to paint on T shirts and towels and posed with their colorful Shirts.

Our member Santhakumari says that "I liked The T-shirt painting competition very much. It gave the Kids a outlet for imagination. When Parthi na asked the children to whom they would like to give the painted T-Shirts, more than 80% wanted to give it to needy person, two of them gave to their Guru Kumar sir, one child gave to Parthina"

Everybody again assembled after an hour's lunch break to have have more games and wisdom
Games like Ball game, 'Save your Balloon', Rope game, Observation game etc were conducted to show and impart various values to the kids.

The beauty of the day's proceedings was reflected during the feedback session when a kid came forward and said " I learnt, Whatever maybe the problem, one should never cry, instead we should spend our time and effort to find a solution".

Harish Kannan was moved by the feedback session and adds that,
"I felt the impact of the workshop, when a small girl, probably studying in some 4th or 5th standard, comes up and tells that she has got an idea of helping others. Children when taught something in a playing environment tend to be in a playful mood and don't worry about the learning part of it. But even with all the games, a child understanding the core of the program is a very big achievement. "

Muthukumari one of our volunteers who had come all the way from Chennai said, "Today I learnt that how games can be used to impart values to the children. The painting part was really superb, it gave a window for the children to let out their creativity. These kinds of workshop shows the defects in our educational system which fill our empty head and not our heart. More workshops like this can turn the children into good and responsible humans".

In the end Parthi na distributed charts on child rights to representatives of different schools, including our Vidial Kid Harish (He is a manager in an automobile company) who took one for his school. Shanti Ashram certificates were distributed to all students who participated in this workshop. The kids were very lucky to have these values to be introduced to them, which might leave a profound impact in their lives. We believe majority of the kids who attended the workshop will be practicing the values forever.

We are great full to Kumar Sir for organizing the workshop in a very short notice. The pain he took to gather students, arranging a hall and doing even simple logistics like buying ballons, paints, snacks etc inspired us a lot.

We would to convey our sincere thanks to Kumar sir, Parthi na & Dhivya for giving us such an opportunity. We plan to do more workshops of these kind for the year 2008-09.