Our life at O-campus.
We get up at 6:30am – none wakes us up, we get with some music. We get up because we know the importance of sports in our development. We fold our beds and no one tells us to fold our beds or go for sports. We are AMABLE!
We play games, sports, do yoga…………no one teaches us, we do because we want to do.
One of us takes the responsibility of setting up milk, coffee, etc. We all eat together and clean our place, get ready and do our morning chores. We are getting ready for next three hours session – this session is SELF LEARNING session. We all have our goals and we do not need to be told “open your note books or open the page number 33”. We decide what we want to learn, we are clear of our goals, we know HOW to learn – books, faculty, peers, research, workbook, experiment…………the list is long.
We set up our lunch and eat together – two of us take the responsibility of setting up the lunch. We enjoy, talk and relish our lunch – noone tells us or feed us, we are AMABLE !
Post lunch is the time to play games, rest or just ponder. We start our next session at 3pm and work at land – we work from taking care of tree to fixing tiles to plan for kitchen building or making of sports ground.
We reflect TOGETHER on the day and question each other to set GOAL for the next day.
Our day is not yet over – we come back and write our own observations – Which objective I worked on and how? Did I work on team building OR I worked on mathematical concepts? While some are writing observation, others make warm water ready for others, collect fore wood and some set up dinner……………we take bath by turns.
Our day is still not over – we sing and dance together after dinner. We meditate, sit in silences, do shows for each other and we close our day with setting up beds – and no one tells us to set up bed, we are AMABLE!
In our beds we read together or alone, write our journals, talk about our dreams and go to sleep for sweet dream.
Our week is not over without our own responsibilities – which resources we need, what and how much grocery we need to buy, what repair we need, where our finances are going…………..the list is long. We all are MINISTERS and manage the whole working of the campus. We are AMABLE!
Our week is yet not over – we have to bring our thoughts in public opinion “what should be the role of ministers?” or how to celebrate b’days?. We also have to attend open house to sort any cases “someone is beating another one or one is screaming at other”, we have to solve these cases for the community. And we also have to bring our thoughts in thinking circle “what is community? What is education?
Wait! The week is yet not over, we have to close our session – anything to buy?, bring from Bangalore?, settles accounts, make menu for next week, clean water tank ……………; pack our snacks and catch train.
Ah! We have yet to go for outdoor on Fridays. We are currently visiting places to know Bangalore and learning by being there. We also meet parents and learn form them on Fridays.
Our learning does not stop at home. We explore in many different ways, we learn form all, in all situations. We are AMBLE!!
We are not only learning to learn – We know, what are emotions, how do we express, How do we work in team? How do we take responsibility of self, my learning and role in society? We are also learning to know each other and yet keep our own identity, express our anger, jealousy or sadness and share or joy and achievements. We also explore disappointment with joy, success with failure and freedom with responsibility. We are AMABLE!!!
Hmmmmmmmmm If you re-read the whole things again you may realize that this is just not a story, it is the belief that “a child is CAPABLE NOW”.The life at Aarohi is not easy – the toughest part is to be able to take responsibly of YOURSELF which includes – learning, behaviour, feelings, my role in group, my role for myself …. the list is long.
I am capable of taking responsibility of all the exams. Conventionally all the responsibilities are driven by parents; hence it is very natural for parents to get concerned about 10thexam – which a child has to give.
Possibly we never think that the child is capable of deciding and taking the responsibility. Even when a child does not brush his teeth, we think we need to take responsibility in our hands to make him brush and we as parent run behind the child and struggle……………..what if, we make child responsible for brushing the teeth………………normally this is also taken as “say once, twice and child should be able to take responsibility, if the child is not taking the responsibility I take the task in my hands, thinking “child is not capable”.
At Aarohi we work with the premises that the child is CAPABLE. We do put in efforts to understand EACH child and constantly work to make child REALIZE his own responsibility – we work in various ways with them.
We do not run behind the child to make him brush his teeth or make bed, but work with the child
- What is child understanding of making bed?
- Why make bed?
- What and where is the difficulty?
And what happens in this process – child realizes that the “freedom comes with responsibility”. I have the freedom to brush my teeth in many ways, but I AM responsible to brush my teeth, there is no one else who will brush my teeth”.