Character Education and the Class room - Saraswathi Priyadarshini

Saraswathi Priyadarshini

Theatre Teacher Character Education and the Class room

Character education and social emotional learning is an integral part of Theatre-in-Education. Virtues such as kindness, gratitude, compassion, generosity are critical skills to be honed as we teach our students how to be more human. Empathy is one such soft skill that needs to be shared, it is important and crucial that we provide our students with opportunities to have relationships that foster empathetic connections. Merely stating the definition of empathy which is ‘understanding and sharing the feelings of others’ is not going to cut it. With the younger students practical exercises and involvement is critical. At the primary school level most of the lessons in literature and moral education provide excellent opportunities for involvement and discussions. One such example that stood out for me, was about 7 years ago when a lesson in grade two about Helen Keller was enacted. Helen Keller as we know was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Miss Keller had lost her sight and hearing after a bout of illness at the age of nineteen months. The lesson was about her early years and challenges. In the drama I involved many children to portray and enact various other disabilities and challenges, as the title music of “Taare zamein pe” played in the background, there was not a dry eye as students and teachers of grade two watched the brilliant heart touching performances of young budding actors, the role of Helen Keller was played by Surabhi Sridhar with great involvement, she is now in grade 9 and her acting skills have evolved immensely. I remember her eyes closed trying to walk around the living room on stage bumping into furniture and her other classmates, she turned around and said to me “ma’am it’s very hard to be blind”. That’s it. That was the entire purpose of this. To see the audience connect and emote and to evoke the deep involvement of the actors. My very supportive colleagues would often tease me at the end of such shows saying “are you happy now, you made everyone cry”. Helen Keller was also the first deaf and dumb person to earn a college degree. After every drama, we have a very insightful and deep discussion with the students, the interaction is rich and most memorable. Helen Keller’s story of hope and endurance highlights her resilience, that the students can draw from in times of personal adversity much later in life. Empathy is not a fixed trait, it can be fostered. It has to be encouraged and cultivated by parents and teachers. These are a few ways I have tried to teach the social emotional skills in my classroom

1.Read stories or watch movies with the students. This works well with Pre-primary and primary students. Observe them as you read, or as they watch the movie, see them resonate with the story and emote. Later, discuss, ask questions about what they heard or saw, “how do you think he/she felt at that moment?”, “what would you have done?”. Help the students see the world from another person’s perspective and help them relate to the emotions. 2.Talk about feelings - have cut outs of all the emotions like the emojis happy, sad, angry, confused and so on. Let the students take turns to hold each cut out and tell the class when the feel these emotions, the others listening will connect feelings with behaviour. Doing this in a group will also help them bond. 3.Create a constant environment and opportunity to show empathy in the classroom no matter what subject you may be teaching. Ask such questions often, A friend lost in the running race, what would you say to him/her? How would you feel if you are talking and no one is looking at you? How would you react if your mother lost her mobile phone or your grandmother had trouble finding her glasses? Set high ethical expectations and show instant appreciation for good behaviour. 4.Be a role model. Everybody needs somebody. Be the model, be the mirror. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Tell them constantly that you are there to listen to them if they wish to speak to you. Teach them not to indifferent or prejudice to people of color or other cultures. 5.Finally, my favourite way to teach, act out the lessons, role play the characters from the book and discuss, there is always scope to discuss multiple soft skills and life skills through drama Signs of empathic concern is seen in children as early as 8 to 10 months, they are born with immense possibilities and a massive appetite to learn at home and at school. I fondly recall a personal incident of 10 years ago, when I along with my two sons drove into our basement late one night, my older son Shaun who was about 10 years old noticed the watchman sleep ing on the hard cement floor covered in a thin cotton sheet with his hands folded in for a pillow, as I unlocked the apartment door my son rushed in, grabbed his own pillow and run down to the basement, quietly placing the pillow near the half sleepy man, he walked back with an angelic smile on his face. Empathy is not a fixed trait and it can be fostered. But like all aspects of development the quantity and quality of this skill can vary dramatically from one child to another. Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being’s suffering, to understand the challenges faced by the differently abled. When children learn to be empathetic early in life, they become adults who treat others with kindness, respect and understanding. They become empathetic parents, spouses, co-workers and friends. The role of education is to help children understand the world within them as much as it is to understand the world around them. And more importantly the aim of education in my humble opinion is to build students who are compassionate and engaged individuals. This is possible if we as teachers and parents invest enough time and effort towards the important aspect of building humanity. No two schools are alike but the principles that we apply on education can be. Speaking about principles, I take this opportunity to thank the principal Sribala Srinivasan of primary school at Carmel School Padmanabhanagar, Bangalore for giving me the creative space and opportunity to develop my passion for Theatre-in-Education for the past 11 years. Gratitude is not only the greatest of all virtues, but the parent of all others. I conclude with one of my favourite quotes of Oscar Wilde whose passion for theatre resonates with me, “I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”