Freedom & Peace - Siddhi RPKM

Freedom & Peace

A. When you were a student, what were the 3 most critical instances where in you felt that more freedom at your disposal would have allowed you to realise your goals/potential in a better way? Do you think any of those circumstances exist even today?

When I was a student, one of the most critical instances where I felt that more freedom at my disposal would have allowed me to realize my goals or potential in a better way was when I passed my intermediate and was very confused about which field to opt for. 

During that time I didn't find any guidance or help from my surroundings, still, I tried to search a lot and seek opinions from my teachers as I was willing to study something related to designing buildings or architecture; for which I prepared well and cleared my AIEEE exam. 

This gave me a chance to seek admission but I could not do it as my relatives didn't permit me to go out of the city for higher studies because I was a girl. It always hurt me that I was not given the freedom to explore more and know my potential.        

B. What is it about human behaviour, according to you, that causes people to give up peace and adopt violence? How do you think classrooms can be used to shape peace-loving individuals?

There are many causes of violence including frustration, exposure to violent media, violence in the home or neighbourhood and a tendency to see other people's actions as hostile even when they're not.

The most common motivation for violence can be viewed as inappropriate attempts to handle emotions. Often, violence is the medium used by an individual to openly express their feelings such as anger, frustration, or sadness.

There is definitely a tendency for violence because violence is quick, easy and effective. Watch really young kids playing together. They quickly realize that if someone tries to take their toy, they can protect their plaything with a quick wallop from the potential toy thief. We have to teach children Negotiation, Compromise, Sharing and Cooperation.

If we want our children to be non-violent, we cannot use violence to discipline them. Rather, we can direct our children's energy by giving them a job or task. We can model for children how to apologize and help them apologize when they have hurt someone.

This is especially true when children fight with a sibling or other child. When a child tells us of a problem, we often respond with solutions—such as "Be nice to one another", "You have to learn to share", "Give him the toy, you've had it long enough," or " If you can't take turns, then the toy will be put away."

But these solutions are not permanent. We should teach the children proper discipline or behaviour from time to time.

Discipline means “to teach.” When we discipline our children, we are turning their misbehaviour into an opportunity to teach them how we want them to behave. To do this, we need to be clear on how we want them to behave rather than just focusing on what we don’t want them to do.

The ultimate goal of discipline is to teach our children self-discipline so that they can make good choices about how to behave.

Siddhi @RPK Moradabad

Sanskriti Tandon, Priyanka Ruhela, Lovely Singh, Swati Saluja, Soni Bhatnagar, Manjit Palit