Affection vs Rejection - Leena Bhattacharya

     Nurturing the Inner Child: A Reflection on Pain, Growth, and Relationship

Understanding the Inner Child

The concept of the "inner child" refers to the part of our psyche that retains the innocence, curiosity, and emotional experiences of our youth. This aspect of ourselves profoundly influences our behavior, relationships, and emotional well-being. Understanding and embracing our inner child can lead to significant personal growth and healing, allowing us to address unresolved pains from our past.

Personal Experiences of Pain

Reflecting on my own childhood, I recall instances that left deep emotional scars. One particular memory stands out: during a class presentation in middle school, I stumbled over my words and felt the weight of my peers' laughter. The embarrassment and shame from that moment stayed with me, shaping my confidence and my willingness to participate in public speaking for years.

Another experience involved the pressure to meet high academic standards set by my family. Despite my efforts, I often felt that my achievements were never enough. This constant striving for perfection led to anxiety and a fear of failure, which affected my interactions with teachers and classmates.

Observing Students' Pain

As an educator, I have witnessed similar struggles among my students. One student, Sneha, was an exceptionally bright girl who often felt overwhelmed by the expectations placed on her by her parents. Her anxiety manifested in physical symptoms like headaches and stomachaches, which often led to absenteeism and a reluctance to engage in class.

Another student, Aniket , faced bullying due to his speech impediment. The ridicule from his peers caused him to withdraw and become increasingly isolated. He avoided participating in class discussions and group activities, fearing further humiliation.

Impact on School Relationships

These experiences of pain, whether personal or observed in students, highlight the profound impact they have on relationships within the school environment. Students carrying emotional wounds often struggle to form meaningful connections with their peers. They may become withdrawn, defensive, or overly sensitive to criticism, creating barriers to healthy social interactions.

Conversely, when students feel understood and supported, they are more likely to develop positive relationships. I have seen students who, once they received the necessary emotional support, began to thrive both academically and socially. This transformation underscores the importance of addressing the emotional needs of students to foster a nurturing school environment.

A Teacher's Perspective: Supporting the Inner Child

As educators, we play a crucial role in supporting the inner child within each student. By creating a safe and supportive environment, we can help students navigate their emotional challenges and build resilience. Here are some strategies to consider:

1. Encouraging Open Communication: Creating an atmosphere where students feel comfortable expressing their feelings is vital. Regular class meetings, anonymous suggestion boxes, and open-door policies can encourage students to share their thoughts and concerns.

2. Building Emotional Intelligence: Incorporating social-emotional learning (SEL) into the curriculum can help students develop skills like empathy, self-awareness, and emotional regulation. Activities like role-playing, mindfulness exercises, and group discussions can enhance these skills.

3. Promoting Inclusivity and Respect: Fostering a culture of respect and inclusivity can help prevent bullying and exclusion. Celebrating diversity through multicultural events, inclusive teaching materials, and collaborative projects can help students appreciate each other’s differences.

4. Providing Individual Support: Recognizing that each student is unique and may require different forms of support is essential. Regular one-on-one check-ins, personalized feedback, and connecting students with school counselors can provide the necessary support.

5. Encouraging Self-Reflection: Helping students understand their own inner child and how past experiences shape their behavior can be empowering. Journaling, reflective writing assignments, and guided meditation can facilitate this self-awareness.

Conclusion

Understanding and nurturing the inner child is a journey that involves acknowledging and healing from past pains. As teachers, we have the opportunity to support our students in this process, helping them build resilience and form meaningful relationships. By fostering a supportive and inclusive environment, we can guide our students towards a future where they feel confident, valued, and connected.

Leena Bhattacharya

Sunbeam Suncity

Affection Vs Rejection - Reeta Tiwari

Affection and Rejection are two fundamental human experiences that are crucial in shaping our lives, relationships, and well-being.

Affection:

Affection refers to feelings of love, care, and fondness towards someone or something. It involves warmth, tenderness, and a sense of connection. Affection can take many forms, such as physical touch, words of encouragement, or quality time spent together.

Importance in life:

Affection is essential for building strong relationships, self-esteem, and emotional well-being. It helps us feel valued, loved, and accepted, which is vital for our mental and emotional health.

Importance in school life:

In a school setting, affection from teachers, peers, or family members can:

• Enhance motivation and engagement.
• Foster a sense of belonging and inclusivity.
• Improve academic performance and confidence.
• Develop social skills and empathy.

Rejection:

Rejection refers to the act of dismissing, refusing, or turning away from someone or something. It can lead to feelings of hurt, disappointment, and low self-esteem.

Importance in life:

Experiencing rejection can help us:

• Develop resilience and coping skills.
• Learn to handle disappointment and failure.
• Refine our goals and aspirations.
• Build empathy and understanding for others who face rejection.

Importance in school life:

In a school setting, rejection can:

• Teach valuable lessons about perseverance and grit.
• Help students develop coping strategies and emotional regulation.
• Encourage self-reflection and personal growth.
• Foster empathy and support among peers.

In a classroom setting, "affection" often pertains to creating a supportive and caring environment where students feel valued and encouraged, fostering positive relationships among students and between students and teachers.

On the other hand, "rejection" can occur when students feel ignored, dismissed, or excluded, leading to negative emotions and potentially impacting their learning and overall well-being. By promoting affection and minimizing rejection, We educators can cultivate an atmosphere conducive to learning, collaboration, and personal growth.

Positive experiences of affection can boost their self-esteem, confidence, and sense of belonging, while rejection can lead to feelings of loneliness, insecurity, and even depression. Teenagers often seek validation and acceptance from their peers, making rejection particularly impactful.

As for teachers, showing affection towards students involves demonstrating care, empathy, and understanding, which can strengthen the teacher-student relationship and create a conducive learning environment. This might include offering encouragement, providing constructive feedback, and being approachable and supportive. 

Conversely, rejection in the classroom can occur unintentionally through neglect, criticism, or favouritism, which can undermine students' confidence and motivation. Teachers should strive to create an inclusive and supportive classroom atmosphere where all students feel valued and respected. Building positive relationships, fostering a sense of belonging, and addressing any instances of rejection are essential aspects of effective teaching.

In summary, affection and rejection are both crucial aspects of the human experience. While affection nurtures our emotional well-being and relationships, rejection helps us build resilience and character. Understanding and navigating these experiences can shape our personal and academic lives in profound ways.

Reeta Tiwari

Sunbeam School Bhagwanpur, Varanasi

Respect- Sunbeam International Varuna

In this heartwarming video, teachers of Sunbeam International Varuna showcase the importance of respecting everyone in our community. Through a poignant depiction, they highlight the vital role of community helpers, such as cleaners, gardeners, and support staff, who are often overlooked.

The video demonstrates how students observe and learn from the way these helpers are treated by teachers and peers. By promoting respect and kindness towards all individuals, regardless of their position or status, we can create a truly inclusive classroom environment.

Join us in this inspiring journey towards fostering empathy, understanding, and a culture of respect for everyone.

Masterclass 2024 

Sunbeam International Varuna

Affecton Vs Rejection - Suparba Roy Choudhary

Affection and Rejection in the context of student behaviour can be likened to the nurturing sunlight and the stifling shadow, each influencing the growth and development of a young plant.

Love is like a vitamin for students that makes them feel important and supported. When the instructors are caring and have an interest in the students, their success, progress, and happiness, it fosters inclusion and motivation. Just like light helps the plant to pass through the process of photosynthesis, affection directs the energy in a student for learning and development. 

In this context, it contributes to their self-fulfilment, personal growth, and improved participation in the educational process. This environment enables the learners to grow, as a plant does well under proper sunlight, show positive attitudes in class, prepare to contribute, and take on responsibilities such as group work. 

On the other hand, rejection serves as the counterpart and denies students the social affirmation that they require for growth. Thus, when students experience neglect, criticism and indifference from their educators, they often develop inadequacy and alienation. Similar to a plant that is denied access to sunlight and will grow stunted and wilted, learners who are rejected may withdraw, rebel or show a complete lack of interest in their academic work. 

This negative environment hampers their growth, hence degrading their performance and worsening their behaviour. Lack of support and non-recognition may lead to students’ self-suspicion affecting their morale to perform and respond. 

To conclude, affection positively influences students’ behaviour while rejection negatively affects students. Huggins compares affection to sunlight and rejection to shadow as affection increases growth, positivity, and activity, whereas rejection hinders development and results in negative behavioural changes. 

Teachers, hence, bear the responsibility of cultivating proper rearing for students, which involves training them while also providing the necessary love to help them thrive in their academic endeavours as well as in other aspects of life.

Suparba Roy Choudhary

Sunbeam School, Lahartara

Love Learning Vs Hate Learning - Suparba Roy Choudhary

Love Learning VS Hate Learning

Love Learning

Suppose that there is a student who enjoys learning as someone who tends to a well-grown garden. They get up in the morning with much zeal and water the plants, pull out the weeds and watch the flowers grow. This gardener chooses gardening to satisfy his/her activities, improve every season, and be happy when the garden grows.

Curiosity and Enthusiasm: Like a gardener waiting for a new flower to bloom the student has the curiosity and interest for new learning.

Growth Mindset: The gardener comprehends that not all the plants will grow right away and this implies the patience that a student has to embrace when facing the challenge.

Persistence: As a problem-solver, the gardener attempts to solve a specific problem, and even if he/she makes a mistake, he/she adjusts. Likewise the student, the action gets through difficulty and modifies its learning patterns.

Hate Learning

Now, let us imagine a student who does not like studying; he or she would be like a person who would be coerced into cleaning a room he or she has no interest in. They view it as a burden, feel fear towards it and offer the least effort in order to complete it. It is as if the room is never cleaned, and the task seems almost like a punishment. 

Lack of Motivation: Similar to the unwillingness to clean a room that the student doesn’t consider important, they do not feel any desire to learn the content.

Fixed Mindset: This person might think that their room will never remain clean, just like the student who perceives difficult tasks as threats rather than opportunities for improvement or success. 

Avoidance and Procrastination: Similarly to another behaviour where the person does not clean up until the last moment, the student puts off studying and ends up stressed and not comprehensively informed. 

Engagement: Autotelic learners are those students who embrace the material, contribute to the learning process, and look for more knowledge. Any person who does not love learning always withdraws and loses out on gaining more knowledge.

Achievement: Interest in learning is associated with better academic performance and overall job satisfaction. Basically, hate learning leads to poor performance and a negative perspective towards learning. 

Long-term Success: Passion for learning results in perpetual learners who are committed to enhancing their knowledge and personal growth. On the other hand, a non-interest or even disgust for education hinders individual and career advancement. 

In a nutshell, loving learning turns the pros & cons of education into a pleasant and rewarding experience, while hating learning makes it an unpleasant task.

Suparba Roy Choudhary 

Sunbeam School, Lahartara

War Vs Peace - Suparba Roy Choudhary

War Vs Peace 

Let's imagine a school where war and peace are represented in the daily lives of students and teachers.

War

Conflict: Students are always engaged in wrangles and fights with other students, leading to class disruption. It is such a feeling of confusion and clamour.

Divisions: There are formations of cliques in schools and students are grouped into a class that does not acknowledge the presence of the other. People surrender to bullying and the level of cooperation among people is low.

Stress: Most of the arguments that teachers deal with are related to discipline, and keeping learners in line consumes most of their time instead of teaching. Learning gives way to the all-important proposition of maintaining discipline.

Destruction: Tangible and intangible items are often destroyed, while the surrounding of the school seems aggressive. Learning materials are used inefficiently, and the school climate is affected.

Peace

Harmony: Students perform the tasks with the cooperation of each other, or giving a helping hand to each other. School environments particularly classrooms are orderly and have qualities that support learning.

Unity: There are also those activities which enable specially-abled students with other students to interact hence developing friendship. Actually, there are very few cases of bullying, and each student does not experience any fear for his or her safety.

Focus: The administrative workload is shifted leaving teachers free to teach, prepare good lessons/provide good teaching experiences and make students embrace learning. It brings out teamwork in the achievement of the objectives of education. 

Growth: The school climate is progressive and all stakeholders through their inputs strive to have a progressive school. Resources are utilized optimally and the school community corresponds.

In this analogy, "War" represents a hostile and unproductive school environment, while "Peace" symbolizes a supportive and flourishing educational setting.

Suparba Roy Choudhary

Sunbeam School, Lahartara

Right Vs Wrong - Sunbeam Suncity

Right Vs Wrong

Self-esteem plays an important role in the relationship between teachers and students. A teacher's behaviour & actions can either motivate, boost and encourage a student to do well in life or hurt or erode a student's self-esteem & lead him or her to dislike people or things.  

Through this short video, the Sunbeam Suncity team have shown that it's very important to hear a child's concern and to make the right decision.  The importance of listening to children acknowledge their mistakes and builds trust and respect.

Sunbeam Suncity Team 
Masterclass 2024

A Deep Dive Into Education | Episode 54 | Everything is Everything

Education in India needs to be fixed. It is a tragic waste of our potential. How can it be fixed? Why will pumping in more spending solve nothing? What is the link between education & development? Why do we need to redefine education? Welcome to Episode 54 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. In this episode, Amit and Ajay give a comprehensive lay of the land in the field of education in India, challenging many conventional notions on the way. If you like watching Everything is Everything, please like, subscribe, share, comment. :) TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging 00:13 Introduction: The State of Education 01:44 Chapter 1: Understanding the Problem 17:34 Chapter 2: What About Private Enterprise? 25:13 Chapter 3: Fund Schooling, Not Schools 34:40 Chapter 4: Education and Development 52:58 Chapter 5: The Importance of Early Childhood 1:05:12 Chapter 6: What Should a Parent Do? 1:10:36 Chapter 7: What Should a Young Person Do? 1:26:01 Chapter 8: What Should Educators Do? 1:27:53 Chapter 9: What Should Policy People Do? 1:31:32 Chapter 10: What Should Philanthropists Do? 1:38:08 Chapter 11: Amit Recommends 1:39:29 Chapter 12: Ajay Recommends USEFUL RESOURCES: 1. Amit on Twitter:   / amitvarma   2. Ajay on Twitter:   / ajay_shah   3. The Seen and the Unseen -- Amit's audio podcast: https://seenunseen.in/ (Also on all podcast apps. And YouTube, though less than 1% of listens come from here:    / @theseenandtheunseen  ) 4. Ajay's organisation, XKDR Forum, on YouTube:    / @xkdr   5. In Service of the Republic -- Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah: https://amzn.eu/d/hwGILb3 6. The Art of Clear Writing -- Amit's writing course: https://indiauncut.com/clear-writing/ 7. The India Uncut Newsletter -- Amit's newsletter at https://indiauncut.substack.com/ 8. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra):    • Ep. 77: Education in India   9. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan):    • Ep 185: Fixing Indian Education   10. Our Unlucky Children (2007) -- Amit Varma: https://tinyurl.com/yk7xtkuf 11. Why India Needs School Vouchers (2007) -- Amit Varma: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116882... 12. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) -- Amit Varma: https://tinyurl.com/4env7dbn 13. Where Has All the Education Gone? -- Lant Pritchett: https://tinyurl.com/mrxxh787 14. The first PISA results for India: The end of the beginning -- Lant Pritchett: https://tinyurl.com/ctrt4wm 15. Geniuses and economic development -- Ajay Shah: https://tinyurl.com/4z3xt38h 16. Doing better than a competitive exam -- Nitin Pai and Ajay Shah: https://tinyurl.com/47f23npx 17. The Aser Reports: https://asercentre.org/ 18. Accelerating India's Development -- Karthik Muralidharan: https://amzn.in/d/0eLqkVeb 19. We Are Brains, Not Stomachs -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything (on population):    • Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset ...   20. The Long Road to Change -- Episode 36 of Everything is Everything:    • The Long Road to Change | Episode 36 ...   21. PISA by OECD: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/program... 22. Private Education Is Good for the Poor -- James Tooley and Pauline Dixon: https://tinyurl.com/5ak68wm8 23. How Much Does Free Education Cost? -- Study by CCS: https://tinyurl.com/3s8ka5hy 24. The Beautiful Tree -- James Tooley: https://amzn.in/d/0b0dB3A1 25. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen:    • Ep 379: Lant Pritchett Is on Team Pro...   26. Karthik Muralidharan and the Bureaucrat’s Burden -- Episode 375 of The Seen and the Unseen:    • Ep 375: Karthik Muralidharan and the ...   27. Murali Neelakantan's tweet: https://tinyurl.com/y23zzj3c 28. James Heckman at the Unversity of Chicago: https://tinyurl.com/5h4t7bba 29. The Heckman Equation: https://heckmanequation.org/ 30. It is immoral to have children. Here’s why -- Amit Varma: https://tinyurl.com/3ukun6w2 31. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life — Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen:    • Ep 301: Natasha Badhwar Lives the Exa...   32. The Takshashila Institution: https://takshashila.org.in/ 33. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything:    • Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs | Episo...   34. Three-page notes considered harmful -- Ajay Shah: https://tinyurl.com/ydctakja 35. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis: https://amzn.in/d/0bGj3ZoE 36. Essays -- Lydia Davis: https://amzn.in/d/06KXJVUo 37. To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee: https://amzn.in/d/0grQGDjk Produced by Amit Varma Shot by Vaishnav Vyas & Nomsita MS Haritashya:   / vaishnav.vyas   Edited by Nomsita MS Haritashya:   / nomsitaharitashya   Thanks to Gaurav Chintamani for helping with sound:   / gaurav_chintamani   Chapter image by Simahina:   / i_am_simahina   NB. Shared only for academic purposes, courtesy the YouTube Channel of Amit Varma. Source: https://youtu.be/fa_ZXlqwmSM?si=g6Fe3bOpGigCTuq2