Like any other place, Aarohi is also not free from some discipline issue – stealing, teasing, hurting, bullying, breaking codes… We have been trying many different things, but mostly when it comes to discipline, children would approach faculty and would seek support from adults, including parents.Current situation of self discipline at Aarohi was rated as 5-7 out of 10.
We began with problems our city has, country has, world has – eg: it was more about traffic and garbage not much about self. We began with understanding the situation mathematically – If we have in campus 20 people who are not following codes (take care of self, others and environment) … then numbers at world level would reach to 18 crores if we do not take action at micro levels. The numbers looked overwhelming … and realization that how one is contributing to a larger problem.
We began with forming ‘discipline committee’ – each week two children and one adult at each campus. While two children will change every week, the adults will rotate every day at both the campuses.
Some doubts came up “what if the committee member is friend, what if we operate from images, what if we are partial, what if committee members take revenge?” So we set the basic hygiene for committee members – not operate through images, be fair to all, no favours and no revenges, history of the actions of the person is important not the person, involve parents, not make fun or gossip about it inside or outside the committee. Empowerment should be the MANTRA of the committee.
With this we defined three roles fo the committee:
- The committee is to give a empathetic listening ear to anybody who has a problem. This way each member gets the assurance that there is somebody to listen to them
- It is not there to solve problems – but to support the person(s) to solve their problems themselves. Each problem is an opportunity to learn and the committee will help the people involved self reliant in dealing and learning from them.
- The committee is also there to ensure that the campus is a healthy and mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually a safe place for all.
We do not know what is democracy – we have never experienced. We are beginning to experience at community level. A small step at small group level to experience working of any community made us realized “how country would be running?” Its not only about rights and freedom, it is equally about duties and responsibilities. It requires participation and involvement.
Looking forward to this new chapter in Aarohi with kids leading the discipline committee.