Mehuli (13) joined at Aarohi campus last year since she struggled to read and write, a prime reason for her failing in subjects. School wasn’t working for her and the failure label lead to bullying, by children and adults alike. Fortunately, her parents were sensitive enough to see her other talents and interests where she was naturally drawn to.
When there is no pressure on the child
Her journey at Aarohi Campus is nothing short of grit and determination, not by mentors, but her own self to pick herself up from all the trauma she faced. All of this was possible because she was no longer pressured to do the things that were a nightmare to her – reading, writing, math. Instead, all the focus was on what she was naturally drawn to. This meant exploring dance, art, craft, mehandi and so on.
What about basic skills?
Now, you might wonder – Isn’t it important for her to develop basic skills like reading, writing, computation? And in that question lies the very beauty of child-based education. The pressure is lifted off from the child. Instead, she is presented with opportunities to pursue her strengths and interests. And that can work wonders for a child otherwise stressed by external factors.
That is exactly what we observed within a year of Mehuli being at Aarohi Campus. The acceptance of peers and mentors brought in a lot of confidence to explore herself, her interests. She also gained confidence to start taking responsibilities which is one of the biggest USPs of life at Aarohi. She was interacting with peers, adults and started opening up to express her thoughts and emotions.
Well, she also started writing, reading, understanding phonics and spellings because now she had a need to build those skills. She is preparing a presentation to talk about the history of photography. She is the sports conductor one week which means she is needed to research and find out words. She is building a herb spiral garden which requires her to measure and compute. All of these opportunities are naturally enabling her to understand (also learn) words, numbers in a context relevant to her
Love & Understanding remain far more central in the process of education than any sort of technique, theory or technology can ever be.
Peter Kline, The Everyday Genius
Check out Peter Kline mind-boggling work on integrative learning, a must read for parents and educators alike – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1753635.The_Everyday_Genius