Start date: September 24, 2024
End Date: September 27, 2024
Venue: Creative School, Freedom Land, Karnataka
The BhāratShakti team was invited to curate and conduct a 4-day intensive workshop for about 350 students (ages 3-18) on the theme – ‘Cultivating Courage, Faith and Concentration’ at Creative School near Bengaluru. This workshop was a part of an ongoing learning initiative for children and youth titled ‘Invoking Shakti’ developed by the BhāratShakti team.
Founded in 2010, Creative School is a conscious community and registered holistic school for children, parents, and teachers. Built upon the integral philosophy and pedagogy of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s vision of whole child development, the school’s curriculum and environment emphasize emotional, social, and spiritual development, alongside physical and intellectual growth. Accredited by Cambridge International, Karnataka State Board, and NIOS, Creative School has developed The Sacred Classroom©, Life and Living(™), and The Joy of Teaching Series as its curriculum approaches.
The workshop planning and organization team was led by Dr. Beloo Mehra, Director, BhāratShakti, and Ms. Jayashree Ashok, co-founder and Director of Creative School. The facilitators team included Dr. Beloo Mehra, Mr Narendra Murty, (Research Associate), Ms. Biswajita Mohapatra, (Design and Admin Assistant) and Dr. Runalika Roy (Volunteer), along with selected teachers and teacher-leaders from the Creative school who helped with the grouping of students and other organizational works.
The workshop involved a wide range of learning activities including chanting sessions, storytelling, crafts activities, poster exhibition on the soul qualities of Faith, Courage and Concentration, fun games to improve concentration and memory, and more. The facilitators also shared with the students especially curated presentations and video content during some interactive sessions, engaging them in meaningful conversations and peer-learning.
More than 350 children and teachers participated in the workshop. Parallel sessions were conducted with smaller groups so that every child could feel a sense of participation and engagement. Some of the sessions were also common for students of different age-groups. The teachers of the school worked with the BhāratShakti team to organize students in various groupings.
The activities began on the late afternoon of Day 1 after the 2-day workshop with the teachers had concluded. The participants were the senior students in the age group of 14-19. The subject presented was – Who is the Mother and what is the significance of the Mother’s Symbol? A small presentation with some relevant pictures was shared along with a few inspiring anecdotes from the Mother’s childhood and about her work in the Ashram.
The presentation and sharing were kept at an age-appropriate level so that teenagers could connect and find the content interesting and insightful. Questions were encouraged throughout. The discussion on the Mother’s symbol mostly proceeded in the form of a question-answer session, making the symbol meaningful for walking on the path of self-growth. This session was followed by collective chanting.
The morning of Day 2 was dedicated to the sessions especially curated for younger students, age-group, ages 3-10. The sessions started with chanting which also included a fun way to practice a new chant. They were then divided into smaller groups and the facilitators engaged them in some fun activities. These included – learning a Sanskrit song, colouring and drawing, games involving affirmations like I am strong, I am kind, and more. A small animation film was shown highlighting the theme of Courage and a fun quiz was played to bring home the insights from the film and how to be strong.
The afternoon sessions on Day 2 were conducted with students of ages 11-14, and consisted of storytelling on the themes of Faith and Courage and fun games on Concentration. These sessions were also conducted in parallel so that proper engagement may be ensured. In the evening the children of different age-groups presented a magnificent cultural programme with lively music, dance, chanting and devotional songs.
On Day 3 we had colouring and craft sessions along with storytelling, concentration games, and discussion. Parallel sessions were going on for students from ages 11-19, in different groups who were working with different facilitators and also different activities. This involved a lot of planning and coordination. While the younger children, ages 11-14, were given activities on the theme of “Concentrate and Create” and self-awareness exercises, for the older children, ages 14-19, a very interesting workshop on Handwriting Analysis was conducted to bring out another dimension of self-awareness. Most of the sessions were followed by open interaction with the students where their questions and queries were answered by the facilitators.
On the evening of day 3, a short film on How to Control the Mind was also shown to the older children ages 16-19, followed by an insightful interaction in which the adolescents shared their learnings and challenges when practicing concentration. Some useful tips also came out in the discussion.
On Day 4 along with the usual fare of storytelling and concentration games we also had discussions on the content displayed in the Poster Exhibition on the themes of Faith, Courage and Concentration. This exhibition was curated by the BhāratShakti team and was sent prior to the workshop so that it can be properly displayed. The students were divided into various groups and asked to go through the posters and express their learnings. A meaningful discussion ensued in each of the groups on topics such as how to cultivate these values, what is meant by faith, how it is different from belief and many more.
In the late afternoon of Day 4, the programme concluded with chanting, thanksgiving and gratitude. Several students shared some of their key takeaways from the workshop.
Throughout the workshop, the learning environment was kept very relaxed, friendly and informal – which also goes with the overall school culture in general. This helped children feel comfortable and open when interacting with facilitators from the BhāratShakti team.