Friday, February 6, 2009

Are children so different or our experience with them is different?

Had three interesting workshops with children, one for NHPC Faridabad, one for Billabong School Bhopal and third one for English medium school at Shirdi. Yes, the composition of groups were different. ,At Faridabad ranging from 10to 19 studying from class VI to even a student of engineering, at Bhopal children of class VI&VII and at Shirdi all of them were from class IX.
My experience with each group was also very different. At Fridabad , response was beautiful ,at Bhopal it was mixed and at Shirdi it was memorable. The children at Fridabad did learning and masti both, at Bhopal maximum learning was through masti and at Shirdi it was learning with love and love alone.
Trying hard to avoid labelling of children-as for me children are children only- I introspected and realized that it was me, who was different with every group. My own paradigms, my own perceptions probably made me behave and experience differently.
Insights obtained are listed below-
-Children exposed to technology and environment feel very confident about themselves but in the process are less committed to values except those whose parents are making very conscious attempts to reinforce these. On the other hand children less exposed to technology and environment are very committed to value systems and core component of their personality is very strong.
-There is a greater urge to learn about life and to get success in those staying in smaller towns.
-Competition is a strong feeling nurtured by children in bigger cities and collaboration is still the strong point of children of smaller cities.
-Love and affection are very firmly in place in children of smaller cities and children in bigger cities are very practical about these. However, from parents love is a common expectation of all children.
-Children start behaving as adults sooner in the big cities.
The observations are to be validated by more data in times to come.

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