St Marys Prize Day function

This blog is at the insistence of my son Vir and inspired by my interaction with him this morning

Last evening we were invited to St Marys Prize day function. Vir had not won any prize but every year the class teacher gets to invite one parent and this year in 4^th standard we had the honour of getting the invite.  So what does a Prize day function have to do with a blog on Charity ??

St Marys is known to be great in academics, but what most don’t know or write about is their commitment to build the most important trait in their children - “EMPATHY”. Do you know why Vir was so excited about us attending the function yesterday ? “Mom there is a superb play on Child Labour, I loved it and I really want you to see it” When a 9 year old boy gets excited to see and show his parents a play on Child Labour, the school is obviously doing something very very right which needs to be acknowledged and appreciated!

Very often we hear about Marys children winning sports, debate, quiz competitions or % kids doing exceptionally well in 10^th grade but what we don’t know is that on Childrens day they work so hard to invite ngo children to spend time at their school, have their children visit various ngos, have fund raiser fun fairs, have a donation box in each class……I applaud their efforts, especially the teachers who take out the time to do all these charity initiatives  inspite of having so much on their plate !

Please read this amazing article written by a renowned American psychologist on how important it is for teachers to instill this “empathy” in their children especially as the world is getting increasingly  fast paced and impersonal with the misuse of technology

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-empathy-in-action-marilyn-price-mitchell). 

Just read the Indian Express front page headline about how a 12 year old Dalit boy was beat up by his teacher in a Jodhpur school when he touched the food plate of a Jat boy in the school, if this is the India we want to change, we need our children/ the next gen to be sensitive, aware and have enough empathy to want to make a difference 

now to conclude this blog with my honest confession about what really happened yesterday ….

I lost the invite, Vir made me get a second one…..even if that meant admitting my clumsiness and getting embarrassed with Mrs Kisty

I had a YPO event, Vir insited I leave 20 minutes early to make it in time for the event….even if that meant leaving early from an event where I was interviewing Sanjiv Bajaj

Then I made the biggest blunder …..I attended from 6 to 7.30 but left without watching the child labour play as I had another social commitment at 8…….

First question when Vir woke up the next morning “ Mom, how did you like the play” Part of me wanted to lie and say it was fantastic but then I confessed that I hadn’t seen it…….Vir is a strong kid and never cries but he had tears in his eyes  & was sobbing…..“Mom, I really wanted you to see the play”, I tried to reason that he could explain it in detail to me, that I would try to get the DVD a month later but he was inconsolable……i just didn’t get it……then he quietly murmured “Mom I really wanted you to write a blog on the child labour play, its such a fantastic play, I want everyone to know what my school has done”

My heart was truly filled with pride at that moment, St Marys you have been successful in instilling the most difficult and most important trait in my child “EMPATHY” ( in addition to tremendous pride in belonging to St Marys)

So here is the blog Vir wanted me to write….and  I have promised him that just like his hero Harry Potter had 2 movies part 1 and 2 for Deathly Hallows, this is only part 1 of this blog and I will for sure write part 2 after seeing the child labour play on dvd …….