Life Skills workshop

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each others lives. Richard Bach

5 students, Arav Dimri, Gurliv Kaur, Tanya Trehan , Shaumita Dasgupta and Damak Saxena from classes IX and XI of The Indian School participated in the third series of the Mindsmart 2019 workshops. These were held on 18 July 2019 in the auditorium of the National Science Centre, Pragati Maidan. The host of the workshop was Dr. Jitendra Nagpal and the guests of the day were Dr. J.L. Pandey, Advisor, Expressions India and former leader of the adolescent programme at NCERT and Ms. Rama Sharma, CBSE Public Relations Officer. The theme of the workshop was Family bonding and Communication-Emerging Paradigm and Media Literacy.

All the peer educators were divided into groups where they were assigned to present a role play on given topics. Some of the topics were: types of nuclear families, large families etc. While doing the role play each one of us felt we connected with the situation or perhaps the kind of family we were enacting. Everyone could relate to the plots with their own lives and thus it reinforced the importance of family. We also obtained new information about the media and content available. The resource persons imparted information on how to select appropriate matter for viewing. They spoke about how we can strengthen our bonds with others as we often neglect them.

Towards the end Dr. Rama Sharma and Dr. J.L. Pandey presented their concluding thoughts which spoke of the need to strengthen as well as repair fragmented relationships. They also reiterated addressed the need to enhance media literacy.

Damak Saxena, IX-D.