Wholesome learning

Today, the school curriculum lays great emphasis on content and not on emotional intelligence. Responding to the need, Jenny Mosley, a noted teacher educator, drama therapist and counsellor from the UK, developed an approach over the past 15-20 years to enable young people develop emotionally.
She was recently in the Capital as part of The Teacher Foundation (TTF), a Bangalore based registered educational trust which is making efforts to organise workshops to reflect upon emotional experiences and understand the experiences of others.The ''Circle Time'' approach is widely used in education in the UK as a whole-school approach to enhance self-esteem and positive behaviour within the school.
Mosley believed that the most effective way of cultivating positive behaviour and respectful relationships was through working on moral development within a structured ''Circle Time'' approach. "The ''Circle Time'' method involves all participants sitting in a circle and taking an equal responsibility for the solving of problems and the issues that they have examined themselves", explained Mosley. "It helps in raising individual motivation, enriching positive relationships and producing calm deportment in children", she said.
Teachers estimated the expenditure of Rs 3,000 on the workshop as an investment. "The best part of this workshop is that it involves the whole school community, from teaching staff, support staff to students and their parents", said a teacher of Pallavan School, Gurgaon. Expressing her views on the workshop Brinda Ghosh, Yadvendra Public School, Patiala, said: "Circle Time'' is different from other workshops that I have attended so far."
According to the participants, they desired to play a vital role in ensuring that young people develop adequate emotional understanding to understand themselves and people around them. "We can encourage students to take responsibility for the repercussions of their doings", said a participant teacher from West Bengal.