Salony Priya conducts a life-skill training session at Loreto College. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

They sat in groups, listening attentively, and furiously took down notes. At the end, most of them claimed to have acquired a better perspective of teenage problems and the ways to handle them.

They were a group of 35 teachers and principals who attended a training on life skill counselling organised at Loreto College in September-end.

“When a teenager wants to attract attention by wanting to wear somewhat improper clothes, teachers should first try to understand the reason behind the child’s behaviour,” said Salony Priya, a psychologist who conducted the workshop.

Priya distinguished between psychiatry and counselling. “The former prescribes therapies and medicines while the latter empowers a child to cope with his problems better.”

She encouraged teachers to introduce sub-goals, that is, small achievable targets, among the students. “If a child is weak in a particular subject, don’t expect a 90 from him in the first semester. Praise him for a 50 first and encourage him to better his grades,” she enumerated.

The workshop was in response to a project started by the Indian Federation of University Women’s Association, titled “Empowerment of the girl child: Positive and proactive counselling for a meaningful life”. It was designed to train secondary schoolteachers on the basics of counselling and how they can help teenage girls cope with emotional and social problems in a more matured manner.

The workshop was followed by a panel discussion on the empowerment of the girl child. The participants included Ravi Lochan Singh, the managing director of career counselling institute Global Reach, Seema Sapru, the principal of The Heritage, and K. Ghosh, principal of Jain Vidyalaya, Howrah.

The session was attended by teachers of Garden High School, Delhi Public School, Mega City, Loreto House, Future Foundation School and Contai High School.

chit chat

Students of Pratt Memorial School celebrate their 134th Founder’s Day with a thanksgiving service at St James’ Church. A Telegraph picture

Green drive

Students of Sri Sri Academy organised an exhibition on environment, “Prithvi Prayas”, on their school premises last month. Inaugurated by K.S. Rajendra Kumar, the additional chief secretary of the environment and forest department, the exhibition focused on how waste can be recycled effectively. On display were articles made from waste paper, used gift wrappers, cartons and bottle caps. There were diagrams too, showing the origin and course of the Ganga. Another chart illustrated the severe threat faced by aquatic animals in the East Kolkata wetlands because of the discharge of untreated effluents by industries. Other exhibits included one on the Sunderbans and its wildlife and another on the endangered tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The school also planted saplings on the occasion.

No junk

Birla High School for Boys (junior section) ran a month-long campaign against junk food and anti-environment behaviour. As part of “We Can and We Will,” the children put up posters and even wrote articles and songs encouraging recycling of waste products and saying no to unhealthy food. There was a short play on the theme, too. They hoped that such efforts would help make the students better citizens.

THE DIARY

Lost humanity

He looked weary and frail,
His grey locks sparkled,
But his face was pale.
Parched were his lips,
Withered and swollen his finger tips.

His tired eyes craved for nutrition,
Yet there was some hope dazzling from those craters.
His skinny structure shivered in the breeze,
His empty life was about to freeze.

Above his world was a sprawling bungalow’s balcony,
The scene captured by my lens filled me with agony.
A Doberman enjoying a feast of meat and milk,
Nestled on a carpet of Kashmiri silk.

The poor man shattered my dreams of a Utopia,
He was actually inferior to a dog.
Is humanity lost?
Can’t we care for one homeless at our cost?

Salman Hashmi
Class XII,
St James’ School