These three principles of economics, evolutionary thought and psychology get embedded in the minds of those pursuing education even if they don’t study them. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of education to scientifically uproot these three theories from the minds of people. And this needs to be done by education alone. Every child can try and understand his/her own mind during his/her education. They can weigh and choose all aspects of the education that they are receiving. They can understand their gains and losses. They can understand justice, truth and duty.
It is possible for a student to understand his/her inner composition, the composition of family, the composition of society, the composition of nature and, finally, the composition of the self through education. They can participate in these structures if they understand them well. Otherwise, they’ll be hunted by these structures and there will be more chaos. It is important to do so to live a happy life. This is the coexistence model of education, which helps one understand the difference between having a life and living and becoming a part of education and life.
Educated people should be able to understand their relationship with each other and build a relationship not just among themselves but with their family members, society and every aspect of nature. With the understanding of these relationships, they will start valuing other people, every aspect of nature and themselves. They will understand the difference between price and value. They will understand science and nature, not to exploit them but to develop them for the betterment of the society. They will learn to coexist with nature—not to dominate it but to utilize it. This skill can be taught in the course of education. Twenty years is a long time.
Under the coexistence model, education for a future generation of engineers, doctors, traders, administrators will be given. This is not some idealistic dream but premised on the utilization of literature; utilization of mathematics and science; of geography and history. It is about developing such an education plan. The inspiration behind the coexistence model is late A. Nagraj who lived a fulfilling life as a physician, a merchant and a farmer and gave us this vision. I gained this understanding after meeting Nagraj. That is when I began understanding that there are a lot of issues that we are trying to resolve through laws and protests but their solution can be found in education. As of now, we have limited the aim of education to removing poverty and providing jobs. This is a worldwide problem.
The world over, education is imparted with the aim that after twenty years, every person can earn enough to feed themselves but the role of education in global and national institutions is very secondary. Here the importance of education has been greatly underestimated. When we talk about world peace or global warming or ending wars, we think that governments or armed forces or science will achieve these aims. Numerous laws have been made, arms have been deployed and technology has been applied to end terrorism, but we never ask if education can be used to stop it? We never ask why we are not being able to stop global warming in spite of numerous protocols and alliances. Can education help? Can it make the earth liveable and teach coming generations how to live in harmony with nature? We have enacted many laws across the world to remove ethnic conflicts, wars, violence and hatred but does education have the ability to shape people in such a way that after twenty years, when they step out into the world, they don’t hate anyone because of their caste or religion? I think only education can achieve this. All we have to do is look for solutions at national and international levels in education. The day we hand over this responsibility to education, teachers will be able to achieve these aims.
A long discussion on and review of all these subjects took place in those eight days. We also meditated on what we could do. Where did the curriculum fall short? What could we add to it and what could we remove? All these aspects were openly discussed. I won’t say that after four and a half years, we have been successful in achieving all the goals that were discussed during that time, but I would definitely say that this was deeply ingrained into the minds of many officials of the education department. They understood that the aim of education could be much bigger than removing poverty and providing employment and the role of teachers was not to merely transfer the knowledge of the previous generations to the next. Four years is too short a time for all that we had set out to achieve. And that too taking our current situation into consideration. Before taking the next step, we took cognizance of ground realities such as ascertaining that children came to school, teachers were in school, the school was neat and clean, there were no cobwebs in classrooms, washrooms and drinking water taps were in order, and there were proper desks to sit on; that when a teacher came to a classroom, the blackboard/whiteboard was in such a good condition that whatever was written on it could be read even by the students sitting at the back. We took these matters as the baseline and then discussed the path to be taken in those eight days. We discussed the doubling of the education budget in the first year and spending 25–26 per cent of the overall budget every year on education, building modern facilities in schools, making buildings clean, training teachers, modifying the examination pattern, reducing the syllabus by one fourth, promoting music and sports, promoting labs and libraries, starting the happiness class and entrepreneurship mindset curriculum (EMC), etc. There are many such efforts whose blueprint, if not in tangible form, was conceived in that workshop, at Jeevan Vidya Shivir. This eight-day camp was a beginning in itself and I understand that it played a very big role in shaping the present model of education in Delhi.
Happiness Class: Understanding Emotions
The happiness class has had such a spectacular impact in Delhi that it has created a nationwide curiosity. People want to know what this model is that is being run for almost 8 lakh students for one period every day. How is happiness being taught like maths and science? Is it possible to make children happy by teaching them happiness like a regular subject? Can it create a mindset in students to make them more positive and creative? What have the results been? It is too early to answer these questions as this curriculum is merely a year old. Only time will tell. However, initial results were as interesting as these questions. When I go to schools and talk to principals or teachers of classes—from nursery to class 8—they always comment on how this programme has changed the behaviour of students in just one year. This is true especially of students of classes 6 to 8, as it has been noted that their aggression has gone down and they are calmer. Some teachers even say that the level of concentration has increased in students of this age group. Here are some of the most interesting anecdotes:
The mother of one of our students told a teacher that her child has become very understanding at home. Before eating food, he asks his mother if there’s any for her. Sometimes he even checks in the kitchen to see if there really is food left for the mother or if she is lying to feed her children.
A grandmother told us that she has seen a tremendous change in her grandchild in the last one year. According to her, the child, who used to fight with the other children in the neighbourhood, has changed and he shows them a lot of love and respect.
Recently, a reporter from a well-known newspaper went to a school for a story. He asked the students whether they talk about the programme at home. A student told him that one evening when his father came home dejected, he conducted a session of the happiness class at home as he thought that it would calm his father.
One incident I can’t forget is when a girl told me about how the happiness classes had given her peace of mind from the strife at home because of her being a girl. She told us that her brother, being a boy, was sent to a private school while she was sent to a government one. Not just that, in school, she would often stew with resentment because of the favouritism shown to her brother at the breakfast table. Since the happiness class started, she has been able to leave her resentment behind in the very first period. It helps her focus on her studies. It is saddening that this discrimination is happening even in the capital of the country but it brings
me joy that the happiness class is bringing some respite.
The seeds of the happiness class were sown in a conversation between Arvind Kejriwal and me. I still remember that we were in his drawing room, discussing a few things related to the education department. He interrupted me and said, ‘Buildings have become better, teachers are being trained and their self-confidence is also increasing. As a result, exam results have also been improving but before getting into politics, we always used to talk about making children better human beings, why is nothing is being done on that front?’ What he said was true. All our focus had been on repairing buildings, reinvigorating teachers and improving results. We were doing nothing to make our students better human beings. This thought stayed with me and probably, subconsciously, I decided to work in this area. We conducted many Jeevan Vidya workshops for our teachers and even sent them for Vipassana courses but students were not involved in these initiatives. All our focus was on teachers and we were all ganging up to turn the children into bookworms. We didn’t have any Vipassana or Jeevan Vidya workshops for the children. The CM’s question had got me thinking. I mulled over his words even while performing my daily duties. I thought up the framework for the happiness class during a ten-day Vipassana course that I had attended. I would like to mention here that there was no access to pen and paper, and talking over the phone, in fact, talking in these ten days was also prohibited. This is why I could make notes only in my mind. The biggest inspiration for the happiness class came from the coexistence-based Jeevan Vidya workshop, which looks at all the aspects of education and life very critically and discusses it very scientifically.
Let me state outright what the happiness class is not. There are no moral science lessons in this curriculum. It doesn’t involve any activities that would get children excited for some time. There’s no chanting or praying. A joint team of twenty Delhi government teachers, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) lecturers and principals, some reputed individuals and organizations working in the area of child psychology created the content for the happiness class. It’s based on the principle of the self-confidence building mode of education based on the coexistence model. What was also studied during its conception was why the adoption of the leadership-oriented system of education was not making people happy. Where had we failed in our efforts? After considering and deliberating on these points, this curriculum was prepared. We took the help of scholars and researchers working on different aspects of an education that builds a positive culture in the country. The curriculum is based on Indian thought and education in which we have merged science.
The three main aspects of the happiness class are:
Mindfulness meditation
Inspirational stories to make children responsible and mature
Activity-oriented discussions where children study their own thoughts and reactions scientifically.
Let me explain them:
Mindfulness meditation: Maybe because the framework of the happiness class was created during a Vipassana course, its most important aspect is mindful meditation which helps children hone their focus. The first five minutes and last two minutes are devoted to meditation. Once a week, usually on Mondays, in the entire forty-five minutes of the happiness classes, some small mindfulness-related exercises are conducted and then students discuss their experiences of it. These discussions are always very interesting and children take a lot of interest in understanding their experiences. In these activities, children are told that when they sit, study, hear anything, write anything, eat or drink anything, they should do it with full attention. Initially, children are trained to close their eyes and listen carefully to the sounds around them. Gradually, students learn to focus on their breathing, heartbeat and other parts of their bodies. With practice, students learn to pay attention to the reaction in their bodies while eating, drinking or walking. With experience, children start to analyse their thoughts. They realize that their thoughts stem from wrongdoing in the past or present struggles or worry about the future. Children are trained to not analyse their thoughts but just to focus on how they enter their minds and how they leave on their own. Slowly but surely, students learn to focus on sounds surrounding them, the working of their bodies, and the thoughts entering and leaving their minds without unsettling them. They basically learn to pay full attention to whatever they are doing. Their attention never wavers while talking or listening to someone. When they study, they only focus on studying. In class, they focus only on the lesson or the discussion. In a way, they learn to live in the present. Not living in the present is the biggest reason for our worries and failures.
This kind of meditation is not about remembering a mantra, god or place or an incident and focusing on that memory. In the traditional Indian knowledge system, more importance is given to the act of mindful reading than memory. Through mindfulness, children learn to focus on the goings-on in their bodies and the reactions and thoughts in their minds. These reactions and thoughts can often be distracting. Through mindful meditation, a child gains the ability to see, analyse and understand the different reactions and thoughts in different situations. This practice of focusing helps a child become centred and, as a result, they can focus on their work and behaviour and improve their interpersonal relationships in the classroom and at home.
Mindful meditation is an ancient Indian tradition that runs deeper than any present religious or spiritual rituals or practices. It is being adopted all over the world, especially in the West. The knowledge system that the West is so in awe of is rooted in mindful meditation. Many schools abroad have adopted this Indian invention to improve the level of concentration in their students so that they are able to understand their subjects in depth. This is the reason why mindful meditation is now an integral and well-loved part of the curriculum in many schools in the West. Happiness class was introduced in Delhi schools in July 2018 and just in three to four months, we received positive results. During my discussions with teachers, they have always said that mindful meditation is their favourite part. Many a time, just to gauge their reaction, I have said that if children and teachers find these classes an extra burden, they can be stopped. But they have always maintained that regular practice of mindful meditation has brought about a huge change in children. Children have said that they feel calmer and are less distracted and can focus better on their studies. Even their anger and irritation have dissipated. Just in a few months since the inception of this programme, teachers and principals had examples to share about its impact.
Inspirational stories: Let me say at the outset that these stories are not for inculcating moral values. They don’t teach one to not lie or to be well-behaved or give an understanding of right or wrong. These stories are not about giving children an ideal or a yardstick. These are very short stories that show the mindset of an average person in a special situation. Through these examples, children are taught how to reflect on their own thoughts in similar situations. These stories show children, who through mindful meditation have become aware of their surroundings and selves, how to understand their thoughts and reactions. They help them identify what is right and what is wrong. The stories have been curated with these objectives in mind. The aim is not to be pedantic, but to develop the emotional quotient of children through examples. The stories help the students understand their own mindset. The stories themselves are not important. What is important is the discussion after every story. The stories are told in four to six minutes but the discussions go on for days. Children identify situations in their lives similar to those in the stories and discuss them. There are stories such as ‘Three Labourers, Three Perspectives’. In this story, one man interacts with three construction workers and asks them what they are doing. The first worker answers that he is breaking stones. The second says that he is trying to earn a living. The third says that he is working to build a school. Children will study if there’s a school. These are three people doing the same work, drawing the same wages, but their answers ar
e different and these delineate their mentality. When we do any work, we are in one of the three mindsets. The story is short and ends with the third worker’s answer but this is where the discussion begins. They draw parallels with their lives and compare the situations to understand their mindset at the time. We don’t say anything idealistic to the children. We don’t even try to tell them which mindset is good and which is bad. What we try to explain in a very positive way is how people are in different frames of mind while doing different things. Once a child begins to understand his mindset, he can accomplish even the most difficult tasks, he is never unhappy and even if he does something with difficulty, he is mindful of his contribution. The discussion on this short story goes on for days till every child in the class has shared his/her perspective.
Another story is ‘Brother Is Not a Burden’. In this story, a little girl is climbing up a mountain with her brother on her back. A sensitive man, on seeing the girl work so hard, tells her that she must be tired, and offers to carry the brother for a while. The girl replies saying that he is her brother, not a burden. ‘I might be tired, but I don’t consider him a burden,’ she says. This story is also an example of the different frames of mind in terms of familial relations at different times. These days, a lot of people consider their parents a burden once they become independent and start living their own lives. Not just parents, even other relationships where their help and support are required can cause discord. This is a sign that subconsciously we consider these relationships a burden. If at an early age children understand that relationships are not a burden, they will value them. Especially in situations where people continue to maintain relationships in spite of considering them a burden out of a sense of responsibility or societal expectations.
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