WORKSHOP ON PARENTING

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How do we get our children to start reading? What is the best way to remove junk food from our students’ diets? Questions like these have been plaguing parents everywhere. It seems teachers at Ahlcon International School in Mayur Vihar have an answer.

Reinforced, consistent messages from both teachers and parents, is one way to effect change in a child’s behavior. When parents and teachers both agree on a message and deliver it in multiple situations at home and school, the child is more likely adopt the advice in her life.

With this hope, Ahlcon International School organized a training session for parents on Saturday, February 4^th, 2012, which was attended by over 30 parents of middle school students in the school auditorium.

The event started with an innocuous question – how much sugar is in a can of coke. Since no one knew the correct answer, the presenter, Mr. Kunal Chawla, a science teacher at the school, guided the parents through the nutritional information on the can. It turns out a can of coke has 33 grams or 7 teaspoons of sugar. The next question from Mr. Chawla, albeit obvious, stunned the crowd. He asked “Do you put this much sugar in your tea?”

Once the scientific fact of excess sugar in soft drinks was made, the audience discussed tasty, low sugar beverage alternatives. One such substitute was mixing fresh juice from an orange with a glass of cold water. “When I tell my children the same thing, they think I am a dictator,” said a concerned parent at the event, “but when it comes from the teachers as well, my children think it must be right.”

This session was followed by a presentation which addressed issues like promoting reading, handling irritable behavior and bonding well with adolescents. The presenter, Ms. Sunita Rajiv, an English teacher, had practical tips to offer to the parents. These included encouraging children to construct a story using billboards while stuck in traffic in Delhi.
Ms. Namita Bhagat, a science teacher, proceeded to clear the webs surrounding teenage problems of infatuation and social behavior. The identity crisis and craving for attention are caused by certain factors. Ms. Bhagat highlighted this along with a number of tips to tackle such issues.

The event also highlighted the impact of music on mathematics, and provided practical advice to parents. For instance, Mr. Sunil Agrahari, a music teacher at the school, suggested that music helped students understand mathematics concepts and urged teachers and parents not to undermine the importance of music in academics. He proved his point by singing a song about triangles using the traditional, rhyming tune of the dohas. Soon everyone in the audience was singing with Mr. Agrahari about the connection between triangles and the construction of bridges.

Towards the end, excited parents suggested several topics, such as appropriate use of facebook and Internet, for future training sessions. The impact of such events on student behavior is yet to be determined, but everyone in the room agreed that consistent messages would remove confusion from students’ minds.