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| Resiliane - philosophy for children |
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| Promoting resilience skills for groups of children is a good form of education and of acquiring general knowledge. This is practiced regularly at the Nanban’s Homes/Clubs/Associations for the community children. They are encouraged to band together as community of inquiry, to deliberate amongst themselves about any important matters that concern them directly, e.g. after they read/listen to selected sequences of a prepared short story, fictional or real. Children can look at things in relation to everyday life and the characters in these child-centred narratives may resemble some rules of thoughts or ideas in contemporary use. These stimulate children to think for themselves and to be able to participate in their own transformations and recovery. |
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There is a trained adult facilitator or teacher for this type of a resiliency class for children, who is there only to guide and to follow where the children’s inquiry will lead them, without imposing her/his own thoughts and views. The process helps them (in learning about other people, learning to reflect, to question their own assumptions, to analyse a story with which they are engaged;) it teaches the children thinking skills, in subjects such as logic, ethics, aesthetics, that things exist independently of ideas concerning it. It enthuses them to teach and to learn from each other in the group, helping them giving expressions to inner thoughts. Their capacities to deliberate and to come up with reasoned judgments is enlarged. It also develops in them attitudes of mutual respect, tolerance and a sense of belonging to the community. It also respects/ensures compliance with Child Rights proclamations on participation, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of association and of access to information.
It is of course possible to adapt other forms of resilience approaches to suit different categories of people facing difficult situations within their respective contexts. For example, the Nanban's Auto Rickshaw Scheme offered an unique opportunity for self-employment to young women in Madurai. The Resilience enhancing processes these young girls underwent included a series of special skills training for them; to overcome any hazards in a field that has exclusively been a masculine preserve and to boost their physical/mental preparedness to face any challenges with self-confidence. |
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