Deena AlNaggar
For a person with a long experience, kids still succeed to surprise me. And not any kids, those are ‘one of a kind!’ The time you feel exhausted and give up on them, they give their best performance, regardless of the fact that they are rowdy, stubborn and to some extent, careless.
They came that day dressed up elegantly, simply because they had a 1-minute speech task – I told them that 1 mark goes for appearance – and that did wonders to the outcome. Now what made me happy was their innocence. They were so excited about the whole issue (very unlike them!) To ask a 13-year old child – from this generation – to prepare a 1-minute speech about health (from their own points of view) is considered a bit challenging and boring. Parents’ efforts and help were obvious, yet to try, search and rehearse needed a bit of commitment and courage – they proved they had both.
It was done in class but they were still hesitant. Some of them showed more courage and offered to start. Mostly they were reading from papers, avoiding eye-contact, a fact that shows that such a skill needs a lot of confidence – something we have to build in our children – yet they smiled there and then.
That day, I learnt a lesson – it’s never too late for giving children a chance to be themselves. Having faith in them really does wonders to their self-esteem. I did not imagine that a task like that would be carried out as successfully as it did that day. The best part was everybody’s comments on the positive energy that they spread everywhere – a fact that rarely happens with these rebellious yet talented children!
The Elixir Magazine 