You see, right now, Indian parents are worried that their children will stop becoming Engineers and Doctors after getting inspired by PV Sindhu. The question is why would parents worry about anything? If they want to become a Doctor, an Engineer, or the next Olympic medal winner, they just need to be doing what they are passionate about. But do we know what it takes to really nurture that child?

Everything you need to know about social-emotional learning

A key challenge for 21st-century schools involves serving culturally diverse students with varied abilities and motivations for learning. A comprehensive mission for schools is to educate students to be knowledgeable, responsible, socially skilled, healthy, caring, and contributing citizens. Over and above the regular academic curriculum, something more needs to be introduced to children in their formative years in order for them to BE ANYTHING they want to be. This is called Social Emotional Learning.
According to ‘’Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. ‘’ Researchers generally agree upon five key competencies of SEL :
Let us look at each of these components and understand the benefits in a child’s growth and development.

1. Self-awareness – This involves comprehending one’s own emotions asking questions like – what are my thoughts and feelings, what is the source of these feelings and how is it best expressed. It also includes strength and weakness analysis.
2. Self-management – This involves regulating one’s emotions and behaviours. This addresses questions like – what is the best possible response to this situation. It involves goal setting and organizational skills too.
3. Social awareness – This involves the ability to empathize, and feel compassion for those with different backgrounds or cultures. Largely, this addresses understanding of social norms and behaviour.
4. Relationship skills – This involves establishing and maintaining healthy relationships through communication, cooperation, negotiation, refusal, and conflict management.
5. Responsible decision making – This involves learning how to make the right choices by situation analysis and problem identification. It requires the ability to consider ethical standards, safety concerns, accurate behavioural norms for risky behaviours, the health and well-being of self and others, and to make a realistic evaluation of various actions’ consequences.

Let us all pledge to raise a “whole-child”. Let us approach education in a way where we enable a holistic perspective that aims to nurture the full range of skills and capacities that will help children of today become a healthy adult of tomorrow.
We, at Keystone School, instil these concepts by handing over control to students. Our very competent and well-trained teachers and educators bring SEL programs to the system and equip children with the ability to have the confidence to BE ANYTHING.
Social Emotional Learning at Keystone school comes with a message – ‘’Never outgrow your inner superhero’’.

Sowing the seeds is the first step to reaping the fruits!

We live in a world of boxes. Boxes like our houses, our cars, our workspaces. We step out of one box and into another, barely glancing over our shoulders to see a world that is moving so fast, in so many different directions. We don’t see the sky too often, we don’t stop to touch a flower. We are so out of touch with our planet, that it is simply reduced to a platform we stand on now.

At Keystone, we want our little ones to grow up not just ON this planet but WITH it. We believe that lessons cannot predominantly be taught only inside a classroom. Being aware, empathetic and in touch with the world outside is essential in growing as a citizen of the world. Allowing them to explore and discover out in the open is an integral part of a well-rounded educational journey The students, this year at Keystone, experienced farming from step one till the very end of the spectrum. We visited various nurseries, where the students were exposed to the different types of soil and understood the importance of climatic conditions. Adding to the excitement, they even got to meet farmers who answered all their inquisitive questions.

SOWING THE SEEDS IS THE FIRST STEP TO REAPING THE FRUITS!

Basic farming methods, the tools that are used, the concept of plant transplantation and the importance of distance between seeds were some of the invaluable lessons picked up through this experience. The students even interviewed teachers from Keystone coming from different parts of the country to study the kind of crops grown in their native places.

To put all this learning into practice, we allocated a small portion of area at the school itself and created our own farm with the required amount of red soil, seeds and our newly acquired knowledge in farming. With unparalleled excitement and compassion, the students looked after this farm. And lo and behold, we reaped what we sowed. The students were ecstatic to see their Brinjal, Tomato, Spinach and other leafy vegetable plants come to life.

Apart from all the technical lessons about farming that this experience offered, the students were brought closer to their environment. They learnt so much about something that is a livelihood for a large majority of people in our country. They grew, in more ways than one.
Amidst being architects, artists, dancers and everything else this year, Keystone students were farmers too. This lesson didn’t come written in a book, but we can say it with utmost surety, these are the ones that will stick the longest.