For quite a few months, I have been dwelling on this thought on how to teach values to children (through ILP’s MDLS program we work a lot with High school children and hence that was the focus area). No, I am not an epitome of good values which gives me the right to teach someone values (by the way, no one is an epitome of values and nobody should teach values and I will come to that in a bit), but I couldn’t think of an alternate word for it back when I was thinking about it. I knew values were not about good or bad or right or wrong and I had my own perspective on it, but somehow, it was neither topic enough to engage children nor was it a universal thought… it was just my take on life.

Tenth standard results came out last week and this year (2012-13), 9 students of our ILP Puraskara scholarship program appeared for SSLC and their results have been heartening and inspiring. We had a 100% pass percentage with 3 First class, 3 Second class and 3 pass class. Irrespective of their ranks and distinctions their accomplishments are important for all of us because all these children have done themselves proud against all odds.

Kids assemble in the Gubbi Learning Center on Sundays, from the nearby villages some as far out as 18 Kms. The subject matter for today’s session was Environmental Awareness. In the spirit of keeping the sessions participatory, the day kicked off with a quick warm up session with kids sharing their ‘guri’ or goal in life- (‘guri’ is Kannada for goal). The energy that was pouring out of each of them when their turn came to share their life ambition was inspiring- names complete with the details of initials followed by stellar dreams- lots of aspiring doctors, engineers, policemen, army men, district collectors, with only one aspiring dancer, teacher and very interestingly only one software engineer!

India Literacy Project supports a community library for children in Yeshwantpur, Bangalore, India. Our Bangalore chapter volunteers conducted a drawing and painting session based on the theme of the upcoming Christmas festival on Dec 13th 2009 at the Sunnadagoodu library.