Abraham Lincoln - Nishan Karki

Picture Courtesy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_head_on_shoulders_photo_portrait.jpg

Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the 16th president of the United States of America from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. His family moved to Indiana when he was seven and he grew up on the edge of the frontier. He had very little formal education but read voraciously when not working on his father’s farm. 

Lincoln’s legacy is based on his momentous achievements: he successfully waged a political struggle and civil war that preserved the Union, ended slavery, and created the possibility of civil and social freedom for African Americans. 

Abraham Lincoln was also a good thinker and orator. Lincoln's emergence as a great orator dates from 1854 when he made a memorable speech in Peoria, on October 6, of that year. This was his first major attack on the position of Senator Douglas who was the leader of the Illinois Democrats. 

"His manner is neither fanciful nor rhetorical, but logical.

His thoughts are strong and are strongly joined together. 

He is a close reasoner, and has the faculty of making himself clearly understood." 

-Galena (Illinois) North-Western Gazette, 

July 1856. 

Abraham Lincoln has given many famous quotes which are known worldwide. 

Some of them are as follows:-

●“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” 

● “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” 

● “If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.” 

● “Perhaps a man’s character is like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” 

● “I am not concerned that you have fallen; I am concerned that you arise.

Nishan Karki

Pestalozzi Children's Village, India.

What is peer pressure, and how can we deal with it? - Shambhavi Nautiyal

Reading Chapter 43, Sunday the 26th of March 2023

Peer pressure is the direct or indirect influence of our peers which tells us that we need to act in a certain way like the people surrounding us. It is often observed in teenage but continues as an existing matter throughout our lives regardless of age. It is a trap which makes people victims of many addicting and harmful practices. It could be wrong personality traits such as people pleasing and sometimes ruinous activities like smoking and drugs. 

It starts with compellingly curious intentions of just wanting to fit in, make friends and enjoy company, but later on, it becomes a habit. For instance, something often seen in the present youth is the following of the perpetually changing Instagram trends by young school-going teenagers to feel accepted and admired. 

We see kids going out of their way to follow social media trends and become famous because of peer pressure and the fact that this is seen as the definition of likeable and "cool". In school, too, we see popular girls and students liked by most of our peers or teachers, and we try to become like them. We observe that because of some of their habits, many people appreciate and admire them. To gain that popularity, we try to procure their idolized external features, skills or behaviours. In light of this fact, in this process, we lose ourselves. We lose our own identities. 

We never learn to love ourselves since we are compared to others by ourselves or our parents to our peers. We become even lonelier because of masking ourselves and never focusing on nurturing ourselves. We are left with no friends of our own, not even ourselves. Even when we stop trying to be like others, we still take that habit of people pleasing with us, in which we let people cross our boundaries and put them before ourselves, creating a frail sense of self-worth. However, we can fight it, come out of it and fix this whole scenario. 

As for me, I had been in some influencing company, and over time, I noticed that I had become a people pleaser and that I had been neglecting myself for my peers. I was listening more to them rather than my piece of mind. So, to fix those habits, I had to release that person from my life and start instilling healthier relationship patterns in my attitude. I had to change my outlook by changing my behaviour and thoughts. I had to make it clear to myself that it was okay for me to put myself and think about myself first before taking any decision instead of following my friends blindly and speculating about their behaviours, meaning how they treat me. I had to fix my sense of self-worth. 

So it is salient to love ourselves so that we don't compare ourselves to others and don't let others' judgements affect us, which calls out for having a deep sense of self-worth. We should practice self-compassion and not let ourselves get trapped in the vicious trap of peer pressure cause each one of us deserves to be loved, adored and treated like the queens and kings we are. So before judging yourself after seeing someone else, remind yourself of and be grateful for how confounding, worthy and attractive you are.

Always keep that in mind before wandering to search for love outside; look inside, and you will find the person who has always been and shall always be ready to love you.

Shambhavi Nautiyal Ahlcon Public School

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging - Shilpika Pandey

It is definitely a tiny world inside our homes, like we say, and the moment one steps out, the circumference magnifies. The realization hits us that now, we depend on our social behaviour to make the outer world OURS.

And here enter the vital aspects of social life, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, and BELONGING, that teach us 'how' to interact and align everyone from diverse backgrounds, include them in our learning journey and help them in the belongingness of the same.

We must appreciate the incredible Diversity around us that helps us grow socially into an enriched and better person that finds joy in knowing people from everywhere, absorbing their learnings, communicating, and exchanging opinions, while training to be globally concerned individuals.

When we have a group that is diverse and different, we gain a bank of multiple values, ethics, cultures, and working styles, which becomes a strength of a dependable team, leading to brilliant productivity and effectiveness!

The lesson of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging is the crucial ingredient of a Good School.

- Shilpika is a Happy Teacher at My Good School

Internship Program - Shilpika Pandey

It is spellbinding to see that Internship is no longer limited to working professionals; at My Good School, the Internship Program facilitates the schools with an exclusive internship opportunity for children. It’s a niche creative learning and growing environment comprising Values and virtues as an integral part.

The Program is one of a kind ever in the education sector. It is an excellent opportunity for children to acquire soft skills and visualise themselves as future editors, writers, authors, podcasters, bloggers, and other creative individuals by having hands-on experience while working on projects and networking extensively with professionals beyond the schools.

This is a wishful ladder of opportunities where each child picks up skills and values step-by-step and comes out with a confident, abled, skilled and complete personality.

#InternsMatter

"Future belongs to the young. We must not only trust them with responsibility but must thrust it upon them whilst they are still young and full of energy, zest, hope and even illusions". JRD Tata

Gratitude - Arfa Khan

We all are familiar with the feeling that life is not as we want; our relationships are not deep enough, we are not successful enough, and we don't have the things we crave. This is the feeling of dissatisfaction, a feeling that makes you at others with envy and at yourself with shame. Social media makes it worse by showing us the picture-perfect life others have, unlike us. We have seen many people laughing and enjoying their lives...but their lives aren't perfect too. Then why are some people happier than others? Can we also apply their methods to be more comfortable and more satisfied? It all sums up to one thing - Gratitude. 

Gratitude is a feeling that connects us with the positive side of the world. There are many ways to practice it, like gratitude journaling, where we write about the things we are grateful for. There are many everyday things in life for which we should be grateful, and we might be taking them for granted, like:

1. Recovery/ Post-Crisis -

Life can feel fabulous after recovery like an enormous burden has been lifted off our shoulders. We can do many things that we couldn't do earlier. Objectively, our life would be the same or maybe slightly worse than before, but we compare the present to when life was terrible and react with gratitude.

2. Our Relationships-

We might feel lonely or want more friends, but there might be one or multiple people wanting to spend time with us. We might feel this is not enough and feel bad. If we're grateful for our relationships, we might accept the offers or take the initiative. Many people don't have anyone and suffer from mental illnesses, but we have many people who care for us.

3. Anyone who means a lot to you-

There might be someone significant in our lives, and we can't imagine life without them. By comparing our life with and without them, we feel grateful that they are with us.

4. Fate-

We have many things in our everyday life many don't have, like clean water and food, money, access to the internet, limbs, eyes, ears etc. We should be grateful for these things.  

Scientists have found many benefits of gratitude journaling. Many participants showed more happiness and life satisfaction after practising for a few weeks and even a change in brain activity after a few months. It's pretty mind-blowing that something as simple as writing about a few things you are grateful for can help fight dissatisfaction. We know our life is hard, but it might not be as bad as it seems if we look from a different perspective.

•  Arfa Khan 

  Ahlcon Public School

Sources:

https://leadchangegroup.com/daily-gratitude/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPPPFqsECz0&t=15s

 

Why should I go to School - Arav Agarwal

A school is a place which helps in our social and mental development. It helps to develop our thinking abilities and our creative skills. My school is like a second home, which has helped me develop and grow confident. School life is full of happy moments and memories. What we learn at school builds the foundation for our life.  

S – Social Development

C – Creative abilities

H – Happy memories

O – Our second home

O – Offering education and values

L – Lifelong foundation is built here.

Name: Arav Agarwal
Grade: 6A
Billabong High International School, Thane

Why you should join My Good School? - Anusha Jain

Anusha Jain 

Class 10

Ahlcon Public School

My Good School works for the personal and social development of every individual. Find out how we work and what is in store for you?
Discover more www.GoodSchools.IN

 

Friendship - Akshar Rajpurohit

Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. Friendship is a more vital form of interpersonal bond than an association. Friendship has been studied in academic fields such as communication, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. Various educational theories of friendship have been proposed, including social exchange theory, equality theory, relational dialectics, and attachment styles.

Such characteristics include affection; kindness, love, virtue, sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, loyalty, mutual understanding and compassion, enjoyment of each other company, trust, and the ability to be oneself, express one's feelings to others and make mistakes without fear of judgement from the friend.

Name: Akshar Rajpurohit

Grade: XI Commerce

The Fabindia School

Take Responsibility of Your Actions - Raviraj Singh Sonigara

The pandemic period has forced everyone to stay in their house. Due to this, there is the storage of food materials. So, the price of food materials is also increasing. The poor people cannot buy this expensive food material, their condition is terrible. 

I would like to share an incident that took place with me on 10th March. When I felt bored during the daytime, I came and sat near the window and gazed outside. Suddenly I caught sight of a beggar sitting in the shade. Expressions on his face showed that he was hungry, so I decided to give a food packet and a water bottle to the beggar. After some, sometimes I went outside to give the packet of food and water to the beggar. When the beggar saw me, he tried to cover his face with his clothes and asked me to stand away from him. This thought left me overwhelmed. I put the packet of food and water and watched from my house to see what he was doing. The beggar got up, cleaned the place, washed his hands, took the packet and thanked me. He sat down under the tree and had his food.

I was happy that even he was also showing his responsibility towards his country and maintaining social distancing. I would like to end by quoting, 'The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the amount of responsibility he must assume for his welfare and security.’

Raviraj Singh Sonigara

Class IX B

The Fabindia School