Individuality Week

Last week we did lessons on the theme of individuality for a week in school. We decided on this theme because we wanted to get the kids to understand how important diversity and individuality are in the world and how we should celebrate them. The way that they children are taught by most teachers gives very little opportunity for them to give their own ideas and opinions, as they mostly copy answers from the textbook or the blackboard. We wanted to tell them how important they are as individuals, not just as a school statistic or an exam result. I’m not sure if we succeeded in any of these aims, but I really hope we gave them a bit more self-esteem and something to think about.

Lessons varied with the different classes, but the message was the same- we are all different and this is a good thing! With kindergarten, 1^st and 2^nd standard we used the storybook of ‘Elmer’ to introduce the idea of individuality. They drew or coloured in their own Elmer and then we created our own massive Elmer. Each child had a square to decorate, which we stuck onto the big outline that Izzy had drawn. All of their squares were different but they looked awesome together, which hopefully gave them the message that they are all different but this is a good thing! 1^st standard came up with an amazing list of the differences they had within their own class and it was really interesting; they had Muslims, Christians and Hindus, speakers of Tamil, Telegu, Hindi and Kannada, different hair lengths and styles and heights and much more. The next day we got them to draw a picture of their partner and write the words that applied to them on it. It was good fun!

The lessons with the older kids went a bit deeper into the issue of individuality. We started by sticking pieces of paper to their backs and getting them to write nice things about each other on them, I really enjoyed seeing some of the quieter kids reading their sheets and looking really happy. One girl in 6^th standard loved her sheet so much that she copied it out into her English book in neat writing! Me and Izz did it as well and got some really funny responses! After that we got them to do a personal profile and present it to the class, I found this really interesting, especially the amount of languages they speak- in 7^th standard there’s about 5 different languages spoken! In one lesson we had a debate about whether the world would be a better place if we were all the same, this led to some good discussions about whether there would be less bullying if we looked the same. 

At the end of the week we got the kids to write one thing that makes them different from everyone else on a sheet of paper and we took a picture of them holding it. We then sent off the pictures to a charity called Inside Out, they are going to enlarge them and send them back so we can stick them up in the school and the community.  

We’re really excited to see the pictures and stick them up and I think the children will be so proud to see their pictures on the wall!