Education
Let’s Take You Inside The ‘Happiness Class’ That Melania Trump Loved
Here’s a review of the Happiness Class that takes place in Delhi Govt. schools every day and is winning hearts globally.
The stress modern education puts on our kids can only be countered by embedding ‘happiness’ in the traditional schooling system. Delhi government’s initiation of adding a Happiness Class in the old curriculum has received praise from many corners and even became a subject of interest for the First Lady of the United States of America.
On her official visit to India along with her husband and the U.S President, Donald Trump, the First Lady of the United States of America, Melania Trump, took part in the Happiness Class at a Delhi government school on the 25th of February 2020.
Launched in 2018 in the presence of his holiness The Dalai Lama, the Happiness Class is a beautiful initiative by the Delhi government as a part of the Happiness Curriculum Program to help students cope with academic stress on a daily basis. It specifically focuses on developing a kid’s self-awareness, mindfulness, critical thinking ability, and other life skills such as dealing with stress, etc.
Looking at India’s disappointing performance in the World Happiness Report each year, we think this scheme was the need of the hour, especially in a typical government school setting where more emphasis is put on learning lessons to writing exams successfully. So far, both the planning and execution of the scheme have been an accomplishment as it is considered a revolutionary step to bring the government schools at par with their private counterparts.
Interestingly, every day, the students of class I-VIII in Delhi govt. schools attend a 45-minute class where they practice meditation and mindfulness by focusing on heartbeat and natural sounds around them. This is followed by storytelling to tickle their creative imagination and drawing or writing about whatever they are feeling so they can express themselves freely. Apart from this, the kids are encouraged to participate in open discussions and exchange their ideas about anything under an open sky. In short, they’re motivated to do everything that they would skip otherwise while reading conventional textbooks.
“By education, I mean an all-round drawing of the best in child and man in body, mind, and spirit” – Mahatma Gandhi uttered these words of wisdom about the development of children and we feel that the Happiness Class, somehow, is completely in line with these thoughts.
Image courtesy – The national.ae, Lokmat