CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY & PERSONAL GROWTH
The students seem like normal primary school students, however, I didn't expect them to be vulgar and making sexual innuendos at each other, making bullying an apparent social issue these children face.
The students tend to discriminate against a specific student, disagreeing with their ideas, calling them noisy and irritating, not wanting to be in the same group, because of their distaste and even cursing and shoving the student.
Hence, throughout the sessions, I try to encourage the students to work together. During the activities, I raise the issue of bullying and taught them to be accepting towards others, that ostracising and insult others just because they don’t like them is wrong. When suggesting and playing games, I take his ideas despite the other students being against it, giving him an equal opportunity to lead and play the games, ensuring that the groups are randomly chosen so that the student doesn’t get ostracised. As raising the issue of bullying to the students and getting them to understand that bullying is wrong is important.
Working with them changed my perspective on children as are difficult to work with. They are loud, easily distracted and often ignore instructions. However, by being patient, attentive and firm, especially when they are disrupting others, allowed me to properly engage them.
On the first session, we had 15 minutes to run 1 ½ hours’ worth of activities due to late transportation. Which affected our session plan as we had to rework the time allocated for each activity for all sessions. This taught me how to be flexible and plan ahead so that the programme can run smoothly. Due to these issues
I developed new skills that I can continue to hone by actively participating in more community service, improving myself for future projects.