Imagine No Child Left Invisible: Building Emotionally Safe Spaces for Inclusive & Creative Learning
About this ebook
Why do we send our children to school? How can learning be meaningful? And most importantly, how can we build schools worthy of our children? From the time children are little, we start making stories about them. Schools are like factories where these stories are manufactured all the time. Some children, who're at the top of the social hierarchy, enjoy rich, diverse and colourful stories, which are told and retold. But there are many who spend most of their lives in school, clutching on to single, thin narratives where they've been judged as: 'a failure', 'can do better', 'not up to the mark' or 'not reaching potential' - every 'not' restricting and making their narratives thinner, limited, with lesser scope for possibilities. These are the children who are forgotten, who are invisible and who are seen as never being good enough. At the core of this book is a deep faith that learning is about the magical relationship the teacher builds with each child; it is about building emotionally safe, inclusive spaces for creative learning - this is the heart, the lifeblood, the bare bones of learning. Imagine is a call to action for teachers, parents, counsellors, therapists, activists, thought leaders and other change agents in our society. It is a game changer that will force us to reflect, rethink and redesign schools to ones that our children truly deserve.
About the author
Dr Shelja Sen is a mother, a writer, a child and adolescent psychologist, a family therapist, a learner, a trainer and comfortably fi ts into all these stories and many more. She passionately believes that we need to work at enriching children with richer stories that nurture their dignity, worthiness and personal agency. Though she has completed MPhil and DClinPsych, she feels that these degrees were of little value in the school of life. It is her children, and other children that she has worked with, that have helped her to grow as a person and become a more conscious, mindful and compassionate human being. She is still learning and hopes to have many adventures in life. She loves reading, writing, travelling, music, movies, meaningful conversations and goofing around with her family. Originally from the mountains, she hopes to live near the sea one day. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book All You Need is Love: The Art of Mindful Parenting (HarperCollins). She has also cofounded Children First, an institute of child and adolescent mental health. You can write to her at [email protected] or visit the website at www.childrenfi rstindia.com
