A special study.

I am glad I studied Psychology. No other subject is helping me understand and run the school as much as the knowledge to understand and comprehend human psyche and development.

To know each student well and know their mental development, I gave each one a book with blank white sheets and colors to draw, scribble and do whatever they wanted on it. Without giving any ideas I would just ask them to draw as they pleased using whatever colors they wanted. The importance and use of this would be so tremendous, I did not know.

Many drew fruits and trees, their families, some just scribbled, and some used specific colors only….But there is one kid I had trouble understanding the most. After training and talking to him for weeks, he continued to look scared, so much so that there were days I did not see him look up at me. His progress too was thus, slow.

Then one day, while going through his book, I mentioned about above, I saw a certain pattern in his drawings. He would just draw stairs and doors using mostly brown and black. I then, called his mother and was told that his behavior was much the same at home too. After some questions I found out that once when he was around two he had got really frightened at night.

Here’s where my psychology learning and understanding helped a lot. I began having talks with him about his childhood, home. He started opening up a bit. And then I asked him what scared him, and he told me “stairs and doors and guns”. I told him funny stories with doors and stairs. We did little exercises of opening and closing doors, saying aloud the names of the people he liked and imagining them coming through them.

Some more attention and praising in the classroom and he is a much better student now. He plays and talks a lot more. Sometimes, a little too much… and I can’t help smiling.

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