We have a delightful photo exhibit in our Hallway Gallery, and we hope families and classroom groups will spend time looking at the pictures and discussing their content. The montage shows Meher Schools students helping at home in a variety of ways -– arranging flowers, watering a plant, decorating a wall, engaging in many stages of cooking, helping a younger sibling.
We believe that displaying actual instances of children supporting others encourages them to believe their contributions are valuable and needed. The pictures are a great starting place for a discussion about the countless ways people of every age look for opportunities to be helpful to others.
Expand our vision of what helping looks like.
Currently most of the hallway offerings are of younger children, who are eager to learn skills that may seem beyond them. We want photos of older children to illustrate the important concept that one’s abilities to support friends, family, and even strangers increase as our capabilities develop.
We also hope to show even more examples of helping, things that might not immediately spring to mind – listening to a friend, talking on the phone to a grandparent, running an errand, entertaining a baby, picking up trash. It would be fun to post photos of adults trying to be of assistance. Your photos can expand our understanding of what helpfulness means.
Make learning to contribute a priority starting at an early age.
Discussions about helping are important because American children, especially those in middle-income families, rate lower than their peers in many other countries in helpfulness, and in comparison, to those in previous generations, because of their lack of regular household responsibilities and practical life skills like doing their own laundry or sweeping a floor. Our lives are so busy that it can be challenging to find the time and patience to teach children how to do tasks that make them feel self-sufficient and able to support others. This exhibit offers us the chance to reflect on our lifestyles.
The Meher Schools prioritizes teaching children ways to be of service.
Research show there is magic in the process of both teaching and documenting children’s efforts to be useful. When children engage in helpful activities, they feel motivated to do more. At The Meher Schools, we are committed to teaching children to take care of themselves, their environment, and each other, from the time they enter preschool. We hope you will join us in that effort because it is through our abilities to aid and support one another that we will help usher in a more unified world.