Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge

Kiran Bir Sethi - Helping children take charge

Children are often underestimated for their ability to think for themselves, both in and outside of school. Kiran Bir Sethi contradicts these stereotypes with her Riverside School experiment. She says that happiness and passion are contagious, and that I something I agree with. When anyone, be they young or old, is passionate and happy about what they do, they infect you with something Sethi calls the I Can bug.

Now going back to the Riverside School experiment. This school provided a new school environment in India, where the line is blurred between school and the real world. This allows the kids to be more aware of current situations, and the understanding these kids possess empowers them with the I Can bug. What I found extremely inspirational was the videos Kiran Bir Sethi showed of her students going out into the city and evangelizing their beliefs on child labor laws. Their I Can bug turned into We Can as they continued to infect city after city.

This connects so much to us making a difference in the world, which we've talked so much about in class. This may have just been a few students in India, but their perseverance to be heard has infected thousands of schools in India with the I Can bug as well. It makes me feel like we can do the same if we really put our minds to it.

Kiran Bir Sethi herself seems like such a believer. She knew that kids didn't have much power at all in India, yet she pursued this idea anyway. The way she speaks during her talk shows how proud she is of her students, because they achieved this much on their own. This independence is so inspiring, and it was possible because Sethi enabled her students to become inspired and to inspire others.

In the end, what matters is the importance of empowering students to feel like they can make a difference in the world. I feel like our class is already trying their best to show how intellectual we can be through our fishbowls, wikipapers, and even our TED blogs. Children are reaching a whole new level in education and infecting the world with our ideas, and Kiran Bir Sethi's school in India proved that children are important to the world.