In February 2009, the Department of Sociology and the Developing Countries Research Centre (DCRC) at University of Delhi organised an International Dialogue on Citizenship and Civic Education: Pedagogy, Process, Practice. His Holiness the Dalai Lama concluded the Seminar that was held between February 11-13. The panel consisted of about twenty-five educationists from aross the world. Dr. Pascal Chazot was part of the Seventh panel: ‘Looking ahead-Insights, Perceptions and Practice’. He spoke about how civic responsibility is inculcated in the students at MGIS.
He emphasized that the message was the medium, and that civic responsibility had to be learnt through responsible action, not lectures. He also underlined that the school community is the ideal platform to learn responsibility. In their day to day interaction, students have ample opportunities to learn to meet deadlines, respect commitments, acknowledge other’s rights, live in a community and cooperate to work towards a common goal etc. While working on class projects that require interaction with the outside world while being relevant and meaningful to the students at the same time, students learn real responsibilities. They learn to deal with real issues which have direct bearing for others around him. It makes him realize that his actions affect others also. If the content of the project is driven by social and environmental issues, it makes the students actively involved in civic issues and gives them a heightened sense of responsibility towards those issues. For example, in the documentary films made with Bernard Marescot as their guide, the students reached out to the professionals working on the streets. They communicated with them, engaged in their struggle for survival and documented it to make their stories heard.
It would be apt to mention Gandhi ji’s quote at this point: ‘My life is my message‘ . We are indeed judged by our actions rather than what we say.