Madhya Pradesh kids de-stress by saying sorry, thank you'

Bhopal: School children in Madhya Pradesh are now busy mastering the art of saying ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’, a de-stressing mechanism devised by the newly constituted happiness department of the state government.

Students in 25 upper primary and high schools, run by the state government, in Bhopal district are currently being taught the foundation course of happiness, tipped to promote a sense of humility in them, a senior officer of the happiness department told this newspaper here on Friday.

“Modules, based on the dictum- humility begets happiness-, have been prepared by the department to help school students cope with pressure of studies and learn to face challenges in life gracefully.

Twenty five government-run schools in Bhopal district have been chosen for introduction of the modules for the students as course of study as a pilot project.

Later, the modules will be introduced for other schools in the state based on the feedback on the impact of the pilot project”, the officer disclosed unwillingly to be quoted.

According to him, select teachers have been imparted training on teaching the modules to the students in these schools.

“We teach the students the art of saying ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’. We tell them that they should say ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’ politely so that they will sound sincere when they say these words”, a teacher of Raja Bhoj Upper Primary School here told this newspaper.

“We have noticed that the students are no longer hesitant to confess their mistakes after they learned the art of saying ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’”, Naresh Yadav, another teacher, said.

The modules are tipped to help cultivate in the students’ sense of forgiveness and gratefulness, besides developing a positive mindset in them.