“WATCH LESS AND ONLY THE BEST”

Our story of change from

The Voxpop International School

Sakshara, Sharanya ,Virinchi ,Shriya ,Sheetal

Mentor: Mrs.Uma

STEP 1: FEEL• Amidst the various issues faced by children, we considered the

most vulnerable one as the TELEVISION ,which when not utilized properly creates a lot of behavioral change in them.

Heavy television watching is likely to

• affect performance in school.

• may even affect children's development.

• Create great risk in becoming overweight.

• Affect natural sleeping rhythms thus may result in daytime fatigue and other health problems.

• TV viewing in infants and toddlers is linked to irregular sleeping patterns

Seeing the problem in our friends

• We took a survey among our

friends on the different channels

watched by them and also the

time spent before T.V. at home.

• We checked for children who spent

a lot of time before T.V and were really

shocked to see that they all have

under-performed in school.

• We also found that many of those kids

watched programs like serials,

reality shows, etc. not suitable

for their age.(confirmed in the picture

taken in our friends house)

ILL-EFFECTS & ROOT CAUSES• All these children exhibited violent

behavior and care-free attitude.

• They were all less interested in class

with drooping eyes.

• We had a discussion with our friends

to find out why they watch such

programs.

The prime two reasons were:

Due to the unknown influence of

elders

They were not aware of informative

channels

STEP 2: IMAGINEWe discussed the various possibilities of bringing up a significant change addressing the issue in a week’s time. Many ideas popped up.

Repeated and effective counselling with everyday positive check on the routine of children.

Ban the T.V connection at home.

Persuade the parents to have remote locks for channels.

Send the children for tuitions.

WHY COUNSEL???

• We believed that the change brought in by constant encouragement will last forever than just by controlling in a forceful manner.

• We planned COUNSELLING in 2 parts

One for the parents and grandparents.

Second for the children(our friends)

STEP 3: DO

We invited parents and grand parents of identified children and spoke to themabout “Children of today’s generation and the demands from them” .We also gave them leaflets in which there were many requests like

• To watch serials when the kids are away from home.• To discuss with children about current affairs everyday.• To spend time with them in indoor games, outdoor games ,etc

FOR THE CHILDREN

• We motivated children to read newspaper and watch news everyday.• We also said that a child will be called upon in assembly and he/she has to say a glimpse of news what they had watched the previous day which in turn carries grades to their respective school House groups.• So this made all the children to tune towards NEWS channels.• We gave them ideas about various informative channels and their timings.• They were given books from library everyday and were asked to say about it the next day before a group of children.

MONITORING the activities• We, the team took the responsibility

of checking on the kids everyday .

• We called upon 3 children everyday

on a random pick and they were

asked about the news.

• They all came up with the headlines

and other news everyday.

• Some of them even wrote on a paper and read out to the other kids.

• And we have implemented this as part of our assembly itself and not just for the week alone.

• We also saw that the children enacted the story they had read

from the book what we gave.

• We asked about their everyday routine and we saw that they were showing great improvement in the completion of their homework in addition to the assigned activities.

CHANGE AFTER A WEEK• From the details recorded, we saw that the children are

spending less time on T.V.

• Though it was by force in the beginning( ie, as they have to report on the next day), we believe that as they do it everyday they get habituated and at point they themselves will watch LESS T.V and also ONLY THE BEST.

• We recognized their co – operation by giving small prizes, which encouraged them to keep continuing it.

• We received many testimonials from parents appreciating our effort which has really brought a change in them at home.

• Parents started playing with children and they had expressed the change in them too.

• We were very happy to know that “WE TOO CAN BRING CHANGE TO PROBLEMS”

How we are changed• Parents called us home to show the change which enabled us to

capture the change through pictures.

• We learnt the joy of doing a change in others lives for the better. We also learnt many skills like organizing a project, planning for it, implementing it .

• As part of monitoring the kids , we also started watching news channels a lot that improved our knowledge in current affairs.

From parents

• Thanks to the “Design for change contest” for bringing a change in us and in our friends. We are happy to be a part of it.

• Here are some testimonials from parents.

• Number of children participated :75(15 per head in the team)

• Number of children impacted : 65