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Journalism of Courage
I attended a local school in our small mountain town, and when I look back and try to capture the memories, what comes to my mind are hours spent running up and down the hills, climbing trees, getting into lots of trouble, a sense of community, belonging, learning, and above all, so much fun. If I ask you to look back at your school years, I am sure it evokes strong emotions and memories -of joy, belonging, laughter and maybe of pain, rejection and
loneliness.
We carry our schools in our hearts forever. I have definitely carried mine. It has strengthened my belief, a deep faith, that if we want to bring about a social change, then we have to go back to schools. In that context, I would like to share three ideas with you.
It takes a child to raise a village. Our problem as adults is that we think we know better. We see children as passive recipients of our so-called wisdom. I use the words so-called wisdom” as we have made a huge mess of it; climate crisis, genocides, wars, escalating mental health problems, suicides, systematic destruction of our mountains, oceans, forests, and wildlife. So yes, we have not done a very good job of it. So maybe it is time we put our so-called wisdom aside and hear our children’s voices.
If we look around the world, it is the young voices like Greta Thunberg that are questioning the most powerful voices on genocide and the climate crisis. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Children are curious, they question, they have a strong sense of justice, and they question the taken-for-granted ideas.
I have been a therapist for over thirty years, but my hope and faith is that if we have to bring about a social change, then the future of mental health is not in the clinics but in the schools, colleges and in the community.
We heal in kinships and not in silos. Two 13-year-old girls, tired of all the hush-hush around menstrual periods, approached their teacher, demanding to know why, despite all the sex education classes, there was so much secrecy about periods. The wise teacher got all the children together in circle time, both boys and girls, and opened up this question. The girls led the conversation passionately. After the initial hesitation and heated debate, she was amazed at the rich interaction that followed. The boys were very curious and asked questions they had been too scared to ask before. The sanitary napkins were passed around for them to touch. The result of that debate was a beautiful period box, prominently placed in the classroom, to be kept stocked at all times with sanitary pads, panty liners, a manual, and a care package. Every child took responsibility for the box by turns. The girls led this ripple and took this idea to the principal and then to the school assembly.
The children may have learned something that day that would change their lives forever. About subversive courage, gender justice, speaking up, collective care, teachers as catalysts for change, and solidarity. For me, that is the heart of education.
Think of all the struggles we are facing at a global level – climate crisis, gender-based violence, genocides, wars, economic inequality, technological and ethical challenges, polarisation and hatred. How transformative would it be if we could hold mini-summits in schools on these themes? What if these became part of our school curriculum across the ages? What if, rather than adults, children led these convenings? What would it do to our children? We have to grow up with our children and for our children. What other place to bring about social change but in schools?
A tree can only be as strong as the forest that surrounds it (a quote by forester Peter Wohlleben, author of Hidden Life of Trees) One of the biggest problems of the mental health systems is that it locates the problem in the child – they are depressed/anxious/suicidal, and we have to fix them, like a car that has broken down. The problem is not in our children but in the socio-cultural context we are bringing up our children in, where their worth is being decided by some warped standards.
Have you ever wondered why it is that, despite the growing number of psychiatrists, psychologists, and counsellors in our country, the mental health struggles are growing exponentially? Are we asking the wrong questions and looking for solutions in the wrong places?
Can we find the solution to the mental health struggles unless we address the oppressive notions of success, worth, and beauty? Can individualistic treatment practices heal the unjust social structures? Are we missing the forest for the trees?
If we have to make our trees stronger, then we have to go to our schools, colleges and the community. Like the period box story, we can only find a way forward by respecting the local knowledge and wisdom. Imagine if we had conversations on how social media industries, beauty and fitness industries exploit our minds and bodies, on discrimination, loneliness, and how all these can intersect to impact our mental health. Maybe only through these dialogues will we find a way forward and co-create lasting solutions.
I wonder if you remember that experience of walking into a forest – it is like we are walking into a buzzing hub of diversity and aliveness. We know, thanks to some amazing research on what is also called the wood-wide-web, that trees are not individualistic creatures; they look out for one another. That is what we need to build in our schools: that buzzing sense of aliveness, where every child contributes to that aliveness and diversity.
Where every child grows up with the belief that “I am worthy, I belong, and I am not just a brick in the wall, and I can contribute to my forest.” No matter what class, caste, gender, sexuality, or religion they came from. The question we have to ask ourselves is – are we building brick factories or are we nourishing forests?
We all carry part of the forest – as children, as parents, teachers, mental health professionals, philanthropists, policy makers, and community workers. Our forest will face storms. Storms are inevitable. Of patriarchy, violence, abuse, discrimination, marginalisation, and poverty. It is our roots and our forest that keep us strong and together. Because we are as strong as the forest that surrounds us.
