Described well by Daniel Goleman, he says, “I am kind of pizzled, this word has entered our lexicon; a combination of puzzled and pissed, it captured the feeling people had back then when the person they were with suddenly whipped out a Blackberry and began conversing with someone else. People felt hurt and ignored in such moments. Now it is the norm”.

Children are the vanguard of our future. An average of more than 100 texts a day on phones and now almost 5 to 6 hours screen time is also worrying in various ways. Many times they are unaware of what’s happening around them and are clueless about how to interact with a person for any length of time.

Today children are attuning more to machines than people which is not known in human history. The social and emotional circuitry of a child’s brain learns from conversations and connections with people they meet in the entire day. They hardly see or meet anyone. This will bring in deficits.

The art of reading the non-verbal is at stake. While making a point or explaining a concept the nonverbal was picked up quickly by the peers or the teacher.  They may be absolutely adroit at key boards but observing the dismay of others while talking and having a conversation face to face has diminished. The children will definitely miss those soul searching discussions they had when they were with friends at birthdays, concerts, break times etc. The basics of attention or cognition where you follow a story, create, learn or just see a task through to the end may not be completely at stake but the core mental skills will be a red flag. Youngsters need time away from the hawk eye of parents, have secret conversations with friends. Just the ‘let your hair down’ feeling.

Schools and parents have ensure that they socialize frequently, even if it’s just to chat, without an outcome. There has to be a mutual focus on this issue. At Global Indian International School we are completely aware of these issues children and staff might face during these times. Heartfulness has been a conscious initiative since Pre-Covid time to ensure the emotional wellbeing of children.

GIIS is ensures that academics is done in full rigor without losing focus on the most basic human element. Our children, when they come out on the other side of COVID need to be emotionally and socially stable humans. GIIS is mindful of this and has its unique 9 GEMS curriculum woven around it.