HUMILITY

Lesson point 1: What’s the point in being humble?

Activity 1-Give Away

Arrange all the students together and divide them in pairs. Give a gift/candy (any one of two you choose) to one of the student in each pair. Now ask the students who didn’t get the gift/candy how they feel? Make them to jot it down. And ask the students who have the gift/candy how it feels and ask them too to jot it down. Now ask the students who have the gift/candy to give the gift/candy to the students who don’t have. They might find it difficult to give it to the other student.

Debrief: Ask the students who gave the gift/candy, how did they feel giving their gift/candy to the other person? Explain to the students that it is painful at times to give away something that you own, but at the same time it gives us a joy when we give, it makes us humble.

• So, what is humility? Does it mean that we do not become competitive at all? No! True humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's not being outwardly humble, while harbouring pride. And it's not being weak. It about putting others before yourself. True humility is accepting defeats and criticisms as graciously as you would embrace victories and compliments.

• Humility is a virtue facing extinction. As we live in a highly competitive world, our success means someone else’s failure. If you clear an entrance exam, it means someone else has failed, if you get a job placement it means someone else could not. So the prospect of being humble and putting others before ourselves is growing dimmer.

• Just imagine the following situations:

  • Your favourite sports team just became champions. How will you interact with your classmates who supported the defeated team?

  • You are stuck in a traffic jam. How do people normally respond when they see another car waiting to cut into the line?

  • When a particular political party wins, how do they talk about their opponents?

  • When you get a new gadget which none of your friends have, how do you show it around?

In all of these situations, it is most likely that people respond with pride and arrogance rather than with grace and humility.

• There are two ways of living our lives - one is a “me-centric” living and the other is an “other-centric” living. We all have pride in some form or the other. Pride is a by-product of a me-centric living where everything is centered around my own desires and likes. We have many examples of people who are proud about their appearance, achievements or resources. While it is not wrong to have those things, it is dangerous to live a life just for oneself.

• But there is a beauty in living an other-centric life. Those who have lived “other-centric” lives were able to create a lasting impact on the world. Take the story of Mother Teresa who won the Nobel prize for Peace. She dedicated her whole life for the sake of poorest of the poor, the unwanted in the society and served them with love and humility. Humility is a virtue but it is also a choice, a choice to live a life that is untouched by pride, a life which looks to be a source of comfort and joy to others.

VIDEO 1: APJ Abdul Kalam SIMPLICITY and HUMILITY

Lesson Point 2: Why we should be humble…??

Illustration 1:

Rima and Gita were selected for the student president post. Within a week’s time all the student’s had to choose between Rima and Gita as to who will become the president.

Rima was a girl who was very humble and helpful; she was always ready to help her classmates in their homework and studies. She was very cheerful and always had a smile on her face. She was loyal in her work and very respectful to her teachers. When she made mistakes, she apologized and accepted her mistakes. But on the other hand, Gita was the opposite of Rima; she was very boastful, and arrogant. She never helped her classmates instead she would create problems for them. She had a proud attitude since her father was a rich businessman. She disobeyed her teachers and was a problem to everyone in the class.

So, on the day of school election all the students decided to vote for Rima because she was humble, loving and helpful. And so, Rima won the election and she pledged to help her friends in every possible way and everyone were very happy.

Teach the students about the importance of humility in the society and that people like, appreciate and respect people who are humble. Explain to the students that humility brings joy and happiness to self and to others.

Activity 2: Pride vs Humility

Present children with a series of scenarios where they can choose to be proud or humble, such as winning a game, getting an A on a test or giving someone a gift. Have children give a boastful response and a humble response to the scenario. For example, a child could pretend to brag about winning the game to demonstrate boastful behavior and say "good game" to the other players to demonstrate humility. Talk about how everyone involved would feel for each scenario to emphasize why choosing to be humble is the better option.

Role play:

1) You Have a Lot of Friends who invite you to play with them. Pride Statements: I’m so popular. Everyone likes me. Everyone wishes I was their friend. Humility Statements: I have such nice friends. I’m so glad Allie invited me over.

2) You audition for the Choir and You Get in. Pride Statements: I have an amazing voice. They’re lucky to have me. Humility Statements: I’m glad I practiced. I’m so excited to be in this choir. Thanks for helping me practice my audition piece.

3) You got a scholarship and you are very happy about it. Act out how will you be humble in this situation and how will you be prideful.

4) Make small groups with four to five children in each group. Ask them to enact a small skit as to how can they show humility.

Lesson point 3: Cultivating genuine humility

As we live in a world that celebrates brashness, we must take intentional efforts to cultivate humility. Here are some practical ways of living in humility.

• Be thankful. Never take things for granted or be proud about your appearance, gifting’s or resources. Know that you are indebted to a million other people for your well-being.

• Genuinely appreciate goodness and talents of other people, especially your opponents! Be gracious in giving appreciation and stingy in giving criticism.

• Ask and accept feedback from others, especially from people elder to you. You may not like what they say but it will help you move ahead in life. Admit mistakes and move on.

• Be gentle and always be ready to help others and to show kindness to others.

• When you excel and succeed, share the credit with everyone involved. For example, former Indian Cricket captain M.S Dhoni would not only never take credit for his own performance but also defend his players when they did not do well.

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