I experienced a serious shock this morning when I wished my 5th standard students a Happy Thanksgiving and they replied with blank, bored expressions. As an American, I had completely taken it for granted that everyone must know Thanksgiving.
So I of course took the opportunity to inform them of the amazing holiday when we eat a huge bird stuffed with bread and sausage with sides of buttery mashed potatoes, gravy, and my personal favorite, cranberry sauce from a can!
The real fun started though when I explained the tradition of giving thanks before hunkering down for our ridiculously fat feasts. The children immediately wanted to try it out.
While many of the students buttered us up sharing their gratitude for "Callie didi and Sneha didi," others expressed gratitude for their mothers and fathers who do everything for them so they can attend school and for their best friends who always share food when they don't have any to bring for lunch and who bring them notebooks to do their homework in when they are absent.
Below Namrata shares her thanks for doctors while Anjali and Sumit express their thankfulness for Teach for India and their school:
Once everyone had a turn, I asked the students to reflect on how it felt to express their gratitudes in front of the class. Below, Prajaya shares an insight that I think is a pretty universal fear that may block many of us from expressing our thanks daily:
So my challenge for those lucky enough to have made it this far in the post is the same values homework that I assigned the students in school today: go out and tell someone you are thankful for that you are thankful for them!
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