– By Ophelia Lobo, Middle School English Teacher and Certified L1 SEE Learning Facilitator

The vision of Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community comes alive every day in small yet powerful ways among the children and adults in the Community. Jhamtse Gatsal has always encouraged its community members to invest in personal transformation through various compassion and mindfulness-based practices. While we consciously imbibe compassion in our way of being, we wanted to learn about the science of compassion more deeply and bring a more informed approach to our educational landscape. We met this need through SEE Learning (Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning), a versatile K-12 international learning program from His Holiness the Dalai Lama with support from Emory University, Atlanta, USA.

Jhamtse Gatsal’s curricular model of Educating the Heart, Mind, and Body to develop compassion to nurture, wisdom to guide, and skill to serve overlaps with the three Dimensions of SEE Learning—Awareness, Compassion, and Engagement, respectively. Our Founder and Director, Gen Lobsang Phuntsok La, always envisioned making this holistic approach accessible to more schools and communities. This steered the team at Jhamtse Gatsal to host an ‘Orientation cum Taste of SEE Learning’ session on 21 June 2023, followed by an immersive SEE Learning program ‘3-Day Educator Prep Workshop’ for around 110 educators from the Tawang District from 26-28 June 2023.

This workshop series was facilitated by Reshma Piramal, Head SEE Learning India, and me, Ophelia Lobo, Certified Level 1 SEE Learning Facilitator. The educators got to understand how the SEE Learning curriculum was developed as an outcome of His Holiness’ vision for a compassionate world. The educators also got to experience some of the tools and practices that help foster these capacities in children and themselves. The interactions, discussions, and activities have inspired and empowered these educators to take this body of work to their classrooms.

The key concepts that serve as the foundation of this curriculum—such as compassion, self-awareness, understanding emotions in context, resilience, interdependence, and systems thinking—were covered in great detail. While the 3-day workshop was a blend of theory and hands-on activities, educators also got a chance to engage and demonstrate a few of their Learning Experiences (as they are called) from the K 12 SEE Learning curriculum so they may understand and experience how the curriculum can be facilitated with their students. Additionally, resiliency-based capacities, such as Help Now Strategies, Resourcing, and Grounding (also known as Personal Practices), were introduced and practiced over the three days.

The educators are very invested in the cultivation of the social, emotional, and ethical development of their students. They understand the value this brings to a wholesome education. As a team of educators, we have committed to also practice these ethics in our daily lives and to remain engaged in this work through more sessions, meetings, and workshops.

Jhamtse Gatsal is not only a children’s community for our little kindred spirits, it is also manifesting itself as a spirited and holistic learning center for teacher training, personal and professional transformation, community development, widespread educational collaboration, and a hopeful and compassionate tomorrow for our youth.

While this training has opened some interesting avenues to engage with the wider community in the Tawang district, we hope to spread the vision of Jhamtse through SEE Learning across the state of Arunachal Pradesh and beyond.

In closing and in the spirit of all the learning received during the workshop, I realize that I would be remiss if I didn’t express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to our donors and supporters across the world for making such learning accessible to us teachers of life at Jhamtse Gatsal and within the region. We are able to do this work because you stand tall behind us.

Thank you for believing in us and supporting us.

A Holistic Approach to Education - Educating the Heart and Mind