Amit Deshwal I am part of a small community learning space for children called ‘A Little Grove’. Currently we are a group of 20 children, the youngest being a four year-old and the oldest 19. At ‘A Little Grove’ we attempt to create a small space, where children are free to explore their own interests and concerns, free to discover their meaning of life. It is an attempt to create a democratic learning and living space for children wherein different ways of knowing and learning are not only respected but also encouraged. Children not only decide what they wish to do in the space but also take part in deciding how the centre functions. Each child is unique; hence we do not follow any fixed curriculum. Everyone here is encouraged to follow their heart and carve out a curriculum and time-table for themselves. In many ways the space is a lot different from a regular school. However, one thing I particularly like is how, because we do not have classes, children of mixed age groups can be seen working, learning and living together. When I was in school, I had spent most of my time with children from my age group. Hardly would I get to be with those younger or older than me. I would attend classes with children who belonged to my age group, play with them and also have lunch only with them. How mixed age group children learn with each other is something that I would like to particularly touch upon when we are discussing the need of counsellors in schools. In a situation wherein children of mixed age group spend time together, learn and live together, we get to observe a lot of interesting things happening. We see children of different ages having food together, playing together. Frequently we get to see how the older children take care of the younger ones, teach them some things that they need to learn and how the younger ones invariably go to them whenever they are stuck with something. I particularly remember one such instance. We all had gone out for a walk into a nearby forest. We had walked to a place with a small pond and lots of trees around. The children were playing. Some of them sat down to do their drawings. It was almost time to go when a four year-old came to me and said that he had soiled his pants. I did not know what to do.

Chintan Girish Modi Yashvi Gada loved her counsellors at school, and there are a number of reasons for that – from how young they looked to how pleasant their voices sounded to her, from the vibes they gave off to how they commanded respect without asking for it, from how they could be trusted with keeping things confidential to how they did not seem biased towards anyone in particular and were nice, open and caring towards each and every student. She liked approaching them to discuss things she felt concerned about. Mujahid Ali Khan sought the help of his school counsellor after he was diagnosed with dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia. He got all the support he wanted with respect to the mandatory tests and certifications required by the government. However, he is not sure of what else the school counsellor did during her work hours. There was an air of secrecy surrounding her cabin, and the school apparently did little to clarify or explain her role to the students. He wonders if he would feel comfortable sharing personal details and emotional issues with someone who was essentially a stranger. Ishaan Jajodia never went to a school counsellor but now wishes that he had. In the first school he studied at, he was unaware of the fact that there was someone available to him if he wanted to go and talk. He thinks that the school did a terrible job of communicating with students about what was on offer. He later found out that friends of his with learning disabilities had benefited significantly from that professional support. His second school was more effective at communication; the counselling department had an active outreach programme, and they would talk to groups of students about mental health, growth and development instead of addressing only children dealing with specific problems. He liked these counsellors because they had gained trust by building strong bonds with the student community, instead of using positions of authority to alter student behaviour in a normative way. All the three people mentioned above completed their schooling in India between one to three years ago, and are now college students. They were enrolled at schools that share certain similarities but also exhibit some differences in their approach to providing a counselling service. They do not constitute a scientifically selected sample of individuals but their stories appear to affirm some of the conclusions drawn by Claire L. Fox and Ian Butler in an article titled “‘If you don’t