Campus Desk :
Anti-corporal punishment champion Sir Frank Peters has recently been accorded a grand reception at Seven Star Daffodil School in Trimohoni Bazar, Khilgaon in the city. He visited the school with the invitation of its founder Abdul Azim to meet with the pupils who had read so much about him and his anti corporal punishment campaign.
“Sir Frank visited all classrooms, spoke with the pupils, shook hands with many, sat down beside some, played tricks on others and brought joy to all. Although he doesn’t speak Bengali, he knows how to communicate with the children and get them to smile,” said Abdul Azim.
“He gave a pep talk to the students that was interesting, inspiring, motivational and will have a long-lasting positive effect on the pupils. Some of the kids made copious notes what they won’t forget. No doubt he was the no. 1 topic in all their homes that day”, Azim added. In his talk, Sir Frank told the pupils to liken their mind to a bucket of fertile soil; where one can grow weeds similar to negative thinking, or flowers akin to positive thinking.
He said if you put weeds (negative thoughts) into the mind, weeds will grow and if you put in flowers (positive thoughts), then flowers will grow. The mind itself has no prejudices and accepts whatever you feed into it, just as a sponge will soak up dirty or clean water.
He told the pupils to write ‘Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)’ on all their school and exercise books, their laptops etc. as a reminder to always engage a positive mental attitude. Seeing the code PMA will remind them to change their thinking and snap out of their negative coma.
He ending his talk by asking: “Why would you want to punish yourself by carrying around excess baggage of negative thinking in your head? It serves no purpose, occupies valuable space… achieves nothing positive and just makes you feel insecure, miserable and zaps you of valuable energy. Happiness is a state of mind – we are what our thoughts are,” he said.
Sir Frank said: “The school prides itself on its no corporal punishment policy and just to see the sea of happy smiling faces is sufficient evidence why there should be no corporal punishment in any school.”
