Every child is a star born to illuminate the human world’s future with their starlight. For them, their future is a blank book in which they will write their own saga of life with the gift of shining brightness of their unique intelligence, novel perspectives, and wonderful experiences. While discovering their own diverse ways of learning through this landscape of a lifetime, they will create their own distinctive meaning of life.
According to Miss Mona Chadda, “Life itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create meaning. Meaning is not to be discovered. It has to be created. So here I choose to work with kids with diverse learning needs when I made a connection with a student with severe autism while working with different people during college. I have enjoyed working with all the differently-abled children. Although it took a while and took many trials, I was finally able to find a way to communicate with them, and this feeling is really amazing.”
Miss Mona is a psychiatrist, German translator, interpreter, image consultant, life coach, career counsellor, and the Founder and Director of My school. Besides being a German translator/interpreter and a psychiatrist by profession, she is a double Ph.D. holder and worked for 30 years in both these fields simultaneously. She is the author of two books-The Implicit Connection; and The not so different phases. “So, the thought of settling and school was the best thing that could keep up my spirit. I believe learning never ends and there is no age to stop studying. I keep equipping myself by doing many courses which help me to help my profession better,” she says.
The Journey from I Growing into Us
She has worked with many corporate sectors and strongly believes that her life has a purpose that needs to be created. The purpose is to touch many lives with her connections from the past three decades. She runs an Inclusive school which means each class has two students with special needs and the others are neurotypical students. She started ‘My School’ in the year 2011 with a strength of seven students below her multi-storeyed house. In a year’s time, she touched 60 students and she could sense this is what she wanted to do in life. “My brother and his wife supported me as he appreciated my thought process and (my I-to-we journey started). We wanted to name the school which gives a sense of belonging so we named it ‘My School.”
They received good feedback not only from the neuro-typical students but also from their specially-abled kids. “We are a strong foundation for kids to grow in a healthy environment where kids have an attitude to learn, lead and enjoy.” Known for learner-centric and skill-based methodology, they have well-defined classes which prepare the child to understand the world from a real perspective. The aim is to make them learn and not just memorize for the sake of examinations. To study each child before teaching to understand their level of understanding. “Teaching here is a passion and not work.”
My School is not a place just to study the facts in the textbook but a place to understand the way of life. Which has a strength of 25 students in each class where a child learns to accept sportsmanship quality, appreciation, encouragement, participation, and learning. “We kept a beautiful strategy which was 25 kids in one class, out of the two kid who is especially abled and one kid from a difficult walk of life, unable to pay the fees. They, Miss Mona herself and her brother Mr Vaneet Chadda, a Chemical Engineer, decided not to ask for any financial help. And do the best they can do by themselves. “This gave us a huge satisfaction.”
Same Same but Different!
Their passion for the school grew more and more each day. They tried to make a school that they were expecting for their kids. “There are few other things that are different from other schools, the best to count on is our feedback given to the kids. A few years ago, we added a new member who shared the same empathy -Mr Jatin Goyal. A young and energetic person who has completed his operational management. His vision of new methods has helped us to grow more. Our team has also observed that there are good centers for specially-abled kids related to therapy centers, Home-based learning, and so on. However, My School Foundation believes that every child has the right to be educated (irrespective of whether he is a neurotypical or a specially-abled child). Maybe a little slow or maybe SLOW which we believe is okay.” My school believes that every child is like a mystery book thus the school has no bias towards normal kids, special kids, rich or poor, caste and creed, nation and nationality. “What makes our school unique is ‘giving equality to special children and also free education to the needy,” says Miss Mona, adding, “A strong belief is that we are – ‘Same same but different!”
Miss Mona truly wants to make a giant difference in the life of special children and underprivileged children. She believes the least she can do is start with her school, where there is a reserved space for underprivileged children and special children. She has lived her life optimistically. She believes that every child needs a chance. “Today’s children will be leaders of tomorrow,” she feels.
Teaching from the Heart
Sharing her inspiration behind venturing into the educational arena, Miss Mona says throughout her journey of working years, she felt specially-abled children especially those who are with ADHD/Down Syndrome/Spectrum Autism/Slow Learning/Dyslexia/Dysgraphia/Dyscalculia/Cerebral Palsy, do not have acceptance in the education field and the struggle of parents is beyond understanding. “I always had in mind that I should do something for them.” There are inclusive schools, however, it is difficult to be inclusive in the real sense.
These kids need help with Occupational Therapy/Speech Therapy/Group Therapies and so on. Some can financially afford these sessions, and some cannot. “We also teach the parents as to what is required so that they can do it for the child and are not on a guilt trip that ‘I don’t have money so can’t help the child.”
Stating initial changes that she had to surmount to ensure My School’s success rate reached greater heights, Miss Mona says her first concern was to relocate the place from below her house to a bigger space. The second was speaking with people for new admission and their acceptance to be a part of an inclusive school. “We are now proudly standing with 300 like-minded people with acceptance.”
Highlighting her professional value and qualities admired by children and parents, Miss Mona says, “My school strongly believes that – ‘We are Same same but different.”
Their take home 98 % time is that ‘Our kids have empathy, equality, and acceptance for diversity.’ My school parents strongly believe that…
We Create Citizens for Better India
Further revealing the USPs of My School, she says running a truly inclusive school with the correct sense of inclusion is their USP. A student ratio of 25 to 30 in each class with two children specially-abled and one child who is financially weak. Further, My School runs on no loans, and no donations.
As an experienced professional, in her advice to aspirants willing to enter the educational world, Miss Mona says she would like to suggest “To have proper knowledge before you begin with inclusion, don’t depend on only supporters. Specially-abled children are not for Insta-selfies or for any other Social media. Remember it is the connection from heart-to-heart and if you don’t feel don’t enter into this profession.”
On envisioning My School’s operations with the emerging technologies and automated tools that are revolutionizing the business world by enabling innovations, Miss Mona divulges that the technology that they have applied so far is an Active App for the textbooks which has video content of the said chapter. This is very effective as kids can refer and listen and understand ‘n number of times to it.
An Instant and Constant Connect
“At My School, we name it Assistive Technology. We use the Multiple Intelligence Test which works on Naturalistic, Musical, Logical-Mathematical, Existential, Interpersonal, Linguistic, Bodily-Kinaesthetic, Intra-personal, and Spatial intelligence which helps us and the parents the strong points and methods to teach and what career can our children opt for.”
A technology called – Brainwave technology is based on light and VR. This is called a Brainwave Entrainment Technique. It improves focus and reduces hyperactivity by naturally controlling neural activity and increasing neuroplasticity.
In her other activities, Miss Mona has conducted many seminars and training sessions with MBA colleges, air hostess institutions, and pilot training. She has touched on topics like relationship management, anger management, parenting, and soft-skill training. She has a rare ability to leave an electrifying impact on her knowledge and training to the student or listener.
As a speaker, Miss Mona has delivered uncommonly original results and useful insights. She has trained around 9000 people in the last thirty years. She believes connection once made is made forever. She has a deep sense of empathy with all age groups and the connection is implicit. “Irrespective of time and distance, whenever people meet me, we connect on the same page and same wavelength,” concludes Miss Mona.
