Chennai: David Samson who was honoured with the prestigious 'best entrepreneur of the year' by the Entrepreneur Council of India a few months ago for his contribution to the field of pre-schooling, recently bagged an award for his institute 'ID International Pre-School'.
Talking about his institute being recognised as one of the top 5 pre-schools in the city by School Consultant India, the marketer-turned-entrepreneur explains, "Nowadays it is common to wake up seeing news of student suicides. Here we try to bridge the gap between the child and the parents at an early stage itself, so when the child reaches adolescence, s/he will be comfortable opening up to parents. Understanding the psychology of the child at a tender age is really crucial," asserts David.
Speaking about how his pre-school is unique, he says it is a school run by a psychologist who knows that dealing with children demands utmost care and affection. Maximum stress is laid upon the mental well being of children, which is why teachers' recruitment is done with some introspection.
"For us every child is special, which is why it is important to respect a child; they are very good observers. Some children are found to be very aggressive; it is not wrong to reason out that s/he has adopted that kind of behaviour from an acquaintance," notes the 29-year-old entrepreneur, who is also a psychologist practising for five years now.
Teachers have an important role to play in moulding a child into a responsible adult, David believes, and for that reason he takes it upon himself to personally train people. “We recruit only those who have a love for children, he says. Though personally not involved in teaching, David makes it a point to spend at least 15 minutes with the students every day and also makes it for dance classes twice a week. Well-trained in western dance, the dance enthusiast sees dance as one way of uplifting a child's self-esteem.
"It's more about observing your movements while you dance; there is a separate dance studio at the school where the kids get to dance in front of a wall mirror- that way they become self-conscious, which ultimately leads to better self-esteem along with a higher concentration level," notes David, who did his research on "The effect of dance therapy intervention on self-esteem and well-being among adolescents and kids".
David's school also has a place for special children. "Every year we have one or two special children. We take the ones at a mild stage and don't treat them any differently. We help them get used to the normal school environment so later they don't find it difficult to cope with the outside world," he notes, adding that parents also have to accept them as they are.
The psychologist is also the recipient of several awards including the Star of Rotaract 2014-15, Best Rotaract President Award 2015-16, etc. Keeping up with the age of technology, David also mulls over introducing a few app-based tests and simultaneously alerting children to the wrong use of these otherwise smart interventions.
