LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION TOOLKIT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN INDIA 5•
Linking Learning With Life
Are your friends any of the four types discussed today? Could they be helpful to you? Say, you are a
plunger but a friend is a delayer and helps you to think through a problem.
You, on the other hand, see danger quickly, and make sure your friend gets out of the situation
quickly. When can their behavior or ‘type’ create trouble for you? An example could be if both are
“plungers.” In this case, you may get into a risk situation such as stealing very quickly or going along
with friends to a sex worker.Experience from the field
Adolescents were able to make out the difference between plunger, wader and tester. (CCDT, Mumbai).
The children pretended that there was an imaginary lake and they were standing in front of it. One by
one, they said what they would do. Their responses fitted easily into the four types. The children then
imitated all the four actions and enjoyed doing so. (Positive Living Project, Namakkal).
The example related to food did not work very well with street children, as hunger is an important
concern. The next time around I tried something different. I asked the children if a stranger offered them
food when they were very hungry, what would they do? I got a lot of different responses:
“If it is good and edible, we would eat it.”
“If it is bad say like gutka (a type of addictive tobacco), we will refuse to take it.”
“We would try it and continue eating it if it is good, otherwise we will throw it away.”
“I will taste it. If it is bad, I will not allow my friend to eat it because I love him.”
After this, it was very easy for children to do the linking learning with life activity and they could relate it
to the time when they had run away, fallen into bad company and started smoking and drinking.
(PCI, Delhi).