It was a class like none other with 1, 400 school children assembling at Gurajada Kalakshetram to listen to Dr K Radhakrishna, a city-based paediatrician and a city-based psychologist Satish Valiveti. The 90-minute talk was about wellness of adolescents organised by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Vizag Achievers. Apart from spreading awareness about a very crucial issue (according to the World Health Organisation in 2016 more than a million adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age died due to preventable or treatable causes), the event was also to set a Guinness World Record for the ‘Largest Adolescents Awareness Lesson.’
- Half of all mental health disorders start by age 14, but most cases are undetected and untreated
- Across the globe, each year 44 out of 1000 births are given by teenage girls who are 15 to 19 years old
- Top five causes for death in adolescents: Road accidents, pneumonia, suicide, diarrhoeal diseases, drowning
- Adolescents need: families who care and protect; prompt healthcare response; schools that promote healthy development; transport system that is safe; laws to protect their rights
The organisers have submitted the video recording of the session along with other documents as per the Guinness guidelines to the people concerned. The results are expected to be announced in 12 weeks.
Walk the talk
Dr Radhakrishna spoke of the different challenges faced by adoloscents - from identity crisis to biological changes. “ These can be overwhelming . That’s why it’s important to talk about them with the people you trust,” he said. Bottling up emotions could lead to detrimental changes in personality and the psyche he warned. Focus on holistic development of students rather than academic success, he advised.
Before giving his talk, psychologist Satish The students watched a five-minute scene from the movie Facing the Giants, where a coach motivates an American football player to push his limits in training, before psychologist began his address. (The video is available on YouTube as ‘The Death Crawl’ scene from Facing the Giants.) “I showed this video to explain how success and self belief are two sides of the same coin,’ he explained.
Satish has been a motivational speaker for 19 years and has conducted several workshops for children and parents in more than 50-schools in Visakhapatnam. “In my experience, I’ve learnt most adolescents struggle to deal with failure and have low self esteem,” he said. “That’s why the focus of the talk was on ways to develop self-belief,” he added.
Satish’s high-energy presentation kept the students on the edge of their seats. Satish had activities for them in one of which he asked a student to join him on the stage and have him hold an object. “Before the count of three, the object should leave your hands. Ifit doesn’t happen, I’ll pour water on you,” he warned. In each round, the participant had to find a different place to keep the object. In the last round, the participant, ran out of ideas and tried to hold the object with his mouth... but he couldn’t. Satish did not pour water as he had threatened but explained instead, “Once you see your duties as ‘must do’ instead of ‘should do’ you will build a mindset which finds new ways to get things done instead of procrastinating.”
Satish also demonstrated the importance of visualising goals and prioritizing tasks on a daily basis in order to become successful. “I had a great time today. No one talks about motivation and positive mindsets. The topics of discussion at home and in schools are invariably about academics,” said Navya Harsha, an 11th grade student from Bhashyam College who found the session very helpful.