I volunteer at Meri Pathshala after school, and I work with a writing group of seven children. They are all different ages, but most of them struggle more with confidence than with writing itself. Tanmay, who is twelve, struggles the most.
On my first day he kept his notebook firmly shut. Every time I asked him to write even a single word, he repeated the same sentence. “If I make a mistake the class will laugh at me.” He was not being stubborn, he was scared, I knew that feeling.
I told him we could tear the page if he wanted. Nothing he wrote needed to be shown to anyone except me. He looked unsure, but after a long pause, he agreed.
That day he wrote his first sentence, his handwriting was crooked and the spacing was uneven. There were so many mistakes in almost every line. But I was happy that he wrote. And when he finished, he looked at me with a mixture of fear and expectation, as if he was waiting for me to laugh at him too.
I said quietly, “Tanmay, this is very good.” He smiled and I think he felt confident. We have been working together for four months now. The progress is slow, but it is real. Last week, after many weeks of small steps, he managed to write a short paragraph about his favourite cricket player. There were still many mistakes and his handwriting is very untidy, but for the first time he wrote without shutting his notebook halfway. We still have a long way to go, but he is moving forward.
For my writing group I now follow a simple plan
- one confidence building writing task each day
- pages where mistakes are allowed and expected
- shared writing time so they learn from one another
- weekly writing goals for each child
- a courage chart that rewards effort rather than perfection
I am only 19, but Tanmay has already taught me something important, that the biggest barrier to learning is often the fear of being wrong.
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