Brother Brendan McCarthaigh is the founder of Students Empowerment, Rights and Vision through Education (SERVE)

Brother Brendan arrived in Calcutta in 1960 and since then has made India his home and the reform of the Indian educational system his crusade.

The meet with Brother Brendan McCarthaigh on the 24th of August 2009 was very different from most of the teachers’ meets. The aim of the meet was to have a holistic perspective of the concept of ‘living with difference’. He perceived it in the cosmic sense. It clearly looked at the basic concepts which the PeaceWorks’ program would have to fall back upon. Brother McCarthaigh divided the

session into two parts- the first was to show teachers’ the beauty of having an ‘open overcome fear. I strongly believe that changing our own self is instrinsic to the process of being able to adapt and live with difference. Once we’re able to work on ‘I’, the power of adaptability is much more. This is what he asks teachers’ to do. However, in this process of creating a ‘Little I’ in the child, he urged the teachers’ to allow the free spirit of the child to be moulded into their own individual Identities. Their Identities, from a young age, must not be a mirror reflection of their teacher and this is a very difficult process. This is because we always tend to favour that which our mind grows to like, but the beauty of life is in allowing a child’s

Identity to be unique in itself. In the second half of the session, Brother McCarthaigh spoke to the teachers about how they lived in a shell and did the same routine everyday till they were tired with it. What he noticed was that individuals are sensitive to change and often fear the same. He believed that teachers are role models for their students and fearing change limits the teachers’ from optimizing on the qualities that they possess. He advised them to resist the fear and not think about what people would say. He said that a small change in a routine gets many mouths talking but turning a deaf ear to that would help the child in us feel alive and energetic. He insisted that they ‘make a statement’ and prove to themselves that

they’re not afraid of what people say and are alive even today. He said that the minute anyone felt scared they should force themselves in the face of that fear, to successfully finish their task. This will attract attention but it’ll say something about their freedom. He ended his discussion by saying that if there’s a homogenous society- the world at large would stagnate. He believed that it was important to – ‘Fly free; Fly to the Unknown and Not yet imagined!’

Report by Sharmila Nair