For 11-year-old Meenakshi, her school is her favourite place on earth, especially since her teacher is Kaushlesh Misra.
“I have great fun in Sir’s class. He teaches us dance. I was shy to dance before, but not anymore, I can happily dance even in front of a crowd,” she giggled.
Meenakshi studies in class 5 at the primary school in Bhavani Dinpur village, in Raebareli, about 80 kilometres away from the state capital Lucknow. Kaushlesh Misra, their teacher, is helping in the all-rounded development of the students by making music and dance a part of their regular routine in school.
Recently, a video of the children dancing along with their teacher Misra went viral on social media and was greatly appreciated.
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“We were practising for the Independence Day celebrations and our principal Umesh Dwivedi liked our dance and uploaded a video of the practice session,” said Misra. Since then the school teacher has received so many calls and messages appreciating the video.
Misra said he was always fond of dance and he has just brought that love into the classroom. “Fortunately my family supported me. I know many people who felt boys should not dance,” he laughed.
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As the children dance with him, they are also learning, said Misra. “They learn calculations through the rhythms, through the taal (beats),” he explained.
Misra used dance to attract the children to school. “Usually they would take the Fridays and Saturdays off and not show up in school. So I hit upon the idea of introducing activities based around dance, music, painting, acting and so on, on Saturdays, and gradually the children started attending school on those days,” Misra said.