Character Development
The Sathya Sai School of Toronto-Canada is instrumental in spreading universal human values to both children and adults across the country. Our future leaders – local, national, and global – will need to embody these values in order to bring about world peace and unity, and ensure the well-being of our planet for future generations.
The universal human values of Truth, Peace, Love, Right Conduct and Non-violence form the foundation of Sathya Sai School’s character education program. The most important feature of all Sathya Sai Schools is that our specially trained teachers, with Character Development diplomas, teach with Love.
Character Development is an integral part of the daily curriculum. It is facilitated at our school through a number of school programs, which encourage the cultivation of noble ideals in students. These include:
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Teacher as exemplar. This lies at the heart of Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV). Since children learn through example, teachers act as role models by being committed to living the values and nurturing these values in their students.
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Daily classes in SSEHV, which is comprised of five teaching techniques:
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Thought for the Day: Filling the mind daily with good thoughts purifies the mind, thus developing positive thinking and actions.
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Light Meditation: Focusing on inner light improves concentration, memory, peacefulness, self-regulation, and intuition.
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Songs: Teaching songs based on values to expand the heart and mind, creating feelings of peace, love and unity among everyone.
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Story Telling: Inspiring students with stories of exemplary people/actions and teaching how to apply these to everyday life.
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Group Activities: Conducting role plays, discussions, and doing creative work which teach students how to work and play together in a harmonious way.
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Integration of the human value for the day, into all the academic subjects taught during the day, such as Math, Science, Language, Social Studies and French.
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Yoga classes to improve student concentration, calmness, and their physical, emotional and spiritual health.
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Sports to encourage equality and team cooperation toward a common goal.
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School-wide assemblies covering particular values, multicultural events, world religion festivals, service projects, guest speakers.
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Application of the values in students’ daily life, through classroom code of conduct, class assignments, group work, special activities.
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Leadership training through enabling students to take the lead in many school activities and projects.
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Service projects in school, at home, in the community, and across the globe.
Service Projects
“If you lift the hand to serve, to help, to console, to encourage another person, you are lifting it for God, for God is in every person.” ~ Sathya Sai Baba
Students develop compassion and responsible citizenship by participating in service projects. Service done selflessly, with good intention, is transformational and results in a change of the personality, from negative actions to positive ones.
Service projects involve students at local and global levels.
Acting Locally
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Conducting food drives and clothing drives for community members.
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Collecting warm clothes and making sandwiches for the homeless.
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Singing to seniors and presenting hand-made gifts.
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Giving speeches and singing at rallies for peace.
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Participation in health fundraisers such as the Terry Fox Run, MS Read-a-Thon.
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Participating in the Walk for Values to spread awareness of human values (this has become a national and international event).
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Engaging parents as partners through various events and programs; empowering parents with good parenting techniques through Value Parenting, a 10-week workshop.
Acting Globally
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Building water wells to provide clean water to several countries in Africa
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Sponsoring children in Indonesia, Senegal, and Pakistan
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Helping victims of natural disasters such as the tsunami, hurricanes and earthquakes
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Supporting orphans in war-torn areas around the globe
