scribblings

Just a couple of days back, teachers’ day was celebrated in India. And every year esp. on this day, I think of my teachers who taught me the best way they could. But I seldom wish them…the last time I did was ten years back. There are five of them, three --who taught me in my primary school and the other two in high school. This year something told me that I need to thank them for what they have done over the years…moulding hundreds of students year after year. I was up early and dialed the numbers one after the other….I heard them and believe me they were overjoyed! Ex students hardly wish their teachers you see.

My primary math teacher-- my favorite, who taught me arithmetic, because of whom I had fun with numbers, the utmost pleasure of calculating... however, is no longer a teacher. He told me that he is suffering from throat cancer and will not be able to teach any more. I was saddened by the news—sorry for the many students who will not be able to experience the joy of learning from him. Nevertheless, he has done his job and did it so well.

Things I learn as I teach--to teach better

Teaching is easy but keeping the students interested or having them listen to you is altogether a battle in itself. Being a teacher myself and a virtual one at that, it is all the more taxing. But after almost 4 months of teaching virtually I have almost figured out what works for them. 


Somehow I’m reminded of the many preachers in the church I’ve attended and I realize that I only liked the ones who seemed intelligent, well read, in sync with the world types. Most of all someone with a sense of humor, who would make the entire congregation burst out in laughter. My girls seem to like that too. Especially. But me being someone who can hardly ‘crack jokes’ my only way to make them laugh is to talk in Hindi! And seriously no matter how much my friends made fun of my Hindi, I didn’t think it could be as bad. But thankfully, it looks like in a way, it works to my advantage.

The other way to keep them interested is to be INTERESTING! Now that’s not easy. On my breakfast-less, lunch-less, after my University trips, I force myself to appear interesting but seriously these are bright kids. I couldn’t possibly fake it. And therefore, the point is, I have to eat well, be healthy and stress-free to be able to teach well. And of course, I need to be passionate of what I teach, whenever I’m not prepared well, even though I know the subject, I can’t keep them interested. I have to keep telling myself that they are supposed to learn out of the lesson I take. Preparing myself, telling myself that it’s going to be fun no matter what; all geared to meet them is what ticks.

Making them understand is again extremely challenging for me. Interacting with students who only know a few English words is difficult. Sometimes I realize that in the pursuit of explaining a word I end up using another three words which they are not aware of. And when they don’t understand, they lose interest. It goes back to the same thing of preparing my lesson with care, be conscious of every example, words I use, and making them relate to it, explain every little detail and not take anything for granted.

Over the past few months, I have also learned that I need to be supportive and kind. Being aware of where they have come from helps me in this aspect. Onetime, in one of my physical classes, I had an assignment for them to write about their family. They were skeptical at first wondering if that’d be assessed by their official English teacher, the principal and the Red Cross representatives but I assured them that was only for me and promised that I wasn’t going to judge them. 


I made myself clear that it was to understand them better and in the process allow them to practice their writing too. And boy! What lovely writings they were. Even now, on sultry weekends, when I find my days depressing, I open the folder where the papers are neatly clipped, and as I read them one after the other, I’m rejuvenated not only for my next class but for days to come, a reminder of hope and life at its best.

“The crumbling schools” and the political apathy

I’ve been following the US elections fairly closely this time around. I’ve always kept track of them, but it was just as part of catching the daily news on TV. This time, though, I find myself actually seeking more information, reading not just the headlines, but also some analytical articles, and much more detailed news.

It’s partly because I’ve started to admire Obama’s oratory skills, and enjoy the way he uses rhetoric effectively. What has impressed me most is the way, regardless of who the candidate is or what the party is, education is one of the key concerns that everyone tries to address.

For example, in a major speech titled “a more perfect union” Obama declared:

At this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

Don’t you just love the rhetoric--measured, rhythmic phrases all balanced together? Obama has some concrete plans too--check the section dedicated to education.

Which brings me to my point: I’m no expert, but I’ve always taken a reasonable amount of interest in Indian politics and Indian elections. And I honestly cannot recall, off-hand, a single instance where education was part of any election agenda or any political debate surrounding an election. I wonder if this has happened at all.

Off the top of my head, I can think of religion, caste, taxes and subsidies and reservations, linguistic identities, and regional identities as the issues that dominate our elections. I know it’s easy enough to say something like “We Indians don’t have that maturity yet,” and explain away why our elections are never about our schools and our children, but why DON’T we have the maturity? Why do we really never ask about drop-out rates and about schools without classrooms when electing our representatives?

The situation is genuinely surprising, because Indian parents typically spend most of their energy and time trying to ensure a better life for their children. It is hard to think of another goal that an average Indian couple aspires to as strongly.

And that's why I’m puzzled. At the personal, domestic level, everything is about--and for--the children. But the public, political part of our lives is solely an adult world where children are not even a presence, let alone a minor one.

There must be some way of ensuring that even the political, social processes we are involved in begin to address the needs of our children, and not just of us adults. Some way of making sure everyone realizes that while as individuals we can do a lot for our children, as a nation working together, we could do a lot more for all the children, and not just our own. And that we need to speak up, and talk about the problems our children face and what we want for them, and then elect someone who is willing to do something about it.

Happy Teachers' Day!

Happy teachers’ day to all the teachers out there…this is the day to honor you for all that you have done to educate the nation. Today, as you receive flowers, presents, cards and hugs remember that “a better tomorrow” is in your hands. Teach in a way that our children not only listen but also learn and grow up to be responsible citizens.

 Cheers!

An excellent list of problems with Indian education

Over a relaxed weekend, I came across this article by Rushi Bakshi in The Hindu. Certainly worth a read. As you’ll see, Rushi makes an excellent, nearly exhaustive list of all the problems that plague the educational in India. Everything we’ve been telling people for a year—from lack of teachers to unhygienic schools to boring, colorless textbooks—Rushi mentions it all.

The similarity is striking. But then again, not quite. Rushi is recommending the satellite route to cure many of the ills—set up the hardware in rural schools, and beam quality content via satellite.

While I do not doubt that such an arrangement will benefit students, I’m not sure to what extent it will fix the problems we face. After all, good education can only be facilitated only in an environment where there is open interaction between teachers and students, and where students participate in their education, rather than just “undergo” it.

I suppose satellite can allow two-way interaction too, but I doubt if that will be financially viable in terms of equipment required, as well as in terms of scale.

On the other hand, using the Internet to achieve the result is far more practical and cost-effective. And with Internet spreading into various corners of the country at a dramatic rate, more and more schools—and children—are in a position to benefit from the Education For Free initiative every year.

Let India be Free...

Today we celebrate 61 years of freedom from the British Empire. I hope we'll also be free of hunger, child labor, illiteracy, and social deprivation soon enough.

I hope some day, soon enough, we 'll be proud of India, a free India in soul and spirit.

Overwhelming response to the EFF initiative

We got featured in ‘The Hindu’ yesterday and since early morning hours we have been receiving tons of emails! There are college students wanting to teach during their free period, homemakers, retired professionals, professors, doctors, engineers…the works! We also have people willing to adopt schools. The response has been overwhelming and we are deeply touched.

Indeed, there are wonderful people out there with good loving heart who want to contribute for the betterment of the society. This is a not a clichéd 'vision statement' but words of individuals willing to contribute with time, knowledge, money --all for free. For a better, educated India.

P.S. We’ve received over a 1000 emails and more are still coming in. We are going through each email carefully to see how each individual can contribute the best way possible. We will get back to you soon.

In the mean time, thank you so much!

Lite talk

I do have a lot of fun teaching English to my students. Sometimes I really wish I knew Telugu, Urdu and Hindi to aid me in my teaching. I can manage colloquial Hindi but not enough to explain meanings or translate English words into Hindi. However, I do my best...at times, out of sheer desperation I call up my Telugu and Hindi speaking friends too in the middle of a class!

Last week, I was teaching them the names of the parts of the body--I showed them my fingers and asked them what they were called--"fingers" they chimed. But when I showed them the toes...in a loud angelic voice they answered "leg fingers"! and calf they thought was called "back sheen" Sweet aren't they? I forget my walking woes when I'm with them :)

Me thinks...

While the A.P Government has decided that English is the way to go for all schools, we have people like Dr. J Abdul Kalam the former President of India, who seem to think just the other way round. On his recent trip to Aligarh Muslim University, he said that mother tongue languages should be used in schools for learning. In his words:

"Education should be imparted in mother tongue up to 10th standard as it promotes creativity and sharpens intellect immensely”.

He says English should instead be used for Higher and Technical education. While I’m tempted to agree when I see it coming from something like him—who started life like any other typical village boy, studied in a village School, in mother tongue and so on---but went on to become a great scientist and the President of India. But when I think of the larger picture, I’m not so sure. It is definitely a given that no matter where you study, in what medium, as long as you have the zest to excel, you can succeed. We have heard many stories about similar people achieving great heights in life out of scratch.

But leaving all that aside, if we consider the scenario today where there are over 3.1 million graduates stepping fresh out of college every year, there isn’t much choice but to be the very best. And I believe apart from being an expert in your subject matter, knowing English (the language used for communication around the world) and being able to carry yourself with confidence will take you a long way.

I wouldn’t say the A.P government made a great move, (they could have managed it far better) but at the same time I do think that it is crucial for students to learn to speak English in school. We’ve tried to achieve this for decades, unsuccessfully. Maybe English as the medium of instruction will help. It’s worth a try, anyway.

To my girls at Red Cross Government High School

This writing is inspired by my students. Their blank stares and blank answer sheets. This is a message, an appeal to my students on what education can do for them.

Dear Girls,

It is important to be educated because Education makes you aware of your rights in a society. It also gives you the courage and the means to fight for them. In fact, in most cases, you don’t even have to fight. You get what you deserve and what is yours. Education teaches you to treat every human with respect. Respecting people for what they are, and not because they belong to a particular religion, caste or status. It gives you the confidence to live life on your own terms, at the same time by respecting the emotions and opinions of those that are close to you.

It also teaches little things like civic sense, preserving the environment, taking care of your health by exercising and eating healthy food. It gives you the ability to make your own decisions, be it choosing a field of study, deciding on a career, or choosing a person to marry. The freedom to do any of these comes only with 'education’.

It gives you the confidence to present yourself. Become independent. And in many ways people become dependent on you. You understand the things happening around you, and are able to participate in social, economic, and political debates of your interest.

Education gives the ability to make informed decisions and form well thought out, independent opinions. Ability to contribute more to society since you better understand how it works and what it lacks. –A more active role in building and maintaining the society and civilization.

When you are educated, people respect you.

When you are educated, you have a voice, a voice for others too.

Your teacher.

Teaching is fun

As I work for EFF, I get to interact with people from different fields: teachers, policy makers, social workers, educators and many others. Recently we had a meeting with Sheel Parekh of Spark-India. She writes, among other things, story books for children with the intention of making them interesting. Now, EFF is also working with the same intention, to make education interesting. We want children to get up each morning eager to go to school. But I had never yet understood how one actually does that.

I asked Sheel, “how do you know what you write will be interesting for children? Do child psychology books help?” In her soft, yet assertive voice, she said “you have to touch to feel the pulse”. That morning I decided to become a teacher.

It’s been a week now since I started teaching English to the 7^th graders of the Red Cross Girls High School. It is an English medium school, with classes from I to X

Teaching children is indeed a challenging task. I’m burdened with a sense of responsibility. Every night just before I go to bed, I prepare my teaching plan. I visualize the girls, just so eager to learn. To make things a little different and interesting for them, I have divided the girls into three different groups. (They had to name their group on their own). So in my class, they sit group wise. For every lesson I teach, we have a quiz just to make sure, they remember what they have learnt.

I keep a “teacher’s journal” and I make a note of my observations and feelings in it. Here are a few things I have noted in my journal so far:

• Most girls can hardly read their textbooks.
  
  
• They do not understand most of the English words.
  
  
• Most of them do not have their English textbook. I found out that the government has not sanctioned textbooks yet. The rest uses old textbooks handed down from their seniors.
  
  
• Students who do not understand English and like to refrain participating in the classroom interaction sit on the last benches.
  
  
• But, they all want to learn. They even wanted me to sing a song and tell them a story about my country. I had to remind them that I belong to this country and was one of them.

I want them to learn to read, write and understand, and speak English, in that order. I was talking to my colleague Sridhar, the other day on how I could encourage and motivate them to read. He suggested that I do something unconventional, like buying them a copy of tinkle each or any other comic that might interest them. My take was, even if they read, they won’t understand. He said, “There are illustrations along with words, which would make it easier for them to understand. And since the illustrations look interesting they will make an effort to read and understand.”

I decided that this was worth a try. After all, as a child it was my favorite comic too. So in my next class, I asked if anyone read tinkle comics. One of the girls had 4 copies right there!

When I asked the rest of the class if anyone else was interested in reading the comics, all 40 of them raised their hands, including the owner.

Over the weekend, I plan to buy them some comics and the English reader textbook for the students.

I've started liking Monday mornings :)

my sunday sundae with Bhumi

Usually I spend my Sunday mornings lazing around at home, doing laundry and pampering myself with a pedi-mani-cure, feasting on sumptuous home cooked food, and of course Church and friends. The last Sunday, I instead visited a government school with two of my colleagues. While there were many surprises awaiting us, the first was discovering a slum right in the middle of the city in a so-called posh locality.

The road got narrower as we entered the locality, too small for our car, after some looking and asking around, we made it to the school vicinity. At first I found it difficult to accept that the “building” in front of me was actually a school. We went in.

There stood two small four roomed, tin roofed buildings facing each other. The classrooms were empty. There was only a whitish blackboard in each of the classrooms. The ceiling was leaking, the floor wet, and the walls damp. It’s beyond my comprehension how a child would learn in a wet, dark classroom sitting right on the floor, without even a desk to keep his books.

The educational psychology paper I opted in college taught me that “Education is an all round development of a child”. However, what I saw that day relates nowhere with this definition.

With a garbage dump, a defecation compound, animals of various kinds (including pigs), no benches or desks, not enough classrooms (half the classes are held outside, right on the floor), no fans and lights, no library and no laboratory, I wondered where the “all- round development” was going to come from.

But the students didn’t seem to be bothered with all this. All that mattered to them was the school, the classrooms, their teachers and their books.

How could the government be so negligent? I went through mixed emotions: there was anger against the government, sympathy for the students, and there was respect for the Bhumi angels.

Not waiting for the government, the Bhumi angels (a group of dedicated youth) have gone ahead and done things on their own. They adopted this school a year ago and have so far constructed a new building (half of the existing school structure was created by them), got in more teachers, and are on their way to building more classrooms. They are keen to get in more qualified teachers, clean up the surroundings and the school (a recurring task they don’t flinch from) and do much more.

They have their jobs, families, and their own lives. But every little moment they can, they spare for Bhumi. Even eating the last meal at home has become such a rarity that they in fact declined an offer to dine with the three of us after a meeting because their folks were waiting for them at home.

This school is only a representation of many such schools. Thousands of government schools I’m told are run this way. The Government should stop deceiving our motherland, give us what is ours, and stand by its promises. Some of them, at least.

In the mean time, I salute the Bhumi angels.

To know more about Bhumi, click here

Girls Bridge Course School. Aloor, India

I would do anything to see those smiles again, feel those little fingers, and meet those eyes with dreams.

It was drizzling, soon after a dazzling summer which only made the experience even more enduring. Far far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, away from the glaring eyes, abusive tongues and hands. Away from tears, fears, scars, and hunger, here was a place inside a caged gate, where they found their freedom.

700 beautiful girls live in this world, the Bridge Course camp. As we stopped by the gate, I saw two girls pulling open the iron gate for us. They smiled a happy smile and had big dreams written all over their face. We were taken on an entourage by one of the teachers, exploring their classrooms, their bedrooms, dinning hall, their hearts and their world.

A little girl of 3 years old who I was told is an orphan, held my hand and my heart. Like every typical child on this earth, she wanted that extra attention and affection. Another girl who was dumb spoke to me a million words through her eyes and smiles. I also met a future lawyer, so full of hope. I know she will. Someday soon. There was another; a year and a half old girl, oblivious to the world around her, gazing at me endlessly. She probably must’ve wondered why she had such a big family when others she knew usually had three to four. Or was she wondering why her mom and dad never returned home that fateful night. I held her tight and wished her well.

These girls before they were given this new life were bonded laborers, child laborers. Some of them were rescued from child marriages. Their savior? M.V Foundation, a committed NGO, a dedicated conglomerate up in arms against child labor and on a mission to educate ALL children. They proclaimed it as nonnegotiable. Started in 1992 with 16 children, they have grown to educating thousands.

“The Bridge Course is a bridges the gap for children who have already reached an age too old to join school from class 1. And therefore, we train the children for a period of 12 months. Once they learn the basics, they are enrolled in regular schools--older children are placed in higher classes” Manjula the camp in charge explained. Apparently they have a program designed specifically to cater to the needs of different age group.

More than the books and pencils, the roof, food and clothes, it's love they found here.

Being around these children made me a happier me. From that girl touching my eyebrows and probably learning a sense of style, showing them where Nagaland was on the India map, spelling out my name, posing for pictures and simply meeting them. I went back even more inspired, to make EFF come true, true for me, us and them.

This was a visit to the Girls' Bridge Course school run by The M.V Foundation at Aloor. A.P India.