Kids Can Also Become Engaged in the Political Discourse

Interacting With Students in Wandoor 1

An entire week spent in Wandoor, Kerala at the Girls GovernmentVocational High School (GGVHSS) with young ladies who were a delight to be around! Not having many opportunities (for some none at all) to interact with people from the west, they were thrilled to have us mostly to themselves for five full days!

Many were shy at first, (perhaps after being warned by their concerned teachers and school leaders not to bother us).  The girls belong to many different organizations on campus including the band, the 4H Club, the English Club, and more, and all of these were represented at the welcome parade held in our honor.  What I noticed most was pride in their eyes, amidst faces bright with genuine, beautiful smiles.

Each day on campus students (teachers, and PTA members) came out in droves "to meet the Americans."  The entire week in Kerala was an honor, a spectacular time, and a humbling experience!

Each of my colleagues and I spent our time in myriad ways: the following are some highlights: *individually teaching classes of 50-55
*students interacting with teachers (some of whom came to classrooms to observe and had  questions for us)
*spending time with education officials who sought our ideas and opinions on how they could improve their school,
*enjoying Indian, and specifically, Keralites' kindness and hospitality (we were fed beyond belief, and were made to understand that it was parents who catered our lunches each day!!
*participating in panel discussions around Wandoor and neighboring Nilambur, and being interviewed (and constantly photographed:) by the media
*visiting a plethora of cultural sites
*being hosted by the families of new friends we met

**In addition to the picture and link below, click on the Kerala tab to see more stunning and enlightening images

                                                   Tree-planting on campus at GGVHSS

Girl Power at 4H Ceremony

India's Most Southern State

Kerala is India’s southern-most state. An important coastline is the Arabian Sea! There are centuries worth of history at every turn.

It’s the most literate populace in all of India. In the humblest of neighborhoods or districts, there are advertisements summoning the pursuit of a university education.  

Schools abound in very tightly packed areas, as well as on sprawling campuses.  In Government and Public (Private) schools, classrooms have students sitting shoulder to shoulder in numbers as great as fifty (to one teacher).  This is the norm. 

I didn’t witness a profusion of technology in most of these instutions; they were not lucky enough to have air conditioning, and they don’t have an abundance of fancy supplies.  But what they lacked in these areas, these schools made up for ten-fold in student motivation, teacher commitment, parent involvement, and pride in their community and country!

 Approaching airport in Kerala..as promised, lush greenery and beautiful hillsides

 Anticipation swells as Air India prepares for landing

Click on the Kerala tab to view much more.

Food Issues

I must be honest...I entered India with a mini supermarket---only a few items..tuna in all its varieties, and granola bars of all persuasions!! Because in my mind, and based on all the well-meaning advice I'd been given, I would "not find much that [I ]could eat," and I'd "get sick eating too much Indian food."

Well let me tell you....I have not for a long time eaten such delicious, tantalizing, delectable cuisine!!! To-die-for! I'm hooked!  I LOVE SOUTHERN INDIAN FOOD!!

Biryani, Masala Dosa, Gulab Jamun..Fish..chicken..and on and on! Dishes too numerous to mention..I'm sold people..hook, line, and sinker:)  So I bought two cookbooks...gonna have to get my chef--for real--I have a personal chef-Don Brown-that's my husband:)--gonna have to get him to delve into some of these recipes---he cannot eat cumin, and Indian food is laced with this spice.

Take a look at some of what I was into

 Choosing our own fish.

 An evening out for Goan cuisine with Team India including Emily on the right (from IREX) and Robyn

 Here's the fish prepared.

 What's left of all the sweets

 My ultimate favorite--Biryani:)

 You need something to cool your tongue off after eating that crisp little roll (next to the stainless steel cup) on the Kevin's plate...SPICY!!

 Me-enjoying myself, "stepping" into this food trial a bit at a time.

Some Viewpoints About India

Sharing Some Views:

Open this link in order to see brief powerpoint sharing some perspectives on India.

Open this link to hear Maya Menon of The Teacher Foundation in Bangalore

The Entrance to a small Government School in Bangalore

A Private School Visit-June 10

We visited a second school in Bangalore, Shastry Memorial English School -- a coed private school for kindergarten to grade 10.  It’s in grade 10 that students here in India take a state exam, and then go on to what’s called “Plus 2.”  In essence, that’s grades 11 and 12.  This is kind of considered pre-college, after which they enter university.  I was impressed with the children here, more so than the teaching (not the teachers).  I say this because just like our first school, these kids want to learn, but just like the former school, a lot here is taught by rote.  I loved their politeness, clearly exhibited pride in their work, and the articulate manner in which they expressed themselves when given the freedom to share their ideas.  They eagerly showed me their notebooks and text, and talked freely about what they were doing.

Student workbook written in Kanada-Indian students study 3 languages minimum, beginning in grade 3.

I had a chance to sit in on a 9^th grade Social Studies class, where they were studying India, and a 7^th grade Language Arts class.  And once again, just like in primary school Language Arts class, the teacher was asking them to simply give information back.  There was no higher order thinking, no cooperative group work, and, though coed, no mixing in class between boys and girls.  Females were seated on one side of the room, and gents on the other.   The lesson in the 7^th grade LA class was the same as the one taught in the primary school class 7^th grade class the day before.  There are no state or central government curriculum standards, so perhaps this was to be seen as a positive in that teachers are themselves are working on small steps to bring about basic cohesive curriculum units.

Bright, polite, ambitious, and smart young ladies..happy faces.

To be fair, we were observing the middle of the lesson, and we didn’t stay long enough to see what would come after, so I am humbled that these teachers allowed a bunch of Americans into their classrooms, not knowing what we would be saying about them afterwards.  I am truly honored, because at the end of the day, they, like American teachers, are doing the best they can (with far, far less resources than we have access to in the states).

This school also primarily serves under-privileged students and their families.  However, despite their circumstances, these parents ensure that their children go to school!  They are more stable than families of the kids in the government school we visited, and they work hard to supplement the meager INR 200 stipend that the government provides for each student per year.  There are some students from middle class families here as well.  All these parents place a high value on a quality education and feel they are not getting what they need in the schools run by the government.  Charter schools in the U.S. anyone?! 

The head or school manager is a former engineer, who “believes in a good education,” and whose “mother started the school years ago in her home with 7 students.”  I feel his intentions are good; but is it fair for me to question how come he has a newly painted office, outfitted with new furniture and computers when student bathrooms lack toilet paper, and students have little to no computer access on campus?  Maya Menon, from The Teacher Foundation, helped me understand that he technically has no education background; it would be wonderful for him to choose to do some work with the foundation to learn how to further leverage what he’s already getting out of his teachers, build capacity, and overall see the value in providing some of the quality of life (and health) issues that could serve his students, i.e. clean bathrooms, and toilet paper.  In the end I hope to work with this school to provide meaningful assistance to deserving students.

A teacher is proud of her students and explains her day

India's Education Exports

Today, it's dawned on me that the Indians who excel in America's (and other western nations') institutions of higher learning, are perhaps not a major portion of the product of India's education system.  It appears that the country's education "exports" are among the minority of students in the school system here.  By contrast, the majority attends schools that need everything, often including teachers who themselves could use more training to make them more effective for the young minds they so influence.  I'm learning that India's education system is a complex consortium of organizations, governing bodies, and entities that keep the country's public, private, quasi-private, and government schools open.  It is a gigantic machinery that, while it is serving some students well, particularly those who can afford to pay exorbitant private school fees, it is actually in many ways "leaving some children behind."

For the past two days we've been paying visits to get a first-hand look at how some schools are run, and how students are being served.  Tuesday (June 9, 2015) we visited the Government Higher Primary School in Vasanthnagar.  One hundred twenty students, all from impoverished backgrounds, are enrolled in grades 1-7; they are taught by 7 teachers who are supervised by a head teacher.  Only a fraction of the student body was present.  This is the beginning (first week) of the new school year, and we were told many of the children simply have not yet returned to school.  This school serves a migrant population because a large percentage of the families lack a permanent home structure.

All children are taken through an assembly of chanting and repetition each morning.  During our visit it was led by a student.  Reading also takes place from the newspaper because it's a way to keep those who can understand informed on some of issues of the day (parents are often illiterate or simply cannot afford media of any kind)

7th Grade Language Arts with students who were attentive to a person, and a teacher who showed such dynamism despite few resources 

What was most impressive was the richness of print all over the classrooms here..you are looking at Kannada, a language spoken mainly in the state of Kanataka in which Bangalore is located

The kids were delightful!  They were polite, eager to learn, happy, to a great extent, despite the obvious need for some day-to-day necessities.  It was hard to accept how few resources there were; classrooms were tiny, allowing little if any room for a teacher to monitor cooperative  group activities; they were poorly outfitted, but students were so very proud to have us visit.