Dear Sir Mr. Jay

This is my last entry, although chronologically it is recap of the 2^nd and 3^rd to last day, with a couple of other final thoughts.  After the first lessons that I taught, I had been told that I’d be teaching the follow up lessons the next day.  Then things changed because of the shift in my schedule and the students’ schedule.  This is reflective of a totally different approach to time and planning.  My whole trip was very well orchestrated, and not a second was lost.  The nature of the orchestration was very different than the American approach, I wasn’t clued into when those changes were going to happen until the moment of the change.  I came to learn that there is a plan, but things aren’t necessarily spelled out by the minute in writing, and when they are they are more of a target than a plan.  Once I started to get the flow I saw that this did provide flexibility and probably bypassed some unnecessary steps.  

One aspect that began to understand better was the very frequent impromptu requests to address large audiences.  It is not that I need to plan what I’m going to say , nor do I have any inhibition, but when the request was made there was something in my compartmentalized brain that said “keep it short, this wasn’t planned, so we need to keep it tight so we don’t derail the timing of the next activity.”  Towards the end I was told that I could have spoke longer, which now I realize.  I guess I was expecting someone to spell out, “that since you are the guest of honor we would like you to address the students however you wish for ~15 minutes.”  Not to say that I just said, “cool, peace, thanks, where is lunch?” But at the most I’d talk for 5 minutes.  I don’t know that I have anything profound than I didn’t get out, if anything I’m just intrigued by the way we approach things differently.

My last teaching sessions were really great and heartwarming.  If you show these kids interest and respect they flood you with the same in return. The follow up lessons were only taught to the boys, because the girls had all gone on a Youth Leadership trip.  Here in lies the monumental difference between our students, which I’ve noted before.  They are so innocent and lack any inhibitions. The teachers who spent time in the US wanted to talk about the reasons for this, which I think could be a book.  Before I even went back to the class these boys were hunting me down giving me personal cards and gifts showing their appreciation and gratitude for the lessons, the day before I’d got also received a couple cards from girls.  One boy made me one of those foldable notes where it gives you instructions on how to open it.  Inside it read “Dear Sir, Mr. Jay English.  You have opened our hearts and minds……We miss you already.” They would all eagerly stand by me anxiously smiling while I opened their kind notes and cards. Our kids lose this early, and it is unfortunate.  I think the self-consciousness that permeates our culture is likely inhibiting our potential. 

Needless to say that when I returned to the classes, the students were all pumped and ready to roll.  They were very prompt about getting into their groups and starting their value ranking activity. The level of their conversations in their groups was wonderful, and it appeared that all the students were participating.   After concluding the group portion I had the group liaison report their findings back to the class, whereupon I prompted them with more questions.  I had to switch my plan on the fly, since I only wanted one speaker at a time I realized that I was squashing their ability to participate and collaborate.  So we changed the protocol to when I asked a question, they had to first conference with their group for 20-30 seconds.  They did this with the intensity of game show contestants.  Every student wanting to speak is not a frequent occurrence in our classrooms.  We were able to come to a consensus on what the class viewed as their top three values (environmental health, knowledge, healthy community) and their bottom three (equity, adventure, material wealth).  I know this would be different than our students, and it is different from mine.  We had a really wonderful conversation on predicting American values, which seamlessly led to the more profound topic of, “why would we assess the respective community values that promote the ‘good life’ before addressing global issues?”  The light bulbs went off and they arrived at every right answer that I could have imagined and more.  They are all super excited about continuing this in some capacity, and eager to hear the perspective of American students. Before class was dismissed I gave them all American Flag stickers, which seemed to be a hit.  Nearly all the boys stuck around after class to talk about what they learned and to ask me some questions.  

On anything I talk about I wouldn’t consider myself a quotable authority, because this next topic hurts my brain so I’ll only touch on a small fragment.  From meeting with teachers that I know from other schools, I started to connect some dots.  Most of the kids at PSBB are under extreme pressure to get a 98% or above on their very tough board exams which consist of 5, 3 hour subject specific  tests.  If they don’t get that score they are shut out from the good schools, and programs that they desire.  This is due to a reservation system that sets different scoring guidelines for different castes.  Most of the kids at PSBB are Brahmans, which means they have to score higher than all students.  This doesn’t necessarily translate to economic standing, but it sounds like most students are upper middle class.  We have very complex social divisions in the US, but what India has created over a few thousand years is mind numbingly complicated. So what does mean besides what I’m sure by our standards are ridiculous amounts of pressure to perform on a test, that in parts of India has led to outbreaks of student suicide?  What I have gathered, among other factors, is that this reservation system, that does have good intentions and I’m sure some positive effects, is by default increasing their brain drain. A Brahman child who scores a 95% and gets denied access to programs in India is likely going to jump ship and do very well in an American university.  This can be at a great cost to the family, where they may sacrifice everything to get their child into our system.  There is a heavy propensity for students in undergrad programs to then do their post-grad work in US universities, but that is another issue.  Regardless of why some of these kids come, we would be lucky to have any of them in our university classes and in our communities.

On my last full day I was also the guest of honor at a cultural performance that included  all age ranges of students.  The first performance was by a group of mostly girls who did an array of traditional Indian songs.  They were all great, but the two girls that were featured were extremely talented.  This may have been one of the best vocal performances that I have ever heard.  All of the other performances were well done, and even at the lower levels there were kids that were very talented.  With the small kids there were plenty that did their role well, but they were more cute than anything.  It was a long show that had an intermission, whereupon they switched the student audience. This took awhile, and I was treated to a swarm of primary student performers (elementary).  Outside of coaching and being a summer recreation leaders as a teenager, this is the most exposure I’ve had to the smaller kids and it is really fun.  I don’t want to sound like Bill Cosby, but man they say and do the funniest things.

I have a ton more I could write about but I think I’m ready to shut it down.  A few people asked me “how did you have the time to write?” I didn’t, I basically sacrificed sleep to try and capture as much as I could.  During the day, I made cryptic notes or took pictures of things to remind me to reflect and write later. I’m glad I did because it would have been impossible to remember the last 18 days if I hadn’t.  It also helped me reflect on what I had just experienced, and focus moving forward.  All-in-all I feel like I may have captured half of what I wanted to, and I think there is still a huge amount of information that I have yet to fully process or understand.