Cricket Dreams

Yesterday was the most tiring yet, hence I'm writing from my notes a day later (my internet went down, so this is three days ago).  I can't say why it was so tiring, but I did sleep for 10 hours.  The day started off with another speaker on values, I can tell that I've seen a couple speakers that didn't embody what this lecture series is all about.  This particular speaker was from Frozen Thoughts, which is well regarded by the staff.  The message was good, it centered around respecting your elders (and everything else for the mater) and focusing the mind.  However the delivery was far detached from the message, while she was preaching respect in her authoritative fashion she went as far as comparing the kids to Osama bin Laden.  So far this doesn't represent what I've seen in the classrooms, when you bring in guests you roll the dice.  When the lecture was done, they shuffled me to the conference room before the kids exited.

I then spent a good deal of morning with Ms. Ranjini who had taught on a Fulbright for six months in San Lorenzo, California.  Comparing notes with with her was really beneficial.  I asked her an endless amount of questions on her system, of which we are able to easily relate due to her experience.  The language itself can be a barrier for discussing education, a simple example is that a class here is a grade or a group of students that are advised, and a subject is a class.  Through this I learned that their impressive school likely represents the top 10-15% of India, of which a comparable amount can afford.  Everything is done by hand here, which equates to an immense amount of work for the teachers.  Each teacher is responsible for about 40 students, of which they aggregate all of the report cards and comments to create an annual report.  All reports cards, grading, and final reports are done by hand.  Now teachers are meeting with the parents to discuss the students annual report and promotion to the next level.  Their detail and knowledge of each student is impressive and inspiring.  It is what APS has been trying to do with next step plans, but is far off of this level.   Luckily, I think we slowly are progressing to this comprehensive and transparent evaluation of students.

  Ranjini showed me all the reports and grade books which all have to be recopied and transferred from report to report.  Teachers are also responsible for their subject grades, which equates to the running grades and final grades for the 5 classes that she teaches.  Most of the grades are test and exams, which account for 90% of a students total mark (grade).  I filmed a lot of this material and her wonderful explanation, so I can more carefully study it later.  I also started to skim through some text books.  I have started to inquire about bringing home books to share with my colleagues.

After this enlightening experience, I arguably had my most fun yet.  I went to a 9th grade class where they were doing traditional geometric drawing on the ground with rice flower.  I tried this with the guidance of the teacher. The kids and the teacher alike were so excited about my efforts.  This evolved into essentially the class being turned over to me, whereupon I had a great time with the students.  They started off a bit shy although they were starring me down like a new puppy.  They lined up and sang a song for me, and afterwords I started asking them questions. What was the song about?  What is your favorite subject?  MATHS  .........  With the 30 or so kids standing closely around me, I invited them to ask me questions.  This started slowly, as it would with our students.  After a period of anxious semi-silent staring the questions began to trickle...."What are American Students like?"  "What subject do they like?"  "What do I like about their school?" "Are you married?" "Do you have any children?"      One of my fellow TEA teachers, Dan, advised I bring pictures of my family "because they really do care, really they care it is not like America." So at this point I asked the kids if they would like to see pictures of my family and home.  This took their excitement to a new level, when the girls saw Jan the exclaimed "Katrina Kaif..... she is beautiful...your wife is like an Indian movie star.... she definitely looks Indian....."  They loved the baby pictures, and this is what cracked the seal now the questions were coming at me, which ranged from "What do you think about Guantanamo Bay" to them asking about music, authors, movies, and asking me if I like any American movies star or sports figure they could rattle off including all the big names and Jean Claude Van Damme and Back Street Boys.  Any answer I gave evoked a high energy response.

They then asked me if I wanted to play basketball, then someone said cricket (damn I should waited for cricket to pop up before I said yes to basketball).  We only played basketball for a few minutes, because someone halted play over an exam.  Basically it was them watching me with full attention shooting a couple air balls, a few bricks, and making some shots whereupon the erupted with cheers.  Since we couldn't play sports one boy performed some yoga that was incredible.  Most of these kids would love to be big shot scientists or engineers, but get this kid a yoga studio in a posh area and offer some cucumber water and he'll make millions.  I've never seen positions like this, I've got video that I can't upload from here.  Then some of the kids put on a traditional dance routine that made me further realize how great it would be to teach these kids.

Later Devika had mentioned that Indian kids remain innocent much longer, and that seems totally true.  Our kids are put under so much pressure and are exposed to so much, whereas these kids are told to do well in school and are absolutely pampered until they leave college.  I'm not saying pampered in a simple monetary sense, rather they always have someone taking care of them and making sure all there needs are met.  Teachers who have been to America appreciate the independence of our students, and their ability to take care of themselves.  Here it seems that they are supported until they acquire the education that will allow them start a job that is fitting for their strata.  At home most kids work when they can and nearly all of us had to drudge through unsavory jobs.  Some of the teachers here indicated that our system creates an appreciation and dignity for all labor.  That may not be totally be true, but compared to most of the world I'm guessing that is the case.  Regardless of place I'm sure there are great parents everywhere who instill a sense of purpose, empathy, dignity, and hard work in their children, and unfortunately the counter exists everywhere as well.

After spending time with the students, I had another awesome lunch at school and then was off with two teachers and four students for some site seeing.  We started at an working cottage arts compound. The traditional weaving at this place was top notch.  The kids were boisterous and kid like, which was all good of course.  What was interesting was that these 11th graders (I think) were nearly obsessed with picking their future science field.  My guess is that the three of the four students were the equivalent of what my teacher friends call grade grubbers.  There was no real discussion about what interested them about bio-chemistry or materials enginnering, it seemed to center more around which has better career opportunities.  The fourth students whom I've spoken with before seems to be the school's all-star in a school of all-stars.  He is genuinely interested in learning and applying knowledge in a way that will help the world.  He aims to go to Stanford because he wants a balanced education that also emphasizes social sciences.  The other students, and teachers on this voyage, just want a pure science program so that they can been more focused on their projected career.  My take away is that there are similar dynamics among their students as their are among ours, like when a 15 year old tells me that he wants to be an accountant, really? 

In the car I chatted with the teachers about American education.  Indian education is very comprehensive, thus it covers a lot and it seems like the kids have quite the knowledge bank.  At the end of elementary they are memorizing the atlas, so when asked what our students knew regarding the 'atlas' I expressed that they knew little but could look it up.  This led to a deeper discussion about quality American education being more about knowing how to use information well, then having a deep knowledge bank.  Although these two ladies are big fans of the Indian system, they did not seem to write off our priorities is ill marked.  

We had an afternoon snack by the beach and then visited a temple that celebrates the god Lakshmi. This temple experience was different than the last.  There was a lot going on.  Fundamentally you feel the difference from western religious places of worship, because there is not a central place or prescribed method to worship.  Given that Lakshmi represents her self in eight forms, there were eight stations to visit idles three of which had priests that would do a blessing.  The first had herb water that he handed out and it appeared that worshipers were putting on their heads, hands, and maybe drinking?  When he came up to me some of the water went through my hands, and I gave the rest a little head service, I wasn't feeling the drinking option.  The priest said DRINK and went off in a huff.  None of the people with me seemed to mind, and we happily went on our way.  At one of the next stops a priest had the red powder for putting the bindi on the forehead, one student suggested I do the same and I nicely refused channeling that discomfort that I used to feel as an outsider in some western religious ceremonies.  The priest (maybe the wrong term) waved me down, and gave me a bindi.  I have been impressed that the culture and religion here is inclusive. After the temple we called it a day, and I was dropped at my hotel.