FINAL THOUGHTS ON MY TRIP TO INDIA

The girls at Shri Shikshiyatan School gave us a wonderful send off with a performance of both Indian classical and folk dance. Then they invited us to dance with them. Being a lover of dance, this was a wonderful send off for me. After leaving Kolkata, we flew to Delhi for several days of sightseeing. As I’m writing this blog entry, I’m sitting on the bus driving back to Delhi from Agra where we visited the Taj Mahal and Agra’s Fort. I feel the best way to end my blog posts about our trip to India is to give you a taste of what has impacted me during my visit here.

India is hot! I love the smell of jasmine flowers. Fresh mangos are delicious. Indian women dress with style and beauty. Bare feet are a part of life. Muslims invaders built many impressive monuments in India. Life in India is completely different from anything else I’ve every seen. Diversity is everywhere: language, religion, ethnicity, and socio economic status. Religious worship is everywhere and practiced by most everyone. Slums are built with tin and have satellite dishes. The young people of India are an amazing resource and the girls I met in Kolkata/Calcutta seem ready to take on the world. Traffic is insane in India, but the official drivers everyone hires seem amazingly competent. Based on some innovative people we met, such as the director of the Teacher Foundation and the managing director of the Sesame Schoolhouse, there is a push for change in education in India, which I find inspiring and hope to play a part. The current Prime Minister of India, Modi, is an inspiring figure, and has a lot of plans for India that make sense, however, both local and federal government agencies seem incapable of carrying out the basic needs of the citizens: garbage collection, city planning, building construction, infrastructure, road safety, reducing pollution, and addressing abject poverty. India is indeed a land of paradoxes, which is a curiosity to us visitors, but a tough reality for most Indians. Because India will soon be the largest population in the world and already has the largest number of young people, change in educational practices, environmental policies, and city management is key to the success of this country. Most of the elements of Indian traditional culture, such as reverence for religion, respect for family and teachers, and a belief in hard work and perseverance make the India people well prepared to take on their challenges. I only hope I can be a part of it! Thank you host teachers, Soma and Tanusree, for having us and to Teachers for Global Classrooms for giving me this experience.

Yummy mango!

Our host teachers Soma and Tanusree

Sesame Schoolhouse Materials

Me at the Taj Mahal at sunrise

Jasmine leis smell wonderful!

FEMALE EMPOWERMENT

The week in Kolkata at Shri Shikshiyatan School is winding down. What a wonderful and unforgettable experience. In my AP Human Geography class this year we’ve been learning about the struggles India faces with such a large population and the key role female education plays in dealing with the problem of overpopulation. Shri Shikshiyatan has clearly gotten that message. Older girls take a leadership role in leading the morning assembly, monitoring uniforms, teaching street children, and giving speeches on women’s empowerment. Teachers chose the topic of women’s empowerment for the last issue of the school newspaper and expressed very strong opinions about the role of women in society as we analyzed Sojourner Truth’s speech, Ain’t I A Woman, in a professional development session I led on the Paideia Seminar.

Lastly, I just wanted to show some pictures of student notebooks, because they’re so beautifully done. I’m also including a wonderful lunch that the cooking club made us and a picture of a very sweet girl whose mother made me a delicious snack. I was asking her advice on food to eat in Kolkata, which prompted her to bring in her mother’s food.

Off to Delhi on Saturday! I’ll miss all the girls and teachers at Shri Shikshiyatan School. What a wonderful community!

Morning Assembly

Professional Development Session with Teachers

All the tools needed for beautiful writing!

Student notebooks

Her Mom made me yummy snacks!

The cooking club made us lunch!

A DAY IN THE LIFE AT SHRI SHIKSHIYATAN SCHOOL IN KOLKATA (CALCUTTA)

Shri Shikshiyatan School in Kolkata is an all girls private school of almost 4,000 students, which serves grades kindergarten to 12^th grade. At grade 10, students must take board examinations in all their subjects, which determines whether they can go on to 11^th and 12^th grades. These board exams seem to create a lot of stress, because I’ve seen a lot written about them in the local paper, as well as heard the girls talk about their anxiety for the upcoming exams. In the opening assembly, the principal mentioned the scores from the previous year. While the school is private, the cost is very moderate, so there is range of income levels at the school. The school has a nice big outdoor space where students gather at the beginning of the day and which also serves as a space for all school assemblies. The classrooms are quite small with no air conditioning (with the exception of the computer lab) and have windows, which open to the courtyard. The elementary grades are in a separate section of the school and have more access to smart boards and other types of technology. However, the smart boards in the classrooms have no internet access and everything used on the smart board must be loaded in advance by a technician. As a result, most classes are conducted without any technology. Some classrooms have white boards, while others have chalkboards.

Daily routine and Academic Expectations

Students arrive to school around 8 a.m. and the first class begins at 8:30. Students have similar courses as American schools, but the methods of teaching are quite different. For each subject and grade, the government has written a soft covered textbook, which contains all the material a teacher will cover in a school year. Every class follows the textbook exactly and may write some information in an accompanying notebook. The teacher usually reads from the textbook, students follow along with some repetition, and then the teachers asks questions. Occasionally I’ve seen students do a short activity in the textbook or notebook. All of the American teachers were amazed to see the student notebooks. Almost without exception, the students write in beautiful cursive with neatly drawn diagrams and maps. Today I witnessed a girl pull out a short ruler to create a diagram her teacher had put on the board. It was perfectly drawn. Students in India usually know at least 3 languages: their local language (here it’s Bengali-see the video), Hindi, and English. I wonder if the requirement to know Sanskrit (the script for both Hindi and Bengali), creates a nation of beautiful script writers. 

A textbook

Student reading from the textbook in Bengali class

Each classroom has a bunch of small wooden desks jammed together to fit approximately 40 students. Some students may have to share a chair and/or desk. The students remain in the classroom and the teachers rotate. When students want to enter or leave a classroom, they ask the permission of the teacher. Whenever we entered the room as guests, the entire classroom would stand up and say “good morning, ma’am”. They did the same when we left and when we saw them in the hallways. When students are called on to speak, they don’t sit down again until the teacher tells them to. When I taught my lesson, after I called on students, several students remained standing, because I didn’t understand that I had to tell them to sit down. Without exception, in all the classes I’ve observed, 100% of the students were focused and attentive. However, many of the lessons are just direct teacher instruction and require repetition and recall from the text while sitting in 90 to 100 degree heat with just a fan whirring overhead. Often the teacher is talking the majority of the period and a handful of students are answering questions. Rarely, does the teacher state a clear objective for the lesson or close the lesson with an activity that shows whether the students have learned the material. However, the students seem much more knowledgeable than ours and are able to answer any question their teachers ask them with amazing proficiency. The students’ discipline, perseverance, and determination are just humbling. 

School Values and Culture

When you walk down the hallways full of inspirational posters and see the extra curricular activities in practice, it is obvious that Shri Shikshiyatan values not just academic success, but character. Placards around the building remind students to learn from failure, help others, and value learning. Each morning students lead a song over a speaker in the principal’s office, while the students and staff stop, close their eyes, and pray. Each Tuesday, a bus of students from the slums, come to learn from the older girls in the school. They teach them lessons and spend time with them. The school also participates in demonstrations and protests around important issues to the girls. Just like at Hogwarts, the school is divided into different sections (here by color) and they compete for points. While the classes and lessons are very adult centered, the girls seem to easily take a leadership role among their peers. 

Question: How can the U.S. create a highly disciplined and structured school culture that coexists with strong student leadership? 

POPULAR AND FOLK CULTURE IN URBAN INDIA

After spending time in two major cities of India, Bangalore/Bengaluru (10.8 million people) and Kolkata/Calcutta (14 million people), I’ve been struck by the comingling of modern life and ancient practices. Mostly it’s amazing to see religious devotion everywhere in India. All ages and all members of society can be seen visiting temples, praying to roadside shrines, and generally giving reverence to spirituality. In the last two days in Kolkata, we have visited both Hindu and Jain temples. Entry to these temples is taken very seriously. Shoes must be off, voices quiet, and respect to the priest must be shown. Often when you leave, you receive a mark on your forehead to show you have worshipped that god. Just tonight, when another teacher and I went to a roadside kiosk to buy some snacks, the vender was burning incense and praying to a picture of a deity in his stall. This kind of street side worship is something you see all the time in India. Our host teachers explained that most Indians are spiritual in some way and not just a certain segment of society.

At the school we're visiting, there is a place where students can pray to the goddess of knowledge.

A picture of the god Ganesha on the back of a taxi.

Our host teachers in front of a new Hindu temple in Kolkata

While cell phones, some fast food restaurants (fewer than I expected), some western dress, especially among men, and modern cars can be seen everywhere, traditional dress and means of transportation is just as evident. Most Indian women dress in a very formal and beautiful way. Women either wear the traditional sari, which is a very long cloth wrapped around what they call a petticoat, or a salwar kameez, which is a long tunic with blousy pants and a scarf. The colors are very vibrant and often the scarf matches the pants. While many men wear traditional western clothing, you see men on the street and serving in restaurants in bare feet, wearing a dhoti, which is a piece of cloth wrapped like a skirt. The streets of India are also an amazing site to see. Along with the lack of traffic rules, which leads to hair raising driving, traditional hand and bicycle pulled rickshaws drive next to modern cars.

A bicycle rickshaw in Kolkata

Our host teacher's daughter in western dress

KFC in Kolkata. We also saw McDonald's, Dominos, and Au Bon Pain

Teachers in Bangalore wearing saris

The man in the background is wearing a dhoti

Being in schools and around teachers in India, I’m also observing young people’s old-fashioned reverence for their parents and teachers. Since we’ve been touring with our two host teachers from Kolkata, we’ve run into two former students of theirs. Both spoke very formally to their teacher and one even kissed her hands and then the feet of her former teacher. Can you imagine this happening in the U.S.? At the same time, one of our host teachers brought her 20 something daughter with us when we were touring the city. She was extremely polite and when asked about her future plans, always referred to what her parents wanted, but at the same time spent much of her time either texting or talking on her cell phone. One of the students at the school we’re visiting wrote an open letter to her parents in the local paper. I think her comments demonstrate this tension between traditional and modern culture. She wrote, “Dear parents, you are my pillars of strength. I am well aware that you guys are the only ones who will love me unconditionally. But there are a few things I want you to understand. First, I want you to stop giving me long lectures on studies, dad. With all due respect, my ears literally buzz with your heavy gyaan, Baba. Also, I would really appreciate it if you would just let me use social networking sites once in a while to chat with my friends without grumbling and threatening to snatch my phone and throw it away.” Sound familiar?

Question: Why has folk culture remained strong in some places, while it’s barely existent in others?

A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE CULTURE OF YOUR COUNTRY AND EDUCATION?

After visiting one public school and one private school in Bangalore, India, it is clear that discipline, obedience, and rote memorization are valued. You can see this in my video of the students participating in their morning exercises. It is also evident in the precise and exact writing in all of the student journals we looked at (see a picture of Hindi writing by a student). Even the game they played in PE class called Kabbadi was very controlled (I played one round!). However, in Indian schools, where the teacher is feared and respected, the students also encourage each other to stay on task and often take a leadership role when the teacher needs to leave the classroom. In contrast, many American schools value student voice and opinion, critical thinking, and individualism. For India, their method of education produces very productive engineers, mathematicians, and doctors, but not necessary innovators. In the U.S., we have many inventors and creators of new companies, but we are often behind our Asian peers in science and math.

Question: How does the culture of your country or community affect your school? Can you give specific examples in your answer?

A student's notebook written in Hindi

An English teacher

Students in a 9th grade Social Studies' class

A 9th grade Social Studies' class with the teacher in front

They gave us coconut water to drink as we watched students play a game called Kabbadi.

UNDERSTANDING THE PARADOXES OF INDIA

After several long flights, we have finally arrived in Bengaluru (or as the British called it, Bangalore), India. Just like the United States and in particular, Washington, D.C., India is full of contradictions, but because of the size of India, these paradoxes are on a much grander scale which makes a big difference! While we may be grappling with some of the same problems here in the United States as in India, the size of India makes it much more challenging to solve these problems in an efficient way. For example, India has a population of 1.2 billion people, while the U.S. has a little over 316 million people. The landmass of India is also slightly smaller than the U.S (see the map below). India has many megacities (a population over 10 million people), such as Delhi, Calcutta, and Mumbai, whereas New York City, the most populous city in the U.S., is just 8.4 million people. In addition, India has over 22 recognized languages and many more, which are not recognized by the government. At the school we visited today, at least 3-4 different languages were being spoken. At 450 million, India also has the largest number of people under the age of 18.

In a presentation with Maya Menon from the Teacher Foundation here in India, she explained 10 key paradoxes of India. I’m going to highlight three here.

1. Pride versus Shame: Pride in achievements in technology and education, but shame in the extreme poverty in India.

2. Beauty versus Ugly: Beautiful colors in clothing and jewelry and religious statues can be seen all over India, but trash and squalor is everywhere you turn.

3. Individualism versus Authoritarianism: Indian young people respect the authority of their teachers and parents, but also like to express their individual personalities.

Today our group of teachers visited a government (public) school in Bengaluru, which highlighted all the contrasts listed above. At this elementary school, children were very eager to learn and showed the highest respect to their teachers (see pride and authoritarianism). However, the lack of shoes, materials in the classroom, a run down building, and a major construction site directly behind the school highlighted the poverty in India (see shame and ugly).

Question: Of the three paradoxes mentioned above, which do you think most apply to Washington, DC and/or the U.S. today? Explain why and how they may differ from India.

MY DC/MY INDIA

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Washington, D.C.? Is it the Capitol, the White House, and the seat of power? Those of us that live in Washington, D.C. know there is a lot to D.C. culture that doesn’t involve the U.S. government, however we are all somehow tied to it. As part of my blog, I want to focus on the theme of neighborhood and community. By interviewing young people in Washington, D.C., I hope to give a better understanding of how D.C. kids feel about their neighborhood and their city. Here you can watch some videos of young people in D.C. talking about their community. This is why I have named my blog, “Knowing Ourselves, Understanding Others.” In order to “understand others,” I hope to talk to and interview young people in India (mostly Kolkata/Calcutta) about their community and neighborhoods. I hope this will reveal life beyond assumptions and stereotypes and help us get to know each other better.

Question: How does your neighborhood or community impact who you are or who you become?