Tag / schooling

by Second Iris

Good school?

Week 4 starts with a reflective prompt on one’s own school. Would you consider it a ‘good school’? What residuals did you take away and how have they affected you?

Not considering the schools that I went to in pre- and primary, since I don’t remember much of them anyway, I will reflect on the two that I spent the most years in, to graduate from grades 10 and 12. I would consider them to be good schools. Some reasons that allow me to define them as such are, they:

  • Had a rigorous academic regime – Subjects taught were handled thoroughly
  • Had sufficient opportunities for extra curricular activities like Dance, Music, Theater, Sports
  • Supported some alternate learning experiences like tree plantation drives, exhibitions, nature camps
  • Presented a safe and hygienic environment for learning
  • Had some good, role-model teachers.

Residuals

Quite often in my life, especially during days in under-graduate studies and the initial days at work, I realized how privileged I had been to receive the kind of education that I had. One definite residual that has helped me immensely over the years, and continues to excite me, is the school’s drive for the English language. Following through on the aristocracy left behind by the British, both these schools lauded the English language as the solution to all of society’s problems. All aspects of the system were insistent on using only English, the board of studies maintained a high quality of English content selected for study, and the socio-cultural setup of the schools was also such that children hailed from backgrounds that appreciated the language more than even their local tongue.

This takeaway left me with a huge love for the language, of course. But also gave me opportunities in the form of college clubs, roles and interview wins, and work appreciations purely because of my ability to communicate better in English. One may argue that someone from chiefly a local language environment might also have been successful in all these situations that I have quoted. Absolutely no denying that, but the struggle to communicate in the language has never been an issue.

The second major residual from these schools is definitely the technology orientation. Learning a programming language early on instilled the joy for order and processes. Continuing this into higher secondary, the programming skills from school eventually landed me a job after college, considering how little I learnt there. So, the introduction to technology, and the associated facilities in both schools definitely caused a huge impact on my life to come.

by Second Iris

Day 15: Disinterested adolescents

I went in to the 7th grade today to fill in for another teacher that was sick. Since I didn’t take any formal subjects with this class, I decided to run a couple of exercises and games from TO with the class. And boy, where they a disappointment! Well, I shouldn’t blame the entire class for a group of 7 or 8 boys that absolutely didn’t want to try any of the activities. They did the activity for half a minute, gave up and stood there, disinterested. They longingly looked at the basketball court, wondering when I’d let them go play.

It was a huge lesson for me on having a backup plan and on being mentally prepared for a disinterested class. For the first, I was covered. But the second hit me hard. I had to take a solid 5 minutes to let it sink in that a majority of the class was not interested in the activity and that I had to try something else. And this was the one that affected me the most and I had a lot to share about being in power versus being powerless and whatnot.

I abandoned that, picked another trust game. And it worked like a charm. It started slow too, in fact, and almost went downhill. So I quickly got in and teamed up with a couple of these notorious boys to show them how it could be fun. Soon enough, they were trying real hard, switching partners to get it right.

Validation came in the form of them talking about it before lunch to the 5th and 6th graders, and them coming over to ask me how to do it. Before I knew it, there were pairs of little kids doing trust see-saws in the ground. Totally worth it!

Aunty, you are under arrest.

Why? What’d I do?

You gave us all a – 1 in the Change maker chart.

Well you did leave the lights and fans on.

You’re still under arrest.

Ooh! Aunty, you’re a good zentangler.

by Second Iris

Day 4: Diary, Nature walk and more

Diary: These kids seem to LOVE their diaries. It totally beats my adult brain but their love to note their timetable down in it. And mark their homework for the day in it, and to doodle all over it. Maybe it’s a little like us adults, holding on to little, trivial things; owning that little, trivial thing purely by writing our name on it. Maybe it’s them owning that little, trivial thing as their own.

Nature walk: I had my first nature walk today, with a part of class 5 and class 7. We walked over to the lake behind the school, single filing behind CoordG. As I brought up the rear of the group, two chatty 7th graders tagged along, telling me stories about a certain Sandy uncle in Bhoomi, who caught a rattle snake in this area once. Interesting personality, and I discover more of these every day.

Jumping down boulders and skipping stones on the lake is still on top of most these kids’ minds right now. Those and watching out for goat poop. So, the cynic in me is still ratifying the effectiveness of these activities in making them more Eco conscious. I’m hoping that since this is set into schedule to be once a week, they are repeatedly exposed to the outdoors and in the process, they’ll learn to attach more to it.

ShyTee: I’ve been noticing ShyTee from day 1 and I am more convinced by the day that the child needs some personal help. He is amongst the shorter ones in the class and yet willingly chose to sit in the last bench. He barely talks to his benchmate, or most of his classmates for that matter. I force him to converse as often as I can, and does so, crisply and with nil eye contact. He answers me to the point, while staring continuously at the ground. He tells me that his mom works too and his dad is away on an extended work engagement to Germany. I’ll be watching him more closely this year.