Incredible day as we experienced our first full day at
Kendriya Vidalaya (translates to Central Government) School in Malapurram. It was a unique day in many, many respects
and parts will be unforgettable. I will
resist the temptation to give a play-by-play account and try to focus my
thoughts and remarks.
Respect or tradition?
Tea served to me twice.
An impressive and welcoming ceremony by the 1,000 students and staff at
the school which include being presented with a garland and bouquet of flowers,
lighting the traditional lamp, being referred to as a distinguished scholar, a
beautiful Hindu classical dance performed in our honor, bows from teachers—I
have never felt so warmly received. Both
Erik and I spoke to the assembly for several minutes. I mentioned Gandhi and got a round of
applause.
Great instruction or well-trained students?
We will observe more classes today, but have seen way more
example of memorize and regurgitate than of challenging higher level thinking
skills. In Thomas’s economics class
yesterday, the students were reviewing the law of diminishing returns. When asked for students to recite the
concept, students were all able to do so in a rote fashion. I asked the students to give me examples of
the law and they did not other than the one that Thomas had given them. I suspect they were very shy and were hesitant
to participate. The students are very
well trained and show tremendous respect to their teachers. I think I will learn more today when I visit
some science classes.
As I may have mentioned earlier, students stay in their own
class and teachers rotate. We learned
today when a teacher is absent, there is no substitute. The students remain in their class for the 40
minute period unsupervised and catch up on work. Interesting. No supervision and the students just
work. As an experiment, may be would try
this with American high school students or not!
Does respect = compensation?
Thomas works at a Central Government school which would be
like if the U.S. government had its own system of schools in addition to
private schools and state run public schools.
His wife works at a private school which pays significantly less
money. We were very generously invited
by Thomas to dine with his family at their home yesterday with their two daughters. Because he is transferred every 5 years, he
explained, he rents a house. The meal
was fantastic. It was a traditional Indian
meal with fried rice, chicken 65 and a number of other side dishes. Of course, Thomas served french fries first
playing to our American tastes and displaying his knowledge of American
cuisine. At any rate, Thomas mentioned
that he pays about $100 U.S. a month for his small, simple but very clean two
bedroom rented home. He does own a car,
he mentioned that only 1 in 5 Indians own a car, and he got his driver’s
license when he was 35. He does a smart
phone and his wife has a regular cell phone but his teenage children do
not. At any rate, Thomas received a $75
stipend per teacher from IREX ($150 total).
For us, would be nice. For him it
is a month and half of rent. It appears
that the respect that teachers receive here does not extend to significant
compensation. Kind of sad.
I am typing this at 7:41 on Tuesday morning. The monsoon we have been warned about is on
us. Absolutely torrential rain is
falling outside right now.
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