God of learning!

Yesterday I was so pissed off that I didn’t go to school!

The Chandranagar school (where I teach) is a public space that is utilized for everything, including tying up cows, parking tourist vehicles (sometimes with music blearing out of them) and such. For the last 3 years Asha Bangalore has been trying to get a compound wall around the school so that there would be a sense of a separate school space within the community. The hope was that it would bring a notion of sanctity to that school space. We could have easily raised funds to get that wall built. But, as you all probably know by now, we don’t do things the easy way. We do it in a way so that we can complain and gripe about it, may be just so that we can get another blog entry!

We wanted the local ‘community’ to make some contribution towards this compound wall. All the usual reasoning like ‘ownership’ and ‘empowerment’ has been thrown around quite liberally in this context. For three years we have been trying, trying and trying. Recently one of the parents who happened to be a construction person even made an estimate of the costs for the wall, plus additional toilets and drinking water facility. It came to about a lakh of rupees. This included around 15000 of labour charge. Since many parents are construction workers we were trying to see if they can contribute labour in kind along with Asha volunteers (our volunteers have no skill in the construction industry or for that matter....). No movement... “how can we work for two days without wages”?

Yesterday I go to the school and I see this huge Ganesh pandal. So many lights and decorations and I asked the guy working on it how much did that cost. He said it was around 10,000 rupees. The local folks are quite happy about the pandal. I don’t think they paid that out of their pockets, some local politico-goonda must have. Nevertheless, why couldn’t they channel that to improving the school infrastructure? What do they expect this pandal would do to them? Do they really believe that Ganesha, god of learning, is going to help the children learn better? This country, I tell you...

In any case all this fretting and fuming (and blogging) has helped me calm down. With tail between my legs I am back to school today. Out of the 43 kids I teach may be one of them might find reason not to invest in Ganesha pandals, may be not... It seems like any focus on the end-result is a route to disaster. Just focus on the process...just focus on the process..

Muthu - II

For those who have been waiting with baited breath to hear what happened to Muthu, don’t worry..... nothing happened.... his mother just ‘forgot’ about our conversation....ooofff.

Muthu was ‘behaving’ fine for a couple of days before he started his antics once again. Last week I conducted a test (quiz) and made sure there were two sets of question papers so that the children don’t copy. Copying is prevalent and as natural as gravity in this school. I had told the children that the question papers are different and if they tried to copy it not only indicates their nefarious purpose but also exposes their stupidity!

Not so surprising, Muthu had copied two answers from his neighbor. I gave a 0 out of 20 and then while I was distributing the answer sheets, he was busy trying to gouge the eyes out of Maruthi (an extremely bright kid). I just lost it. I guess since the physical route was not available, I had decided to emotionally scar(e) him. I went near him and threatened to fall at his feet and plead with him. I told him that I had exhausted all other avenues of reaching out to him and the only way I can see now is pleading. There was so much emotional drama in the class, all students went “beda saar, beda saar”. Muthu started bawling, if I were he I would have prefered one tight slap...

Heroic Teachers

Will Oklin is a teacher (English and Photography) in Chicago school and he has blogged about his work. My mentor sent me this link and I thought it was a good read.

Muthu

Muthu is an 11-year boy studying in the 5^th standard in Government Higher Primary School, Chandaranagar, Bangalore. I have been teaching 5^th standard English and Maths for the 8 months (I taught them when they were in class 4 too). Muthu is an hyper-active kid and is always busy up to some mischief. But when paid individual attention he used to pick up things quite fast. This year his messing around in the class was even more. He either used to constantly fight with the kids around him or he used to fall asleep. For the last few weeks I was really wondering why is he falling asleep? Is he really very tired or worse is he sniffing some gum or something? He was not learning anything academically in the class and had started doing more crazier things like making faces at me when I turned my back towards the class (still unusual in 5^th standard, I am expecting that only in 7^th or so). I had wanted to talk to his parents and asked him if I can meet them. Both are construction workers and he said they are never around. His younger brother, Arun is also in the same class, but he is quite the opposite. He pays attention and picks up things very fast. He is a good student.

I used to complain to all the teachers about Muthu and even to some of my friends. I used to even joke that he is my nemesis and he comes and frightens me in my dreams.

Today his mother happened to come to the school. She came to complain that she say him roaming around the streets yesterday instead of coming to the school. I also complained to her that he is not paying attention in the class and was disrupting the class too. But I did not expect what was coming next. She produced a stout stick and said that we should thrash him more often. “He would listen only to some sound thrashing Sir. Look, we are like this (construction workers) because our mothers did not thrash us”. She also started beating him then and there. I felt miserable that I ratted on him. Ominously, she also threatened him “let your dad come back home today, you are going to be dead body only”. At that point I recovered a bit and told not to worry about him and I will talk to him. Since I am “English” teacher (who wears jeans and t-shirt) I get a little more leeway in this school, so I hope (dearly hope) she takes my word and leaves him alone. Man, I have resolved I will never complain about my kids, not even in a non-serious fashion.

After she left I had a long conversation with Muthu:

Ram: Whats up Muthu, why all this trouble?

Muthu: I don’t know sar.

R: How come you feel sleepy all the time, too much work at home?

M: No, sar.

R: Ok, what are the issues you are facing in the class, why did you skip school?

M: Everyone bothers me and talks to me and then I get caught. The students and teachers beat me and so I did not come to school

R: Do you beat the students too?

M: Yes :)

R: What do you do at home, when do you get up?

M: 6 am

R: What do you do after that?

M: I fold all the bedding

R: And then

M: I go and collect 10 pots of water. The distance is like between here and the bakery (around 300 meters).

R: And then

M: I cook food.

R: Doesn’t your mom cook?

M: No, she also leaves early. My dad leaves without eating. My mom does other work at home, eats and then leaves. So I do the cooking

R: What do you cook?

M: Rice and sambar. Some times sambar with just dal and sometimes with vegetables.

R: Do you like vegetables?

M:No

R: Don’t you like potatoes?

M:Yes :)

R: What else?

M: Potatoes and Bhendi (Okra)

R: Wow, I like potatoes and okra too. They are might favorite, in that order. We have things in common. Do you like bitter gourd?

M: Yes, also they say it helps in clearing your stomach of bugs.

R: What about nighttime?
M: I cook then too and have to get 2 to 4 pots of water.

R: Do your parents beat you?

M: My father gets drunk and beats me. He also beats my mother.

R: Why does he beat you?

M: When I don’t do my work. Like not getting the water.

R: Why don’t you do your work?

M: Because I have to study and all.

R: Yeah right, really tell me?

M: I also like to go out and play with the other kids outside :)

R: Hmm, that is not right beating you like that. Is it?

M: No, it is not right.

R: How come then you beat other kids?

M: !!!!! (silence... smile)

R:ok, lets come back to the classroom. What do you think can be done?

M:Everyone talks to me and bothers. When I talk back or hit back I get caught all the time.

R: Well, if you don’t sit in the back row it might not be a problem. Do you go to movies?

M:Sometimes

R: Where do you like to sit, in the back or in the front?

M: In the front

R: Why?

M: The screen looks big and I get excited :)

R: May be if you sit in the front in class also it might be exciting. Think of the class as the movie and think of the teacher as a hero or a heroine or a villain if you like (ha ha ha)

M: ha ha ha

R: Will you do that?

M: Yes I will sit in the front row from today.

We then had a math’s class and Muthu sat in the front and was very eager to participate in the class. He repeatedly attempted to answer questions though only a few times he was right. I hope this continues in the future too.

I was feeling quite bad that I was quite quick to judge this kid and complain about him. A 11 year old cooking and doing the housework. So much violence in his house. I think he would like to unwind in the school and his idea of doing that is horsing around and have some fun. Can we blame him? I have to be kinder and more patient with him. This also explained why Arun was doing better academically. He had a more relaxed life (comparatively).

That said, having 43 such kids in the class does test my patience. I don’t know how long all these nice feelings will last before I go back to my....