Signing Off

My last day at Kendriya Vidyalaya Minambakkam was overwhelming. At the morning assembly, several students spoke about how much they enjoyed my classes. At assembly and all day long, students showered me with gifts, cards, cakes and well wishes. They mobbed me for my autograph; I felt like a rock star. They were smiling ear-to-ear and were genuinely appreciative of the time we have had together. The students in India demonstrate incredible affection for their teachers, which really crosses the line into adoration. The loftiness of the teaching profession is clear in the respect and admiration of the students.

Though India is incredibly diverse culturally, spiritually and socioeconomically, some things are consistent across the board. Appreciation for teachers is one. Patriotism is another. A few days ago, I was walking toward the morning assembly, quite late. A parent was a distance in front of me walking in the same direction. We were the only ones in the long hallway, but she did not know I was behind her. The national anthem began (just as it does each day at the end of the assembly), and the parent stopped walking to stand at attention. I stopped too. Not only did she stand with her arms straight at her sides, feet together and facing forward, but she also sang. Even alone in a hallway, she sang her national anthem simply because it was being played. I felt like I was eavesdropping on a private moment, but I suspect she would not have been the least bit embarrassed by her expression of love for her country.

I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to travel to India to get a little glimpse of life here. Adaptation is never easy, and many moments have been frustrating and difficult. But, even more have been touching, revealing and even hilarious. So many people have made an effort to make us comfortable. I cannot begin to express how much I appreciate the kindness of the friends we have made and the friends at home who helped as well. I know this exchange has caused a great deal of inconvenience on both sides of the globe. Please accept my heartfelt thanks as well as apologies for my errors, which have been many.

I have some great stories to tell, but the total of this experience is greater than the stories. From India, I can see my own culture’s values, prejudices, tendencies and habits in a way that is invisible at home. Every culture has its own strengths and weaknesses – and I have learned about my own as well as about India’s. India certainly has immense gifts to offer the world, and I am thankful to have had a chance to see them. The goal of diversity should be more than simple tolerance. I want to look around, see what works, and do more of that. It’s like tipping your feathers a tiny bit during flight. That small lean causes dramatic changes.

Best Regards,

Amy

Seventh Grade Boys

Seventh Grade Girls

Eighth Graders

Eleventh Graders

Happy Pongal

Pongal is a harvest festival to thank the sun for his generosity. The elementary students performed a pageant with dances and a story of Pongal, which is celebrated all over India. At 10 am Friday, an announcement was made that school was cancelled for Monday to celebrate the holiday!
I have one more teaching day before I depart for the US. The staff held a farewell ceremony to mark the end of my exchange, and I am grateful for all the patience and support I have been shown. I have felt like a first year teacher again, unsure of the procedures and expectations.

Telling the story of Pongal.

Girls doing traditional dance.

Boy's traditional dance.

The principal presents a gift from the staff.

Mrs. Malar, In the beautiful pink sari, has been my mentor at KVM.

Wedding Reception

We had a beautiful evening at the wedding reception for Mrs. Daisy's son and new wife. Literally thousands of people came to wish happiness to the new couple. The venue was dazzling, the food extraordinary and the brilliant colors of the women's dresses were stunning. I have never seen anything like it.

Tempered

Now that I have graded some big piles of exams, I have tempered my opinion of the Indian educational system. Sometimes students would write several sentences that they had memorized out of the book that did not address the question that was asked. Sometimes, they wrote verbatim definitions when logic was needed. And, frequently, they could not answer novel conceptual questions. If I chose a problem from the book, many more students got it – because they clearly study the answers. However, when I wrote a question that required application of understanding – bomb. (I have a very few notable exceptions – maybe 5% of the students have phenomenal creative reasoning ability, matched with an amazing breadth of memorized information. WOW! Those few are unstoppable. Students like that come along once in awhile in the US [Yes, Jeremy, I mean you, master of parentheses.].) Generally speaking, Indian students demonstrate a definite lack of overall comprehension and ability to apply concepts. I have a clear example. The question was about how many spectral lines would be formed when an electron drops from principal energy level 6 to level 2 in an atom. I drew the levels on the board showing the nucleus in the middle and started putting arrows in to show the possible transitions (level 5 to level 4 or 3 or 2, level 4 to 3 or 2, level 3 to level 2, etc.). A student raised her hand and said that was not how she solved the problem. I invited her to show me her solution. She wrote out a mathematical formula, which she had memorized, and put in the level numbers. She did get the right answer, but I wonder if she knew what the answer meant? In the US, I would never ask students to memorize a formula if the answer can be derived by thinking about a model.

And teaching middle school is very instructive about where this issue comes from. A question asked how plants draw in water and nutrients. I said the answer was ‘evaporation’ because water evaporates from the leaves and creates ‘suction’. The students went wild with shouts. They said that was not right. They pointed to a sentence in the book or showed me the answer key – which is readily available. The answer, they said, was transpiration. Transpiration is explained to be evaporation of water from the leaves. I said that both answers were correct, and they did not like that at all.

Students copy the answers right out of the key or right off each other’s papers. I suspect that only a small percentage of students actually write their own answers. This is standard procedure. Standard procedure here assumes that copying a few sentences is the same as gathering the information from lecture or from reading text and constructing an answer. The students are not expected to do their own work as long as they memorize. Review for the exam requires asking for many, many definitions of words.

The rampant plagiarism is another good example. Eleventh graders were asked to write an essay on a chemistry topic. I was asked to choose the best ones. With well over 50 papers, only three were not completely copied and pasted from the internet. At least US students know to remove the underlined links and the footnote numbers! The vast majority of students did not even write introductory or closing paragraphs of their own. They honestly do not have the skill to research and write.

The work ethic in India is still an order of magnitude stronger than the US, but I can see why the West is still producing more creative and flexible minds. Figuring out how to produce students with the discipline and memory skill of Indian students and the creativity and thinking skills of US students would be the magic combination.

We will be going home in three weeks. In some ways, the time has passed very quickly, and, in other ways, it seems an eternity. Such is India.

Thane's Damage

Flattened grass hut to the left and downed palms.

Debris removal.

Lots of big trees down and others with the tops ripped off.

We stayed an extra night when we heard that hurricane Thane (category 1) was headed toward Chennai. It actually hit land significantly south of Chennai, but not far enough south to be a danger to us. We had been scheduled to take the train right through that area on our way home. We cancelled our train tickets and stayed an extra night. We are very glad to have waited. We had heavy rain for two days, but the town was still lovely and picturesque. We took a cab home (Eight hours for $100) and drove through Thane’s damage. We saw downed trees, smashed huts and downed power lines for about 100 miles. The brick and mortar buildings were fine, with the notable exception of a car dealership that was quite beat up. The signs on all the billboards had blown off leaving only the iron structures behind. People were working on the trees with machetes. Clearly chainsaws had been used to clear the road – only 24 hours since the storm and the road was clear. We saw uniformed officers in the larger towns, directing traffic or just standing around (preventing looting?). I have never seen this level of damage over such a large area. Category 1 is the weakest hurricane. Michigan -- so far from a coast, looks like a safer place to be, ice and all.

Vacation

In the background is a Danish fort built in the early 1600s. The water is the Bay of Bengal.

We had a 10-day break and left for Tranquebar, which is in the same state as Chennai and many hours south. On the train I felt like I was in an old movie about colonial India – watching the villages and rice paddies sweep by the train window. The hotel is a small chain that buys historically interesting buildings and restores them. The rooms are in buildings that reflect the traditional architecture – and have a very homey feel. We had warm sunny days and overcast afternoons – which kept the heat under control. 

Brightly colored houses are all over the town.

Classroom Pictures

That bench is less than four feet wide. Sometimes there are four students there.

Turns out that teaching 7^th and 8^th grade requires a different set of skills than teaching high school -- skills that I have not mastered, actually. However, at this point, we have come to a comfortable place. We are doing really well together and we are right on target for the curriculum. I have a couple students that need occasional behavioral reminders from the administration. The other day, I took a student to the principal, and when I left him to return to class, he was on his knees in front of the principal speaking quickly; it sounded like begging and pleading even though it was not in English.

Students with special needs are not given any accommodations. I can clearly see that some of the students have learning disabilities and are not capable of the work put before them. They are lost. (Lost student + lots of time sitting in class = behavior problem.) 

41 is a small class 48 is big.