Education in India needs several leg-ups. One of the most apparent ones is the lack of education for 40% of our population who are classified as 'illiterate'. Second, where a lot of private enterprise is being seen over the past few years, is to improve the quality of education among the 60% who are getting it. A recent survey conducted by the Department of Education, Govt. of Maharashtra realised that among those people who were officially classified as literate (based on the 3 R's) only abt 20% could do simple arithmetic or write their name - An alarming statistic, if it is representative of the country!!
Anyways, cutting to the chase, during our sabbatical from work last year, we decided to stop thinking and discussing these things and start doing something about it. From there, emerged the idea of utilizing the summer vacations to spend some time with kids. We wanted to focus on small town kids because the Metros have gotten enough of these things.
Over emails and virtual chats, we clarified the objective of this exercise in our mind. What did we really want to achieve? What did we want the kids to take away? How do we define success? There are so many things that you can do, so many avenues to explore, so many topics to cover making this the toughest and the longest part of our journey.
Eventually, we got down to saying that if we can show the kids a world beyond their textbooks, leave them with some tools to make learning fun and we get a sense of fulfillment out of it - THAT'S SUCCESS!!
The nitty gritties of which place, how many days, how many kids, the menu, transportation, agenda etc followed and suddenly it was 9th June. We had 17 kids in our hands and felt like potters working with clay :-)
What followed was 5 days of immense learning for us. We discovered reserves of patience that we did not know existed. We encountered countless questions from the kids - some of which left us scrambling into the deepest recesses of our minds & memories. We experienced parenting and the emotional highs & lows attached to it. It was an emotional roller coaster.....
The lows were handling kids patently lacking in manners - misbehaving & abusing their room mates, cheating in the games, creating a mess in their rooms, creating a fuss over food and generally carrying a sense of entitlement around themselves. They typically happened to be male kids from non-working mothers.
The highs were the conversations - How can we see Jupiter? What is that shining thing next to it? What is a black hole? What is a supernova? Is sun bigger than Pole Star? Is a galaxy bigger or a constellation? The Berlin wall is in Berlin, right? Is a tetra-pack bio-degradable?
It was amusing to see the sense of competition so deeply ingrained in them. Anything that won them points was important, anything that didn't was a chore. Their smiles when they won and their dropped heads when they lost were emotions of such contrast that we found it hard to maintain our equanimity.
But the biggest reward was their unwillingness to go home on the penultimate day. The camaraderie that got established between them over the 5 days was amazing. When we saw them exchanging phone no.s, emails (the few who had access to the net) and addresses - we thought maybe, just maybe, we have begun what could be a life long association.
At the end, for a first attempt - this was great! We had a lot of fun and left the camp with an overwhelming sense of fulfillment. And the kids responded positively to our stimuli. They had a great time playing the learning games, many took to reading beyond their text books - some doing it for the first time!, others started looking at the sky with new eyes - trying to see whether it was Ursa Major or Minnor, still others promised to imprint the world map on the retina of their mind.
There is a sense of power and responsibility when you are dealing with kids. They are like clay and you feel like the Potter who can give them any shape. It's scary and empowering in equal measure.
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