I recently visited a few schools in our area. It's important for me to get a sense of what comprises a typical school and of where we stand relative to the others. These visits usually leave me in despair over the state of the education system.
Parents must enroll their child in "lower kindergarten" at age 3 (or two and a half!), then "upper kindergarten" at age 4. These consist of sitting, writing, and reciting. First grade starts at age 5: it's against the law to allow a child to mature and wait until she's six (I have often been sleepless over this one, and won't reveal whether I am completely law-abiding). Yet birth certificates can be suspicious, and I'm not sure what to think when a parent claims a child is seven when he looks like he's three.
Other children have no birth certificate at all, and we have to guess.
I have been to a number of schools and never seen toys in kindergarten or picture books in any classroom. No crayons or art supplies. No library. Few schools have PE. Ours didn't have recess when I first arrived. There are no special ed or resource classes. Nothing for the gifted.
Children do two things: memorize their lessons and copy vast passages from the book into their notebook. The most important thing is your handwriting.
The kids usually look terrified. Corporal punishment is standard.
So I was relieved at my visit to St. Hilda's in Chengelput to find the kids looking fairly happy and not bored out of their minds. I admired the teachers who were functioning with as many as SEVENTY-THREE kids in a classroom. That was fourth grade. And this is a private school.
And then I come home, to my animated, bright-eyed little hooligans. They run to me to show me their paper airplane or Tamil quiz. "All correct." The world is good again.
We are lucky. Because of our American sponsors, our classes are relatively small, we have better (=contraband) materials, we actually teach reading, our kids speak English, and we are slowly helping the teachers grasp the concepts of creative and critical thinking for our students.
Our kids come from the lowest castes, but are getting a superior education.
Parents must enroll their child in "lower kindergarten" at age 3 (or two and a half!), then "upper kindergarten" at age 4. These consist of sitting, writing, and reciting. First grade starts at age 5: it's against the law to allow a child to mature and wait until she's six (I have often been sleepless over this one, and won't reveal whether I am completely law-abiding). Yet birth certificates can be suspicious, and I'm not sure what to think when a parent claims a child is seven when he looks like he's three.
Other children have no birth certificate at all, and we have to guess.
I have been to a number of schools and never seen toys in kindergarten or picture books in any classroom. No crayons or art supplies. No library. Few schools have PE. Ours didn't have recess when I first arrived. There are no special ed or resource classes. Nothing for the gifted.
Children do two things: memorize their lessons and copy vast passages from the book into their notebook. The most important thing is your handwriting.
The kids usually look terrified. Corporal punishment is standard.
So I was relieved at my visit to St. Hilda's in Chengelput to find the kids looking fairly happy and not bored out of their minds. I admired the teachers who were functioning with as many as SEVENTY-THREE kids in a classroom. That was fourth grade. And this is a private school.
And then I come home, to my animated, bright-eyed little hooligans. They run to me to show me their paper airplane or Tamil quiz. "All correct." The world is good again.
We are lucky. Because of our American sponsors, our classes are relatively small, we have better (=contraband) materials, we actually teach reading, our kids speak English, and we are slowly helping the teachers grasp the concepts of creative and critical thinking for our students.
Our kids come from the lowest castes, but are getting a superior education.
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