some work by Sonia & Raman

Some drawings by Raman

5

Ranjit, Ramandeep, Simran and Navneet were very much surprised when they chatted with me in Gmail. I was in Bangalore. Our task is now on the verge of completion. They have relized their potentials and understand very well that 'Internet' is a wonderful tool that can does wonders for them. I have advised them to thank the Sarve Siksha Abiyaan director in Chandhigarh through email. Well, one thing I am little hesitatent is about introducing Facebook to them. But, one day I am sure they are going to find out this internet revolution.
Kids now read online newspaper everyday and them have discussion of any topic in the evening. We are also trying to encourage them to read books of their interest.

4

A very funny thing happened last week. The kids were searching images of their interest on the web. Some of them ran out names to search, so I asked them to search their holy gurus. Ramandeep and Ranjit , sitting on one computer asked me the spelling of Guru Nanak, Sikh religion’s first guru. She googled it and many images of him showed up on the screen. Not understanding what to do with so many of those pictures, she covered her head with her chunny (a piece of cloth women wear in Punjab, India) and bowed to the monitor. I had a hard time controlling my laughing tail. After that we had a nice discussion on it.

I also got to know why Ramandeep wants to be a police inspector. Her father had abused her mother and divorced her. Being poor and uneducated about her rights, her mother has, Ramadeep as the only hope of fight. She wants her to be in police so as to punish her father. I could feel the grudges she was holding about her father.

These kids are going through terrible things. The last thing they want to talk about is the Marks or score. Our schools don’t understand it. They want the kids to be present in the class and score as much as possible. Schools can’t be independent of society. We not only need to understand how they learn but also how they live.

3-Be a Friend

We don't think twice before talking any rubbish to our good friend. Similarly, why should a student think twice to ask about something to his/her teacher. That's why,according to me a teacher should be the best friend of a student. Ranjit Kaur now considers me her friend. She shares quite personal things of her family with me. I show keen interest in her home affairs. It is very important to understand the environment of a kid before understanding why he or she is not scoring good on exams. From last two hours she has been drawing a flower in MS paint. I can see how much she has immersed herself into it. Her confidence level has increased dramatically.
It was appaling for me when everyone said it is okay to beat a kid when he or she doesn't study properly or does somthing wrong. it would have been okay if a 5+ years experienced teacher would have said. But, these were the kids. Thus, now I am working on an experiment to see how a non-voilent punishment can make a kid feel guilty about his/her mistake. I will explain my observation to you later on.

2-Listensing Matters

All of the kids have shown keen interest in learning computers. From drawing in MS Paint, playing games ,to listening songs. When discussing about topics related to their life, they express themselves freely, without the notion that they may be wrong. They simply tell what they know. One thing I observed is that listening is vital in making the kids 'to think.'They don't have any fear that they may not be doing it good enough or right. We also had discussions about issues related to their life, ranging from home , society, village , to environment. It was interesting that they all held some view about what should/shouldn't be done. Ranjeet Kaur, who had failed last year is opening up slowly. I found that she is quite motivated about her religion. One thing I would like to tell you is that, I don't direct any student to do something, they chose their own interest. I simply, help them identify it. I am sure, in a week or two even Ranjeet will start to express her freely about topics of her interest.

Background

Sonia's father earns approximately Rs100($2 approx) per day. She belongs to schedule caste(lower caste) family. According to the principal of the school, she is the most intelligent student in her class. Another student , Ranjit Kaur, has similar background. Her father is a laborer. Unfortunately, he is also an alcoholic. She has failed her last year that's why most of the teachers questioned me on her selection.

All of the six students are in between these two categories. They all represent similar backgrounds but they all have different aspirations. Someone want to be a teacher, where other wants to be an Army man. Irrespective of their backgrounds, financial, family problems they all share one thing- a dream to be something in life. Now my job is to enable them to find resources and use them to make their dreams come true. The most important resource I believe is the information and the only tool these kids have is the internet. The first week is dedicated to interaction so as to gain their trust and get comfortable with them. More information on the project will be available in coming posts.