So my long weekend finally came to a close this morning; we had a holiday for the Pharsee New Year yesterday. And to my dismay, out of the three lectures that I usually have on Tuesdays, the last one got cancelled, so my classes were pretty much done by 10:30. That may be weird, but having classes means that I am relatively busy and I like to be busy not because I want to escape anything or not think about something, I just like it. When I conveyed the 'bad news' about my cancelled lecture to my 'first-day' buddy (we've been friends from the first day of college) Sonal, she looked at me and said, "So why do you look so sad?? What's wrong with you??" Ha ha. Anyway, I managed to drag her to study in the library with me half of my free time anyway... Muahahaha and then we got told off for making too much noise in the reference room as we somehow managed to get into a rather animated conversation (I can't even remember what exactly it was about now.)
So after all that, in the afternoon, I headed for Akanksha. I still haven't quite managed to figure out how best to get there so I left rather early but thankfully so cause I ended up waiting for about half an hour for the bus and then had to take a ten minute walk to finally get to my centre... So I rushed, and thankfully got there on time. I took on the youngest kids again today and this time I was pretty much on my own teaching them and I just about got out of there, sane and no damage done. Man, are they a handful! I had to be pretty strict with them because they really know how to take you for a ride otherwise. It's also tough because they've learnt a lot of things wrong, due to, perhaps the bad teachers at their formal schools and also, unfortunately, some bad volunteers at the centre and by 'bad' I mean, they don't entirely know what they're teaching... for e.g. one of the kids was writing a sentence and spelt Rupees as Rupeiss and when I tried to correct him, he looked at me a little defensively and said, "well the other didi told me to spell it like this." Yeah, so not only do they have a lot of learning to do but also a lot of unlearning also...! Another frustrating thing is that some of the kids are so bright, they know what's happening but they simply won't do it unless you push and push and push and.... you get the point. I can't figure out whether that's just a 'kid thing'. Don't kids usually want to show off how smart they are and compete with each other to finish first?? Some of them were, but the others were content with sitting around and pretending to be working or doing it haphazardly...
Hmmm, I could go on and on telling you about it all. It was a tougher day than last Thursday but I still like it as much as I did. Infact, I think I like it more. Now, there's a challenge aspect added. Now, I know that it's not easy and takes a lot of work and a LOT of patience and well, like I mentioned before, I'm weird.
I like work.
3 comments:
Amor Amor is perfume. Yummy, delicious perfume :)
You and I are nothing if not telepathic - Lewis ftw! [hahaha don't mess that up!]
Some kids are lazy, or think they're too cool. They need motivation, not necessarily 'pushing'
Love you! xx
As pretty much everyone knows, 90% of my 'career', I've been a professional neussence in the classroom. I can't think of one time, one term in my life when I actually excelled at school. Now, I don't know anything about the situation you're in, or those kids that get you as a teacher, but I'm willing to bet that some of them are like you. Sharp as a tack and willing to work because it's rewarding to work hard, to succeed. Others are like me. Sharp as an eraser and determined to do their own thing. The ones who have it in them to succeed academically will do so, and your encouragment probably makes it seem like the world is within their grasp. Believe it or not. When somebody believes in you, believes in what you can do, that is somehow more special than all the good grades in the world. Education may be the ticket out of there for some of these kids, a better life in a changing India. That may be their motivation. For others, their motivation will come from somewhere else, doing something else. I know, I seem like the last person that should be commenting on this topic, seeing as I'm pretty much the antithesis of education, but I thought I should say something anyway. Education and Academics are worlds apart sometimes.
And for what it's worth, I think you have everything it takes and more to do what you're doing.
AJay
Gosh I can't match up 2 ajays comment there... but yeah i'm soo happy that ur happy and i'm sooo Jelouse also.....But Soooooo Happpy for my mommy... looks like all that stressing and worrying over uni's was a nothing ness.... God seemsed 2 have a better one planed for u... with like a happy li'll part timer planned 2....yeyye . Whoot whoot 2 God...lol. ok i'll shut up and go 2 sleep...lol. Love u mommy. <3
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