Scholarly visits can be great fun too
JOHN L. PAUL
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They enjoyed their visit to India.
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Photo: Lyju Mathew
The wonder that is India: On a boat tour.
Over a week ago, Kochi played host to 16 teachers from the US. They were quite amazed at the respect that teachers ‘automatically’ get in India, something which they have to ‘earn’ in the US.
The five men and eleven women were Fulbright scholars, on a six-week tour of the country. The Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Programme 2007 was funded by the US Department of Education. They visited many schools and other institutions, “to learn
and not to teach”, as Mark Skelton, their team leader put it. A teacher in an alternative public high school in New York, he is also a basketball coach and prefers to commute in a bicycle. “We wanted to discover the secret behind Indians’ quest for knowledge and what as educators, we could learn from India’s best practices. I have often been surprised at the number of Indians coming to the US to study,” he says. His area of interest is the student-teacher relationship and he spoke of how deep and “beyond words” the relationship is in India.
Impressive
Mr Skelton was impressed at the reception that the team got at Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir, Elamakkara. “It was the most touching one that we got in the whole of the country. We found that India has skilfully combined the traditional way of learning, with the modern one, to become a formidable force in the world stage.” He took exception to teachers pushing students to learn. “Students must enjoy competition,” he believes.
Apart from schools, the team visited temples and NGOs. While on a boat ride through Kochi’s backwaters, most of the teachers clicked photographs of traditional fishing craft, churches, old buildings of Mattancherry and the famed Chinese fishing nets of Fort Kochi. Geoff Mcpherson, envies teachers in India. “They automatically get respect, while we have to ‘earn’ respect in the US. Indian students are very eager to learn and love science subjects, whereas there is some sort of phobia for science among most US students. Their ultimate aim is to become a lawyer or a businessman.” A biology teacher, he was named ‘teacher of the year’, by colleagues and students.
Enrichment
Among the Fulbright scholars was Anita Aysola, whose parents are from Andhra Pradesh. A maths teacher, she is also a certified yoga instructor.
She lives in Chicago. Ms Anita spoke of the waiting list in her school to attend yoga classes. “The difference in perception of students who attend yoga classes is very evident. It has to be integrated into the curriculum.” She learned some tips on Vedic Mathematics, at BVM, Elamakkara. The guests wanted to know the secret of how our students perform well in studies and become well-placed in life, says BVM Principal Jaya Jacob. “They also evinced interest in enrichment, remedial and smart classes that are given in our school.” A yoga-demonstration class too was organised for the guests. Each of the visiting teachers teamed up with an Indian teacher to develop a curriculum unit for his/her class in the US. Accompanying them was S. Vasudevan, Administrative Coordinator of the US Educational Foundation in India.
For details of Fulbright opportunities, check out the website www.fulbright-india.org.
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