Schools, Synagogue, Boat Ride

We have had another couple of busy days. Yesterday, we visited the Center for Science in Society in Cochin University. It is a center created and supported by the government to help children learn and understand more about science. From labs with multiple hands-on experiments to a full playground-sized science park, the place is set up to be a great spot for kids to learn. The only downside of the morning was listening to a 2 hour lecture by a professor who was speaking English, but had a very thick accent and spoke so quickly most of us only picked up every 5th or 6th word. Even that was a valuable experience for me, though, because it made me think about how my own ESL children in the classroom have to function with me talking 90 miles an hour. I was amazed at how you had to concentrate so hard trying to pick up the information. This explains why our ESL teachers tell us these English as a Second Language students are so fatigued at the end of the day.

After lunch, we went to see the Dutch Palace, originally built by the Portugese in 1555 and later taken over by the Dutch in 1663. We also saw the oldest working Jewish synagogue in India. We had to remove shoes and cover our shoulders before entering. The floor was made of beautiful handpainted blue and white tiles, no two of which were the same. (pic 1) There is only a tiny Jewish population (less than 50) left in this area. Clustered around the synagogue is Jew Town.
(It really is called that.) Multiple shops were there, including a spice market. With this being their "off season" the shopkeepers worked us over trying to get us to come in and buy. I think we all got on the bus with a bag of something(s).

Today, we went to Chinmaya Vidyalaya, a private k-12 school in Kochi. (pics 2 & 3) It has approximately 2300 students and is supposedly, the "best of the best." We were graciously greeted again with a tilak on our foreheads and flower garland around our neck and were assigned to a student who toured us through the building. This is not a typical school in that most of these students come from 2-parent homes and most of their parents are very well educated. The school was founded on the teachings of a Swami and they have posters of him with his quotes all over the building. We also were able to spend time as a group with the principal asking questions, were able to sit in on instruction, and talk with the children in the classes. My informative and polite student guide was Sohail Seyad, one of the few Muslim children in the school. (pic 4) I got to see all ages, but particularly enjoyed the 7th and 8th graders, since that is the age group I am most familiar with. They looked at the picture album I took which showed my family, school, etc. and asked several questions about schools in the U.S. Harry Potter fans are in India, too, and they all knew that the next movie comes out tomorrow. They also are "into" the Twilight series of books that many of my students read. They go to class from 7:40-1:30 and don't take a lunch break. They meet 9 classes each day. In spite of this being one of the best private schools around, I found it interesting that the students don't change classes (exception - science labs, PE, music), but the teachers move from room to room. I can't imagine teaching my geography class without my wall of maps and all the "stuff" I pull out to show the kids. It looked like in most classrooms, it was a matter of solely using the text to teach. We were treated with tea and snacks and some of the group even joined in a cricket game at the end of the day. Although we were treated like royalty and enjoyed the visit, I hope we will have an opportunity somewhere along the way to spend time in an "average" public school.

We had a very informative lecture late this afternoon by a professor who gave us an overview of the state of Kerala. You might remember that I said this state has the highest literacy rate in the country (92% compared to the average of 55% in India). One of the things he brought up as a major problem for the state is the "educated unemployed." There are plenty of jobs involving manual labor, for instance, but the professor says that people refuse to take them because of their higher education level. In fact, many migrant workers come from neighboring states to do those types of jobs. We talked with him about the fact that so many of the students today, when asked about their ambitions, said they want to go into engineering or the medical field. He said that it is ingrained from an early age that "intelligent people go into these fields." Teaching is considered a last option, although, students greatly respect their teachers. (Public, or government-run school teachers earn about $300/month - not too terrible considering the cost of living here, but have no full health care and must retire at the age of 55.)

Our sunset hours were spent on a boatride in the backwaters of the Arabian Sea. A highlight was watching the giant fishing nets being lowered and raised into the waters. They do this during the six hours of high tide each night. We saw many fishing boats, docked along land and coming in for the evening unloading their catch of the day. (pics 5-7)

www.thehindu.com July 16 edition has an article about our visit in Kerala.