Chennai is in the state of Tamil Nadu, which has a coastline on the Bay of Bengal. There are many different languages in India and it has been interesting seeing signs posted in multiple tongues, and changing as we go from state to state. For instance, in Kerala, the state language is Malayalum, the national language, Hindi, and the language of instruction is English. Here, the state language is Tamil. Chennai is the fourth largest port in the country and has developed into a modern metropolitan city without (we are told) shedding its traditional customs, religious outlook and other traditions. For example, we were given a demonstration on "Dances of Tamil Nadu" by a team of dance students our first evening in the city. (pic1) Of course, the parents of the young girls were in the audience and it was fun talking to them after the show. Most said that they daughters had been taking dance for 6-9 years and some of the moms were classical dancers themselves.
Another interesting exchange was with Indian Fulbright scholars who had participated in a 6 month teacher exchange program where they taught for that time period in the U.S. and the U.S. teacher taught in their Indian classroom. They were asked to tell us their impressions of our schools based on their time in the classroom. (They had all been placed in public high schools across the U.S. teaching English, science or math.) Some of their observations included:
*They feel that Indian students come to class much more focused on schoolwork; they kept using the term "with blinders on." They were not expecting to have to address students coming to class with headphones on and propping their feet up on desks! On the other hand, they enjoyed seeing our kids enjoy life and have a life beyond the books.
*They felt that U.S. students have much more appreciation for the humanities; Indian students are totally science and math focused.
*Their experience with the curriculum made them feel that U.S. students have a broad base of knowledge, but not much depth in the subjects.
*The science teachers said they couldn't believe when students would ask to use calculators to work problems and "formula cheat sheets" for tests.
*They felt that in the U.S., science was more activity-based, with content being neglected. In India, students have to "know the book" for their national exams. One teacher commented that it would be nice to find a balance between the two!
*One teacher commented on how the relationship between teachers and students is so different here. For instance, students would ask her if she had an arranged marriage, how she could be away from her husband so long, etc., personal types of questions that she said Indian students would not dare ask. It was interesting in that she said she felt like the kids worked harder for her and had greater respect for her because she shared a part of herself with them, spent 5 minutes asking about their weekend, etc. She has begun to do this to a degree in her classes in India and feels that it has helped her classroom atmosphere.
*They were impressed that special needs students get so much assistance in the U.S. Students with learning disabilities, for the most part, they said, do not attend "regular" schools in India. Also, with the competitive nature of universities, it is highly unlikely that one of these children would ever go to college, much less have accommodations made for them while IN college.
As we answered their questions, it dawned on me that almost every answer we gave had to be prefaced with "in our state this is the way it is." I had never really thought about how much U.S. schools differ from state to state, district to district, or sometimes even school to school. It was an interesting day for all of us!
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