Happy Birthday, USA!

Feels silly, but this day feels just like any other day in India. We weren't invited to the US Embassy party tonight, so we're making our own here at the hotel. Should be nice, though we're all in for an early night since we'll get up early in the morning to go the schools of our cooperating teachers.

Mr. Ajay and I are excited to put together our project (and yes, Mrs. K, I have also been trying to get him and teachers from other schools to have students submit articles to the Insider, I've got your back). I have learned that the class size here is much larger than in the US (40 to 70) and that he doesn't use any technology at all (the students aren't even allowed to use calculators until they get the University level). His curriculum doesn't allow for group work or activities, though there is a national movement to include more of this. In fact, when we sat in the National Curriculum center yesterday we heard the latest political party line, which sounded a lot like a class from Trinity's MAT program ... all about learner centered instruction, etc. But we know that's not what is really happening here.

What is happening is a further division of the "Have's" and the "Have Not's". The poor students and village students don't go to school at all, certainly not past fifth grade. The girls (attn: GLI) are allowed to attend, but are often the first ones to drop out when their families need them. Only one in 100 girls who starts 1st class (our first grade) will finish 12 class, and even then she may or may not go on to University.

Tomorrow I will teach a small part of one or two classes, and hope to learn more about what the schools and students are like. So far I have met only kind and generous people, like the two teachers who helped me reach a bargain today when I bought some books for school. There are those sad faces begging for money around every corner, too, to remind you of how lucky you are, and to motivate you to enact far-spreading change in this damaged education system. They deserve to read children's books too.