Looking from a new perspective (Part 2)

The first week of observation helped me have a third person’s view of the school, and the interviews this week helped get a closer look into the lives of the people, who are part of the school, especially the students. I even got the opportunity to meet the Principal this time and understand her perspective towards education and the school. The school was started about fifty years ago with the aim of educating the girl child as in those days the emphasis was more on educating boys and the women were expected to only take care of the house and not step out to work or attain education. The government pays for most of the facilities provided at the school but, the students still need to pay a nominal fee. Many students are provided free education, mainly those of the workers of the school, and are also provided financial assistance for higher studies once they leave the school. The school includes a hostel, which provides shelter to the children of prisoners. All these things made me look at the school in a new light and realize what a great objective the school was functioning with and this belief is seen across the school, where all students, no matter from what background, are treated alike.

Last week I had observed three children. This time I got the opportunity to speak to two of them.  Interviewing these children helped me connect better with them and know them closely. The two kids come from very different backgrounds and this affects their outlook towards what they do in class. A typical day in the first child’s life starts at 7:00am with getting ready for school with the help of both her parents. School starts at 8.30am and finishes at 3pm, after which she walks home with her friends, eats lunch and goes out to play. A few hours of homework, dinner at 8:00pm along with TV time and then sleep. This daily routine is in sync with the timing of her parents’ work and shows how the exosystem affects her life. This phase of her life also shows that she is dependent on her parents for a lot of things, for e.g. her father drops her to school, mother helps with homework, etc. A strong family support system makes the child confident and this can be seen by the fact that she can approach her mother incase she’s facing any personal difficulties in school. She is the only child and has individual aspirations of becoming a doctor when she grows up and knows that working hard is the only way of achieving it.

Along with family, peers and teachers, i.e. the microsystem of the child, also advance their emotional and cognitive development. Even though the child joined the school about a year and a half ago, she has adjusted well with her classmates and has made many friends. She is the bench leader and is approached by her bench-mates incase of any difficulty, be it academic or otherwise. She has a best friend who supports her in many ways. This has built the child’s assurance in approaching the teachers and not being too scared of them. Behavior of other students, like a child bullying another, has sensitized this child and made her aware of what sort of behavior is acceptable and what is not.

What surprised me was that the child didn’t know what fairies, angels or genies meant. Maybe there is too much emphasis on the academics and the imaginative side of the child is not being explored enough by the curriculum being followed in school. This made me think of all the schools that are following alternative forms of education and how beneficial is this type of learning versus the alternative methods, which give space for creativity. 

The second child, who seemed lost in class last week, was in the same situation this week too. When I spoke to her I found out that she spoke Hindi and did not know Kannada as well as her classmates. She had been in the school since first standard but had not picked up the language even though her father helped her with it at home. She mentioned that her teacher was unaware of the fact that she didn’t understand what was being taught and the child was scared to approach the teacher in the fear that she might get beaten.  She tried avoiding the teacher’s eyes and kept looking into other people’s books. She also did not have any friends in class.  I felt that maybe these two factors majorly affected her learning in classroom, as there was lack of sufficient support. Back home, this child lives with a joint family with uncles, aunts, cousins, her parents and a brother. Therefore, she seems to lack the attention she needs from her parents and was unaware of many details that the first child knew and was confident in expressing. 

I now understand how different environments and social connections affect children differently leading to varying developmental outcomes. These children come from similar economic but different religious and social backgrounds. This impacts their meso and microsystems and ultimately the child’s growth and mindsets.