teaching

That’ll be a NO.

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The singing lesson online was ending. My teacher is a good one, possibly a couple of decades younger than me. She suddenly declared that there will be a test next week.

What test?

It’s just a small one. Everyone must take it after 25 lessons.

I complete assignments every week, and you give me feedback. That’s enough for me.

This is the rule. Everybody is doing it.

I am not everybody and I shall not be doing it.

Well, all teachers have been told every student has to be tested. By the management.

Is it the same management that makes you wear that boring hospital-blue jacket on top of your nice clothes for lessons and you trust their judgement? I wanted to say but did not.

They make the rules. We have to follow.

I am too old to follow rules that don’t make sense to me. I don’t do tests.

It will only take ten minutes.

I would rather spend ten minutes doing something else – listening, learning, singing.

It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.

If it’s nothing, then let’s not do it. I was thinking of buying another ten lessons but if I’m forced to do tests, I will not. Please would you tell the management for me?

Yes. I will, she said, as she shrunk a little.

Pause.

It’s not an exam. It’s only a test.

I am not fifteen. You can’t make me do it.

The emphasis on testing and scoring in India is possibly the reason why most students are into rote learning rather than enjoying the process of gaining skills. It is also the root cause of much anxiety and shame.

Students accounted for 7.6% of all suicides in India in 2022. The number is an astounding 12,000 per year which amounts to 32 per day and rising. There is a fundamental need for culture change for these numbers to come down.

Reference:

https://qz.com/india/1728666/indias-high-stakes-testing-culture-needs-to-be-dismantled

One less. One pless.

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This is a coffee-growing village situated within an area of outstanding natural beauty and huge bio-diversity. At an altitude of 1000 meters, it has a unique eco-ystem. Despite the fact that it rains a lot, it is charming as hell. Everyone drinks coffee all the time. The coffee-cups hold about three mouthfuls, possibly to make up for the frequency with which it is consumed, or else we would be seriously buzzing round the clock.

After a couple of months here, we have learnt to say ‘one less and one pless’ when Si and I order coffee at a roadside café. It means, may we have one cup without sugar and one with. The literacy rate here is officially more than 80% but all in Kannada. English, if spoken is often incorrect and extremely functional.

A few weeks ago, I volunteered to teach ‘Spoken English’ to the primary school kids at the local Government school for one hour every week. I have never done anything like this before. I have no idea if it will make any difference in the long run but if nothing else, we have fun together. Last week we blew bubbles, talked about their shapes, sizes and named the colours they capture. We tried to describe how they move through the air and how they make us feel. We agreed they made us all feel happy. That’s a good start.

On the way home, sitting at the back of the tuk-tuk my heart was overflowing with joy and then I remembered that I never blew bubbles with Saagar. My eyes welled up but I was still smiling.