Being an Adaptable Teacher..

When I graduated from college, I thought I knew everything there was to know. I sure was wrong!

I had no idea what my experience as a project co-ordinator (for Adhya Educational Society) at Gandhi Hospital was going to be like. I encountered situations I never anticipated. It’s been 4 months since I have started going to Gandhi hospital and each day of these 4 months has been a teacher to me. Each day has taught me a lesson that I would never forget in my life. Someone was definitely right when they said ‘Experience is a brutal teacher but you learn fast’.

I wanted to become a teacher. It was not a long term goal but yes! It was one of the things that I really wanted to do. Then why did I accept being a project co-coordinator at Gandhi hospital? Where I was not exactly a teacher, I was not a play mate to the kids. Then what was I there? I coined a term for myself. I was an adaptable teacher- different students, different subjects, different games and different environment every day and I saw this to be more exciting than teaching normally.

In these 4 months, I have taught kids aging from 4 years to 17 years. There were kids who absolutely refused to say even a ‘Hello!’ while there were others who could have a non-stop conversation with me, making it impossible for me to teach. There were kids who hated making a simple game, a tool for studying and there were kids who put aside their games to come and sit beside me while I tried teaching them Science and history. There were kids who would make faces when I gave them homework while most of them would trail behind me to give additional math homework.

November

Talk about being thrown in the deep end! Nothing in the whole wide world could have prepared me for the experiences I had at starting month in Gandhi. Lucky for me, I had Anusha (my colleague) with whom I could discuss and rely on completely. Both of us, I am sure have different perspective about what we saw of Gandhi but this I was sure of! Both of us loved it!. I had kids who would say ‘Telvadi’ to every task I gave them! I had some volunteers who sometimes behaved worse than kids! But I loved the experience! There was nothing like stopping the 7 year old kids from using swear language, teaching kids who have stopped going to school (either because of lack of money or either because of their health) in a mixture of Telugu, Hindi and English, watch surprise in the eyes of the parents when their child had done something that was absolutely creative! Watch the kid’s astonishment when you show him the World Map and unravel that the world itself is carved as a huge jigsaw puzzle; smile and blush deeply when he says ‘neek anni telsu akka! Nu great akka!’ I was learning how to manage kids with severe autism but I was also learning how to manage parents who were more competitive than the kids.

What had I learnt that first month? I learnt how to make a “telvadi’ (i don't know) to ‘I don’t know how to do it but I want to give it a try!’ 

Yep, that is learning right there!

December

December was a very crucial month for me. In a sense I was discovering and learning a lot in the midst of all the chaos in Gandhi Hospital. I realized that kids too are people who have feelings and who don't want to feel cornered. They want to learn but they also want to feel as if they have some control over themselves. I never understood what Madhu (Adhya educational society’s President) meant when she said ‘Every student is different; no two students react in the same way’ but now I was beginning to understand that sentence. I put myself a task to find not only what motivates each kid to learn but also what motivates them to misbehave. I understood that if I could get that one point and take away that motivation, I could be more effective in creating an effective learning experience.

The whole process was nerve wrecking but yes! I enjoyed every bit of it!

January

If December had taught me about dealing with kids, then in January I was discovering myself. All the kids I had worked with so far had two things in common – Hope and Courage. These kids were teaching me more than what I had to teach them. They taught me that no matter what happened in my life, I should never give up and at some point things would turn out all right. I was starting to search for humor in my problems. I was starting to not to lose hope. It made me smile when every day Azeema would come up to me and say ‘I am getting discharged tomorrow didi’. I knew of course that the situation was otherwise but her hope of getting discharged never left. She uses the same phrases of ‘I am going tomorrow’ even now and I believe her every time she says it. One of the interns at You See (another NGO) once asked me ‘why do you act as if you believe her? Why don’t you just tell her the truth and that she is not getting discharged now?’ I did not answer him that day but I had realized by then that Hope sometimes gives you all the strength to fight and I would do anything to keep that hope alive, both in me and my kids.

If the kids were giving me the lesson of Hope and Courage then their parents were teaching me how to be assertive. I always had issues with anger management but now I was at least trying to be assertive when it was required and trust me! Sometimes the parents can really piss you off when they have nonsensical questions like ‘why don’t you get married instead of working here?’

Not all parents are like that though. Most parents encourage me in what I do. They sit beside their kids when I teach them origami. They learn along with their kids when I teach them bits and pieces of all subjects. They get involved when I start discussions or storytelling. They paint and construct houses with the Lego sets too! In short they live the lost moments of their childhood.

My students at Gandhi taught me far more than I taught them and they taught me well!                            

                                                        

February

February was literally like I was testing the ‘Chaos theory’. Kids who had come in February were very stubborn. There was chaos everywhere; right from having a 6 year old kid I just met screaming at me and hit me one on my back when I refused to give him a pointed end lego set (I did not give it to him because I felt it was not appropriate for his age) to a kid blushing and informing all his friends that I had called him ‘darling’! There were kids who drew obscene things when I gave them paper and set of crayons to draw and laugh over it! But out of all my experience in February, I had learnt this- that if there was at least one kid who was ready to try the task you set him, then all the kids will someday follow him at least to get some attention. You just need to have patience. Patience when they behavior is at the worst, patience when they are refusing to try something new, patience when you feel your temper rising until compassion hits you and you realize that most of these kids get ill treated at their house and trust me! Patience really works!

A sandalwood tree has a fragrance so sublime that it makes the other trees neighboring it smell good. One good kid in the ward does the same thing. I have seen one good kid influence other kids when I started praising him for his behavior.

I am sure every teacher can recount numerous highs and lows in their teaching career. At Gandhi, my experiences may not be similar to those of a conventional teacher but nevertheless, they have been enriching and close to my heart. These were days when I ended so happy and enthusiastic that I knew I was right in staying at Gandhi. On the other hand, I had days where I definitely questioned whether I was even eligible being at Gandhi hospital with the kids. To these kids I might mean a simple ‘akka’, ‘auntie’, ‘teacher’, ‘didi’ or whatever else they call me. They might forget me in the sands of time but what I have learnt from them will always stay with me as I grow each day into a wiser person.