YEAH, STUDENTS!

September 21, 2010

SNIPPET ONE: As the final day came to a close, a number of the young students pulled out little slips of paper, small wrapped boxes and pens.  They handed me these gifts with thank you’s and I will miss you’s.  Several of them immediately said, open it, in their excitement to witness my excitement.  As the students cleared out, returning to their class, my partner teachers laughed.  They said, ‘We did not know they were bringing gifts. They never informed us. Maybe you taught them to be too independent.’

SNIPPET TWO: At another school, during a break in the workshop, the VP admitted to being a little confused by the proceedings she was witnessing.  I was working with a group of students while a second group of students and teachers watched the demonstration.  One observing student to whom the VP expressed her confusion immediately provided a deft and clear explanation of what was happening in the class. The VP said she just shut-up after that and let the students watch.

SNIPPET THREE: I note a process I watched that was wholly led by an adult.  The students moved about the stage as the adult wished, said lines that another adult fed them and endured-yes, I believe that word is apt-the sharp words of the adults whenever they delivered something ‘wrong.’  In the span of five days the students showed a kind of disconnect, a slight boredom in which they did as the adults wished, but otherwise seemed unenthusiastic about the adventure.

SNIPPET FOUR: During my Fulbright project, I sat and interviewed a small group of students at each school about once every week or so.  In the final interview at one school, the transformation of the students was quite evident, as 10 weeks prior they had barely spoken with me during the interview, but now they were cutting off each other in their attempts to answer my questions. What caught my attention was one young man who demonstrated an unexpected level of comprehension.  For eight of the ten weeks, I guided the students to create their own dramatizations of rock carvings of mythological stories.  On our final day together, I shared with the students the actual stories embedded in the rocks.  It took just ten minutes.  And that brevity seemed to me to be short changing the chance for the students to consider the intended stories and compare them to the dramatizations they had interpolated.  And then this young man spoke.  I asked what did they think of the intended stories, and the young man went  into a long description of how interesting it was to hear the differences in the intended stories and the stories the students had created. He said that it made him think a little more about the stories and know how important those stories are to study.

SNIPPET FIVE: At Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan school (K.K Nagar), a small group of 10th standard students explored with me issues and events related to a story entitled, The Letter by an Indian writer.  We considered the plight of an old man, returning daily to the post office in hopes of receiving a letter from his married off daughter, which never arrives.  This workshop, unlike most of this type, had an audience of both teachers and other students, to witness the work of process drama.  Upon completion, a young woman from 11th or 12th standard who had been watching commented that she and her peers had read the story when they were 10th standard students and hadn’t thought much of it then, because it has a thin plotline that moves quite slowly.  However, she said, watching the drama process breathed new life into the story and revealed things she said she probably missed in just reading the story through quickly, since it wasn’t so appealing back then.  The drama gave her a new appreciation of the story and she wished to go back and read it again.  As she completed her comments I realized that my initial response would have been that I would have tossed this story to the side if I had not been challenged to investigate it closer through drama.  Thanks for making me think deeper about my own work, young woman.

SNIPPET SIX: Five years ago I worked with a small cadre of students. Just days ago I met with a handful of them as they begin their college careers. While talking of our one week drama adventure from so long ago, one of the young women mentioned that she still remembers and can recite everything she did during that drama experience.  She then added that, otherwise, she has forgotten most everything else she studied in 8th standard.  Made me laugh. And I’ve used this little anecdote several times in professional development workshops I have conducted here.

SNIPPET NINE: Twice, have these words been said.  Twice.  Returning to the National Institute of Fashion Design for a second, three-hour workshop, I began the session asking the students to recap the previous workshop and what most stood out for them about that first experience.  One young woman noted that, ‘We were involved, so that we remember the experience better and it helped us to understand the theatre styles better because we could do them.’

SNIPPET SEVEN: Students come in all shapes, sizes and ages, occasionally.  At the conclusion of a recent professional development workshop with teachers in Chennai, one of the teachers leapt up saying she wanted a moment to say a public thank you for the workshop.  She noted that the workshop ‘gave me the confidence to stand up in front of this group and say, thank you.  I mean, to say THANK YOU.’ She bellowed out the final thank you, adding a grand physical gesture.  Immediately following, another teacher rose to add her own thank you, but then noted she had—in the past few minutes—composed a little song in honor of the day. She sang it, to the applause of the rest of the ‘students.’

SNIPPET EIGHT: How many times have I enjoyed those lovely parting words of students, ’Are you coming back again tomorrow?’ But the sorrow I have felt when their faces fall in disappointment with the answer I am forced to give.