This week the children have been in school and have regaled us with stories at the end of each day that highlight just how different the educational system is from what we are accustomed to in the US. Mostly this is very good, as the point was to expose them to different experiences, ideas, and expectations. They have learned a lot in one week and have covered some material, particularly in math, that they hadn't seen at home. Given the practical bent of the education, for example, Thompson's 6th-class "maths" for the week have been to calculate simple compound interest and net profit/loss.
On Thursday, each child was offered an iron pill in class by the teacher. Every child takes one, issued by the school, once a week. Schools are also arenas of public health, religious instruction, and indoctrination into national ideals. The sheer number of students in the school is impressive. We estimate at least a thousand in the school between the grades of PP (Pre-Primary) and 8. [Chagangka is one of 31 schools in Thimphu - Kuensel this week says there are 21,000 students in the Thimphu school district.] Class size is 25-30 students per class. I spoke at some length to Madam Karma, Halle's teacher and in her small classroom with barely enough room for her desk and four low square tables there are 24, but she said she often has closer to 40, and one year when they were short on teachers she instructed 63 in that space. Thompson says each room is issued the same amount of chalk, but that his class is running low - the teacher says this is due to the students not taking care of the chalk and that they won't go "begging" to other rooms for more chalk (I guess we know what our parting gift to his teacher will be) - he also describes that one game he plays to amuse himself is tossing his pen up through the holes in the table and catching it.
Discipline is impressive. Shame is a major teaching technique, and I heard the headmistress dress down the entire school body for infractions such as wearing hair too long (boys), failing to be considerate, not giving enough attention to studies, not returning school equipment, not eating a proper breakfast before coming to school, and ignoring other "rules and regulations" by which they are expected to abide. Children are often told how naughty they are, especially boys.
Each of our children has had stories to tell about discipline and shaming in their classrooms - very eye-opening. In Halle's class, the "naughty boy" was hauled before the teacher by his ear. In Jacob's class, children who fidget with pencils are made to stand up and pull their ears. Today he recounted that while the teacher went to the latrine, the class got "restless" and the class captain took initiative and went around "beating everyone with a stick," Jacob included. Jacob felt that since he was talking, he deserved this. Apparently the teacher approved of the class captain's actions. Jacob has been concerned that he hasn't received the same discipline as other children earlier in the week ("Why are they singling me out?") and so he was a little proud of his beating, though clearly uncomfortable with telling us all the details of it. In Forrest's class, he said the teacher told them she wasn't going to issue any beatings, but would take away marks instead if people were naughty. We have heard stories of children having their knuckles rapped for incorrect answers. In Halle's little PP class, she got to sing the "American version" of the alphabet song, which ends "Now I know my ABCs, Next time won't you sing with me." The teacher thought this was charming.... turns out that the final two lines of the one they sing in her class are "Please, Madam, don't beat me/ Now I know my ABC." I'm not making this up. She said she hoped no one in the US would sue them if they heard this version. For Thompson, who continues to have a nose in a book much of the time, his teacher commented approvingly (and in front of everyone) that he likes to read "storybooks," while most of the other boys "only know how to eat and poop."
Jacob's homework one day this week was to make sentences using words given in English dictation, including one that stumped him completely: Diwali (the Hindu Festival of Lights). In a lesson about the seasons which he carefully copied into his notebook, he learned that spring is "when we go to school," summer is "when we get muddy water," in autumn "we go to tsechu in the dzong" (the big annual religious festivals in each dzong district) and in winter "we use bukhari" (the indoor woodstove which is the primary method of home heating). He faithfully copied without a clue what these words meant.
I pick up Halle an hour before the others get out, and she has a couple of standard after-school games to play with the kids who congregate around her: one that involves picking buds and making "stew," and lots of hopscotch. They all know her as Sonam Pelden there, even her teacher. I think every kid in school knows Jacob, though when he told one person his name, something got a little lost in translation and the child repeated, "Chicken?" When we get home, a train of kids (the engine of which is Thinley of course) appear at our house for snacks, drinks, running through our house and amusing themselves with our sets of watercolors and blank paper.
