Josephites visit PTP, 29 Dec, 2018

The Joseph gang landed up on Saturday for a visit to Peepal Tree School, Pune. Vinod Nair was the first to come, followed by Rohitesh, Gautam and Amarjeet. The trio of Rex, Rajiv and Balbir landed up 45 minutes later.

The gang trooped into different classrooms to spend about half an hour with the kids. Sunita and Nishi had prepared the Shadu Mati in advance. The 1st to 5th students started making stuff from the clay. I asked our Saint Joseph friends to join in the artefact making. Here is a photograph of the Mohenjo-daro stuff that was made. Amarjeet was enthusiastic as a teacher; he showed students the cakes that his daughter makes. We also managed to get an invitation from Amarjeet to visit his packaging factory.

We then had a meeting with teachers. We started with the introductions of teachers, followed by introductions of the Josephites. Vinod spent 5 minutes in explaining how crude oil is extracted. What the group liked about the school, was the accessibility of the teachers. They also drew a  contrast to the the pin drop silence in Saint Joseph’s.

Nidhi had a short talk on the Learning by Doing methodology that Peepal Tree school has. Maybe she needs to be ready with a presentation deck for future guests; there is so much more we can communicate with visitors. We ended with a question and answer session.

Do you think the education system was better in your time or now?

Rajiv’s answer was that it was bad then, and it’s bad even now. His feeling was that you don’t need to do too much in a school. What is important is the time that the student gets with herself, the Solitude. We need to leave students alone more often. Also missing is inputs in manners. Students need to understand that some people need to be respected, not all. That some people you make your peace with, some you need to fight with. That some people you trust, the rest you don’t.

If it is not Academics that is responsible for success, then what is?

Answer 1: Common sense. Rajiv mentions that he hardly uses his algebra in business. He takes decisions using common sense. Amarjeet is a supplier to Kirloskars. The head of Finance there is only a 10th standard pass. The best gemologist in India is an Angutha Chaap, totally uneducated. It is common sense that has got these people to where they are. Sme lateral thinking required to incorporate common sense into a school plan!

Answer 2: Interest. Amarjeet’s astute observation was: not a single person in this group of friends was working in the same field as his education. Amarjeet was dealing with engineering stuff, being a Commerce student. Vinod is a computer science graduate, who has spent two decades working in the petroleum sector. What got them there was their interest and curiosity.

Answer 3: Relearning. One of the corollaries of interest is continuous learning. When Rajiv moved from his distribution business to jewellery, he attended course in gemology. He was 42 years old at that time, and the oldest in his class.

What changes would you like to see in our education system?

The community has to be a bigger teacher than the school. Children are our national wealth and need to be treated that way. If a kid is not interested, let’s not force him. If we stop a kid from doing something, it’s all the more reason for her to do it. We need to ensure that schools recognise the differences in children, and treat different children differently. Interactive methods are preferred any time over chalk and talk. Teachers need to learn how to reduce student anxiety in classrooms, kids should not have any fear when they come to school.

Gautam, whose wife is a teacher in Global International School, had a very interesting observation. Nowadays, a lot of Google is being used in GIS classrooms. Especially for homework. We need to look at how we can do that at PTP.

Why did Rohitesh shift from the corporate sector into teaching?

It had been almost 20 years since Rohitesh had been working with Dr Reddy’s labs. One day he decided that he was bored of the routine. He decided to shift back from Hyderabad to Pune. In Pune, he was a panelist in a conference, where the SIBM director was a co-panellist. This resulted in Rohitesh getting invited as a visiting faculty, something that continues even 10 years later. Rohitesh has been working on his PhD, which he expects to complete very soon.

What also helped was that Rohitesh’s father was a professor at Deccan College. His dad was instrumental in making a Sindhi to English dictionary. Rohitesh’s mum was also into training; she did training programs for the Indian Air Force. Possibly, the genes also helped in his decision to get into teaching!

How was Atul Gopal in school?

I liked Gautam Sinha’s observation. In 9th and 10th, the fellow used to wear full pants!

We ended with lunch, the Tiwarse family had made arrangements, including getting the cutlery. The Baigan Bharta and aloo matar were well made. The chapati number was perfect, not a single one got wasted. Though we could have had a little bit more of the sabzi. The quality of food was good and we need to standardise on the Tiwarses as official caterers for Peepal Tree School. Next time I am going to have them serve lunch to teachers in one of our Monday meetings.

Amarjeet left soon after lunch, as he had to attend a wedding in Narhe. The rest of us gossiped for some more time. The concern was about how long can the losses be sustained. We discussed the challenge faced by the school, student attrition. Measures to reduce attrition. that the School has taken, were discussed. I have invited all of them to come and visit in their individual capacity, and spend time with the kids and teachers.

Note by Jairaj:

Amarjeet and Rajiv I expected to come with good insights especially because both were not conventionally good academically but had the requisite people and communication skills which is never taught in schools.

You would also not be surprised to know that every corporate spends tons of money in trying to get teams to be

1. Better communicators

2. More innovative

3. Work as a team

I have had IIM grads work under me who needed the above soft skill training though professionally they were very good.

I also believe kids should be given more opportunities to be closer to nature and interact with the environment.

Handling problems… kids should be taught to enjoy solving problems than see them as stress factors

Inter personal relationships especially in the digital era – perhaps either they are too young or under privileged… but they are soon going to exposed.

Was curious to know insights of Balbir since he was walked the villages of heartland and the well read Rex.