CULTURE, LEARNING and TEACHING

The political turmoil in the Maldives with the ousting of its president earlier this month reminded me of my recent visit to that beautiful island country while on a Fulbright Grant. I was conducting a research study on the influence of globalization on pre-primary and primary teacher education in South Asia.

The Maldives is an Islamic archipelago of 1,192 islands and about 400,000 people is not only a delicately balanced ecological system but was also experiencing the growing pains of a new democracy. An important development in the Maldives has been the new constitution written in 2008, and a president who came to power in 2008 after democratic elections were held for the first time in 30 years. This political change considerably influenced current educational practices. The Maldives was one of the countries included in my study. I have written about the beauty of the Maldivian sea and sky earlier in the blog. Here I want to describe one of the primary schools I visited. I am choosing to write about this particular school because of the student elections that were taking place during the time of my visit. Undoubtedly, the concept of elections and voting was new to Maldivian schools and society. The following excerpt is taken from field notes that I kept during my research:

"This is a government primary school that runs from Grades 1-8. The principal took us around on a guided tour. First thing that strikes you is how clean and neat the school environment is. The building is large, three storied, spacious open classrooms and open hallways, colorful, with lots of motivational and inspirational posters and slogans. Big emphasis on values: Fairness, Trustworthiness, Respect, Citizenship, Caring, Cleanliness, etc on staircases and hallway walls. Outside the school there is a large board with a proverb about thoughts and actions and character and destiny, which resembles other eastern philosophies such as Hinduism and Buddhism that I had encountered in other South Asian countries. The first grade classrooms are buzzing with two teachers and about 17-30 students each. There are four rooms and all of them are studying a unit on Family. Each classroom has a shoe shelf outside and all the students take their shoes off before entering the classroom. Their shoes and clean and polished, and their white uniforms are clean, washed and ironed. The students seem engaged and busy – both girls and boys. There are slogans for each grade level: The first grade slogan is Reading is Fun, the second grade slogan is Read to Lead; the third grade slogan is Dream Big, Learn More. The children in this grade level are grouped into groups named after sea creatures – lobsters, sea horse, jelly fish, etc. The medium of instruction in all schools is English but the local langauge, Dhivehi, is also used extensively.Elections for the school presidents (one boy and one girl) will be held tomorrow and there are 239 candidates in all. Students as well as teachers will be voting. Only one day is allowed for campaigning and today all the candidates have their poster and photo up on the hall-way walls.  Since space is such a commodity in the Maldives and especially Male (about 100,000 people live on island which is less than 2 square kilometers in area) all schools have two-three shifts daily in order to accommodate all the children in the city. Since classrooms are shared by multiple groups each day, students cannot leave their books in their classroom and have to carry them to and fro between home and school each day".

Video clip on cultural perspectives on children's learning:

http://www.schoolsworld.tv/node/3394

 

The weekend celebrations continued with Pongal and Makar Sankranti.

Pongal is celebrated in various forms in many parts of India. I was reminded of my stay in Sri Lanka two years ago. I was in Colombo during January. Sri Lanka has a large Tamilian population and Pongal was a big celebration there as well. It’s a holiday that falls in the Tamil month of Thai on Jan 14th each year. So it’s called Thai Pongal and it is the only Hindu holiday that follows the solar calendar. It coincides with the rice harvest and thanks is given to the sun for a good harvest that has passed and for a good harvest season to begin for the next year. So the sun is worshipped and celebrated.

The following article is copied from the Sri lankan newspaper The Island, and provides a good description of this festival:

Pongal in Tamil means "boiling over or spill over".

The saying "Thai Pirandhal Vazhi Pirakkum" meaning "the birth of the month of Thai will pave the way for new opportunities" is often quoted regarding the Pongal festival. People believe ‘Thai’ shows new ways to find peace, love, harmony, prosperity, joyfulness in everyone’s life.

The act of boiling over of milk in the clay pot is considered to denote future wishes for the family. The fresh earthen vessel is adorned with flowers, turmeric leaves and roots.Traditionally, the rice was cooked on a hearth specially built for the occasion. Of course, these days, the hearth has been replaced by the gas/electric stove in urban homes. Pongal, which is also essentially an agrarian festival, is devoted to the boiling of milk in a pot to which rice, Chakkarai (jaggery) and the syrup extracted from crushed sugarcane is added.

This sweet rice pudding is offered first to Lord Surya (Sun), Ganesha and other deities and is then eaten at the climax of a family festive meal. People also prepare savouries and sweets such as vadai, murukku, payasam etc. Although it started as a festival for farmers, today it has become a national and popular festival for all Tamils.

On the day of Pongal, early in the morning, everyone bathes and wears new clothes. Family members then jointly draw the Kolam (a decoration laid on the floor). Rice-flour (plain and coloured) is used to draw the Kolam. Parallel straight lines can be drawn using a cylindrical rod (Ulakai) as a guide. A Kolam can be a plain one or can be artistically drawn with symbols of cosmic interest. The Kolam defines the sacred area where the Pongal is prepared.

Within the perimeters of Kolam, typically, firewood is used to cook the rice. The Pongal is set up in the direct view of the Sun (East). Traditionally, the Kolam is laid in the front or side of the house, but in areas where cooking indoors with firewood is hazardous, the Pongal is prepared in kitchen and brought to the location where Kolam is set up.The moment of climax is the spill over of the Pongal during cooking. The spillover of milk is a propitious symbol of abundance. Sometimes, firecrackers are lit to signify the moment. Once the Pongal is ready, a Padayal (the offering) is first made. Sharing of the Pongal with friends and relatives follows a few minutes of meditation or a prayer.

Pongal coincides with the festival Makar Sankranti which is celebrated in various parts of India. Sankranti means ‘sacred change’ and occurs every month as the Sun moves from one house of the Zodiac to another. But special sanctity is attached to the movement of the Sun to Capricorn this weekend and is called Makar Sankranti.Makar Sankranti is also a farmer’s festival celebrated on the occasion of the harvest coming home.

New Delhi: Today is Friday the 13th - an ominous sound in the Western world that I live in. But in India where I am at the moment, today heralds a celebratory weekend bringing in Lohri, Makar Sankranti and Pongal...After the festivities of Dussehra and Diwali in the fall, it's now the mid-winter festive season for giving thanks and harvesting that celebrates the season of winter crops or Rabi in India. This will be followed by the festivities of Spring with Shivratri, Holi,  Ramnavmi and Baisakhi...I want to describe briefly the festivals celebrated this weekend in different parts of India:

Lohri: Wheat is the main winter crop in the breadbasket of India - Punjab. The grain is sown in October and harvested in March or April. In January, the fields come up with the promise of a golden harvest, and farmers celebrate Lohri during this rest period before the cutting and gathering of crops. According to the Hindu calendar, Lohri falls in mid-January. "The earth, farthest from the sun at this point of time, starts its journey towards the sun, thus ending the coldest month of the year, Paush".

I just returned from a Lohri celebration at our neighbor's home. At sunset on this cold January evening, a large bonfire was lit in the open courtyard of the house around which gathered the entire extended family and close friends. The senior-most was the patriarch of the family, and in his house live his three married sons with their wives and children in the kind of joint family arrangement that is still commonly seen in Indian households. There was a spirit of joy and festivity as everyone circled around the fire (parikrama), throwing puffed rice and popcorn into the flames, and singing popular folk songs. A commonly heard chant is "aader aaye, dilaader jaaye" (may honor advance and poverty retreat).The bonfire ritual is also a an invocation to Agni, the fire god, to bless the land with a good harvest, for abundance and prosperity.

There were four generations of the family participating in this annual celebration - and all joined into the singing and the dancing, munching on eatables like til (sesame) seeds, peanuts, jaggery, or sweets made from sesame seeds and jaggery like gajak and rewri. Trays of popcorn and pumpkin seeds were also being circulated. Although I didn't stay for it I was told that in a bit, children would start demanding the Lohri 'loot' in the form of money from all the elders.This moment, of course, was what the kids were waiting for! But at the same time they were learning about rituals and traditions that were valued by their families and would be passed down from generation to generation. Although I am not Punjabi I was grateful for the invitation and cherished the opportunity to participate in this cultural celebration of thanksgiving and rejoicing.

I was in India two weeks ago during Navratri: the start of the festive season that includes Durga Puja, Ramlila and Dusshera and culminates with Diwali. The stories signifying these festivals can be easily found on various websites so I won’t go into that here. Basically the season is a colorful extravaganza that marks the triumph of good over evil across multiple narratives from Indian mythology.  I went to see the local street production of Ramlila (the story of Lord Ram) one night as I wanted to experience the Ramayana in drama form - something I last did several decades ago when I was a child! I soon realized that what used to be a modest roadside show had over the years evolved into a grand theatrical production with a huge stage, colorful backdrops and props, elaborate costumes and a live orchestra in the “pit”, not unlike The Lion King on Broadway which I had been to only a week prior to this. Except this was done by and for the local community - free of charge and in the outdoors. I went with my niece and we sat on rickety chairs on uneven ground, eaten by mosquitoes under a starry September night, watching Narad Muni strut up and down a colorful stage against a backdrop of the Himalayan landscape talking to Lord Vishnu…  It was exhilarating to soak in the local culture, but even more amazing to see how many families with young children were in the audience, mesmerized by the unfolding drama on the stage. It was a fabulous example of informal learning, and how oral tradition serves to preserve a local culture over generations as children attend the same events in the community year after year. It was a treat to watch it happen in real life, as children heard these stories of valor and courage, of ethics and morals, of honesty and kindness prevail over the vices of treachery and betrayal, greed and evil. There must have been at least a few thousand people in the audience, mostly families with children from the immediate community.  It was quite a display of teaching and learning of local cultural values via the dramatic rendition of an ancient epic that showcased the roles and responsibilities associated with being a father, a mother, a son, a brother, a wife, a husband, and so forth, within the Indian context…