Nuts and bolts.

This summer (July 7-August 14), I'll be participating in a Fulbright Summer Seminar for teachers in New Delhi, working with an Indian partner teacher at a KV school in the southern part of the city called KV Masjid Moth. A KV, or kendriya vidyalaya, school is a system of government-run schools (so, like our public schools) developed in the 1960s for the children of government workers who were likely to be transferred to different posts all over the country; the curriculum is national and centralized, so all KV schools do the same thing at the same time. Good for kids who move around a lot (and something we're not very good at here). From what I can tell, the emphasis of secondary education in India is getting as many students as possible--urban, rural, wherever--into the system. Many at KV schools receive vocational training (also something we're not good at in the US; we train kids for college admissions).

The goal of the program is to facilitate a cultural exchange between US and Indian teachers, and between teachers and students there. And I'm interested in learning about how the Indian government trains their teachers, how they allocate their (few, precious) resources when the infrastructure is so bulky, and, of course, what, and how, kids are learning. But I'm also incredibly curious; every time I talk to someone about India (especially someone Indian), I hear a different version of a story...variations on a theme, having to do with poverty, class, education, religion. I've heard that there's no more poverty there than there is here (just more people); I've heard the opposite. I've heard that people coexist peacefully; I've heard about violent clashes over religion, land, money. I've been warned of scams and pickpockets and told I'll be treated with great kindness and hospitality. And so on.

I've come to expect contradictions when I travel; they can be maddening, but uncovering them, watching them jostle together, is one of the things I like best about learning a new place. I've never regretted taking the journey. And I'm really excited about going somewhere, however hot, sticky, and humid it might be, that I've loved from a distance for so long.