An Audacious Teacher
[Music]
i
am an audacious teacher i am audacious
because
i dare to teach in a class filled with
fun
i dare to teach children to question and
imagine
i impart fair and equal education
and above all i dare to love all my
students how could i do that
a girl who dropped out of college
because she was just
too bored to study who left her answer
papers blank
in spite of knowing everything
how could i manage all this
years after school and college beauty
pageants
films theaters and super successful
sitcoms later
the dropout decided to study again
i was 38 married with two sons
i think it was the desperation that
moved me
to become a teacher i saw chaos around
me
children suffering in the name of
schooling and education
children suffering because of the lack
of schooling and education
and i audaciously decided
to reduce the chaos
i decided to teach them all
i am probably the only educator
that has taught children from preschool
all the way
up to postgraduates probably the only
teacher
who is taught in government schools in
elite schools
taught children with schools and without
schools
how do i do that what do i do i teach
life skill education life skills
through drama the same curriculum
i use the same curriculum for little
children
in preschools and the same one for young
adults in post graduates
i use the same curriculum for government
schools
elite schools rural
urban the same curriculum
what exactly is it it’s art
in education but first let’s try to
understand
education education to me is
making strong and accurate decisions
to problem solve using creative and
critical thinking
understanding and managing emotions
help us to take correct decisions
this aids to a better understanding of
self
it empowers us and makes us more
empathetic
the cumulative effect is it helps us to
thrive as a society
i think this is education that makes
some sense
because i believe life is the real
school of learning
my instinct and my imagination is
really strong it helps me with my
lessons
my theories my classes
but i never leave it at the level of
intuition
i never leave my lessons just there
the great uh swedish director igmar
bergman
once said that he never argues with his
intuition but having said that he
doesn’t leave it at that level
he follows it up intellectually
you must go deep dark into the woods
where intuitions javelin has landed
and i do just that i go on foot to where
my
intuitions javelin has landed and that’s
what changes
knowing to understanding
art imagination and life skill
can make possible personal change
personal transformation
i have a story to tell you about a
little girl called sonal
she was studying in the kgbv kgb
or kasturba gandhi bali
are a scheme made by the government of
india
for girls between the age of 10 to 16.
these girls come from economical and
social backward circumstances
they suffer demons like gender disparity
poverty and lack of good education
lack of good education and unequal
education
is an unrelenting problem that
vulnerable and marginalized suffer
these girls experienced just that
sonal was 14 in grade 8 when i met her
she and 30 girls were participants in
the workshop called
drama and education to enhance life
skills
they learned life skills education
through
crazy drama games reflective diary
writing
reflections in the classroom
storytelling
listening to stories
they learned problem solving they
learned decision making
they learned to communicate effectively
and they had
so much fun learning
but they learned life skills really well
five years later i got a call from sonal
she wanted to share her story miss
after i left the workshop i participated
in vacher gujarat
gujarat’s reading program and i won
books worth 10 000 rupees
and i read them all
when i went from the kgpv i left them
behind
left them behind i asked why
she said man you taught me the skill of
empathy
my dear student sonal left her
prized collections of book behind so
that another sonal
could read them wow
and she continued you know man in our
community
girls are married off after the ninth
grade they’re not allowed to study ahead
and my parents wanted to do just that
and i was desperate i begged
i pleaded and then i used all the life
skills you taught me
problem solving decision making
effective communication
and finally my parents agreed
today i am in the science stream i’m
going to apply for medicine
ma’am you taught me to dream
this is one story and there are others
like the cute little rag picker on the
streets of
ahmedabad who re-learned how to read and
write
just because he wanted to learn the new
poem that was being taught in the drama
class
the little girl in the cotton fields of
ahmedabad oh sorry
on the on the cotton fields of amravati
she had never attended school yet
she could clearly and explicitly
explain the meaning of social
imagination she said
it means samaj
that is how society should be
and that naughty little goat heard in
nandurbar
who found a reason to learn and attended
classes
regularly just to participate in the
crazy drama claims that we played in the
class
these are some and there are many more
but along with the learning and
transformation of my students
there’s an important aspect of my
learning and transformation
because i was never merely an onlooker
as my life skills matured so did i
but the journey has not been easy beer
rejection
because i’m not a regular teacher she’s
an actor
how can she teach what does she know
being sneered at dismissals rejections
knockbacks because i come from a
privileged family
sometimes by the system sometimes by my
students
i remember once i traveled nine and a
half hours to interior maharashtra
only to learn that the participants of
my workshop
merely wanted to be photographed with me
and then
they plan to send me back to the big
city i came from
how dare she try to teach us
and often it is how can there be any
learning in a class that’s filled with
fun
so much noise in a classroom and to top
it all
she loves her students how is it
possible
the system doesn’t like audacious
teachers
luckily the students do but i have
persistence
and through this act of persistence i’ve
changed i’ve transformed
personal transformation for me is
very deep it is
about when an individual critically
examines their beliefs their values
their actions
takes risks and reinvents themselves
transformation is the domain of
improving
of changing of
bringing about personal change
looking at oneself
undoing warped views of the world
unfolding like a butterfly
and all the time remembering the
personal commitment
made towards creating a better society
thank you
you