Visit to Poorna

Week 2 – Visit to a school

My visit to an alternate school was truly an enriching experience.  The interactions seen between various people in the school was a very positive and promising sign and something that should be spread rapidly among various educational institutions, if we are to have a healthy sustainable life in our societies.

I was quite amazed at the freedom given to Children in Poorna.  There were very limited rules and therefore didn’t notice deviant behaviours among them atleast during my observation in a few classes.  The children were quite free with the teachers and did not show any fear of the teachers.  They were more like friends.  They were relaxed and shot out questions and gave their opinions, narrated experiences without any inhibitions.  They were least affected by our presence in the class and did not try to put up any different behaviours. 

I focussed a little more attention on the teachers to see if they were putting up a different behaviour since we were observing. But they too seemed to be unaffected and were quite normal as any they would be.   The teachers at Poorna believed that the best can be brought out in children, when they are given total freedom.  They were receptive to ideas and encouraged children to open up.   The teachers mostly fell into the category of Romantics and entertainers.    When I asked one teacher on what she was her idea of an ideal teacher, she said that a teacher has to firstly go without making any assumptions of the students.  She should  be innovative, flexible, have adaptability factor and should be prepared with a plan b and plan c.    She said the lesson plan that they make fortnightly helped them to structure their teaching although it may not be followed fully as planned. When we asked her to categorise her students, it did not even occur to her that she had to categorise them according to their academic capabilities.   She immediately told us that there were normal students  and a few with difficulties such as dyslexia and ADHT/DS.  When further probed about the learning capabilities, she mentioned that there were slow learners and in her words I quote  “nothing as good and bad learners, as every child has an innateness about them, learning comes secondary.  It is important to have moral values, value your culture by inculcating and practising them”. 

In their interactions with the children and the other members of the staff, each one came across as persons with confidence and open to ideas from each other so that they also learn in the process.  There was no competitive behaviour in  both students and teachers.  Unlike the teachers in Padma Sarangapani’s research, I did not see the teacher constructing an identity for themselves nor were the students being submissive and agreeing.  One of the student infact very categorically told the English teacher that she was wrong on one account to which the teacher too agreed in a dignified manner.   This clearly shows that the learners were not just receiving information  passively but were equal partners in the system.  Negotiations did take place in their settings, but it was unlike the American schools given in the readings or like any other private schools in our own cities where perceptions of pupils by teachers are drawn depending on their socio economic background, caste, race etc.   The negotiations were mostly to bring about a positive relationship or perhaps there could be more which I might not have figured it out with just one day of observation.  

Dangerous Minds

Interpreting a few moments of the Movie from an Interactionist perspective  !

In the first scene we notice that the teacher (Ms.Johnson) is being shown in to the vice principal’s cabin for an interview for the post of a teacher.   We see that the vice principle is in the midst of her daily ‘routine’ interacting with two people at a time, one on the phone with somebody and the other person in her office, trying to give away some signed papers  or something.    Her action has some amount of ‘civil inattention’ where she is not trying to get involved deeply either with the person on the phone or with the person who is standing before her.    The next scene we see  Johnson’s friend interrupting the vice principal to tell her that Ms. Johnson has come to see her, to which she seems a little disturbed as she would have to get out of her routine of that ‘hustle-bustle’ with which she seemed to have settled for that moment and get out to put up a different face altogether to meet up with a person whom she has not met before.   I get a sense that for the vice principal to shift to that character is an effort from another zone and that is getting her worked up. However, when he insists that she is already in the office, she resigns to that situation and hangs up her phone saying she would call the person at the other end,  later and comes forward to greet  Ms. Johnson as she steps into the vice principals office.  While they sit down to further their conversation, the vice principal is searching for Johnson’s c.v. and when she finds it she starts commenting about her varied qualifications, her experience  etc. in  a rather hurried tone.  While Johnson looks a little more composed and even manages to steal a look through the chamber at her friend,  she is quite desperate.  Desperate  to get the job just as the vice principal is desperate to hire her.  So we see a ‘negotiation’ happening between both the parties where they don’t delve deep into their private spaces. For eg., when she asks why Johnson quit when she was so close to being certified, she hesitatingly tells her about her impending divorce with her husband and immediately,  the vice principal without probing into her  personal life much, she tells her  that it would not be a problem to get her an emergency certificate and asks her when she could start.  Johnson is surprised that she is being offered the post and therefore questioningly asks “start”?, , the vice principal tells Johnson of 3 teachers quitting prior to her and that she would be filling up a vacant slot of full time  academy teacher.  She is again startled at the full time position and tries to tell her that she didn’t think that it was full time job but a part time position and when the vice principal tries to explain, Johnson cuts her short and asks her what an academy teacher is.  Here we see a sign of desperation where she does not want to get into the intricacies of the role or position etc and again negotiating with the Vice Principal.  Finally she is happy that the position is offered to her and agrees to start off right away and so is the principal happy that she has accepted the offer and hands over the curriculum, syllabus etc. to Ms. Johnson to start off. 

We see in the movie how different people – students, faculty, other staff etc. are busy with their daily routines.  We also see how body language of her friend, Ms. Johnson and the vice principal brings about a certain identity of them and how things are conveyed through facial expressions, gestures, nudging etc.    When the teacher enters the class, we see the students behaving indifferently, clearly expressing with their body language or symbolically that they are least interested in her and carries on with their disruptive activities showing a sign of dominance.  A student called ‘Emilio’  also tries to be sexually abusive by threatening to eat her, again showing his strength and dominance over her.  Her reaction first laughing perhaps he was just funny and later being scared with his advances shows clearly how she couldn’t even negotiate with him.   However, we find later how the teacher thinks through the night to get over this situation by dressing up differently and saying that she was with the US Marines and how she draws the attention of the class and slowly winning over every students’ attention and affection. The behaviour of the students in that fashion clearly indicates that they were being labelled as notorious by all previous teachers and hence they resigned to that perception unwilling to change and perceive that every other teacher would behave the same way.

  A truly inspiring movie that has touched my heart, apart from learning a few concepts of the micro social and symbolic interactions.

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