Shishur Sevay

I consider this one of the “hard subjects” of taking care of orphan children, abled and with disabilities.  Some years ago I fired two teachers for hitting a child so hard her mouth bled profusely.  One was a Montessori teacher.  In both cases the teachers tried to hide what they did, and the children did not report it.  In both cases I learned about it quickly and fired the teachers. 

What happens when children do not have voice?  Yesterday I was suddenly called to the dressing room because Bornali was screaming and bleeding from the nose.   She had just been in the shower and was now on a mat being dressed.  She is difficult to manage physically because of her size and kicking.  No one would say what happened, no one saw anything.  I accepted that maybe she had knocked herself while being bathed.

That was yesterday.  Today I learned that one of the childcare workers had hit her in the face with her fist.  Another person knew but was concealing it.  She told a teacher who also concealed it.  This afternoon I learned the truth after someone told someone who told someone who told me.  The childcare worker and the teacher are gone.  For the teacher it was a second time she has known but not said.

Once, two years ago I looked up from my desk and saw a childcare worker “fling” a child by an arm and leg.  I rushed into the room, but everyone else in the room denied that anything had happened.  There was nothing I could do.  No, I can’t, especially as a foreigner fire someone for something no one else present saw.  Several weeks later this woman did something else bad.  I don’t remember what.  I fired her.  Then I heard many stories of how she had been abusing the children.

This is not unique to Shishur Sevay, or to India.  It happens everywhere.  It’s the “dirty little secret” of taking care of children, especially those who cannot speak.  All doors at Shishur Sevay have glass.  Privacy is dangerous to children.  I know I will “take heat” in the community for this.  I believe that abuse is widespread, in schools, Homes, and homes.  We have a “child protection policy” that says you MUST report any abuse you see.  But no one will do it.

Tonight I hugged Bornali and told her this person was gone, that she would never come back.  Bornali rested her head on my arm and closed her eyes.

No, this is not a joke.  I sent money with the girls to pay their computer fees for the year, along with a letter listing their names.  But a teacher told them that I had to fill out special forms and then take the money to the bank.  The teacher put four payment slips (see illustration below) in with the money and letter and sent it all home to me.  The next day when Gibi and another of our staff went to pick  up the girls, she stopped in the office to find out which bank, as we had never done this before. When she took out the slips, the man in the office became angry and accusatory, wanting to know HOW and WHERE the girls had gotten these forms.  It seems the forms are sold in a booklet  (below) at a cost of five rupees (ten cents) for twelve pages.  So the girls were called to explain how they got the forms. They related that “Aunty” had put them in the envelope.  He asked for the teacher’s name, class, when this had happened.

Two days later, after the money had been paid to the bank, the school asked that the girls bring proof, even though the bank is to do that.  I sent one of our staff, who didn’t know what had already happened, and she proudly brought home a book of slips for five rupees for the rest of the year (not knowing the fee was already paid for the full year.)  But then if she hadn’t, I couldn’t have scanned it for this post, so it’s worth the five rupees and more.

The five rupee fees book

I imagine that some teacher had helped the girls by putting four slips in the envelope with instructions to have them filled out.   She is probably in trouble now, like the teacher who was chastised  for tutoring  our girls with her other students and made to send our girls away.

We all had such high hopes for this school.   Something is terribly wrong there.  Many days only 2-3 of their teachers come.  The girls each keep a diary book to show me each day of what classes they had, subjects covered, and homework.  Many days they write for one or two subjects: teacher did not come.  It’s how they learned tense, positive and negative:  teacher came or teacher did not come.   Before exams the girls are told to stay home and study instead of coming to school.  For people here, none of this is surprising. 

It’s a struggle for the girls every day, but they are really determined.  And I’m determined to do more and more for their education  Next week I’m going to a conference of WORLDDIDAC 2011 in Delhi — immersing myself in education and technology.  There will be speakers from the Gov. of India talking about education plans.  I’m really excited, always trying to see our organization and home in the context of what is going on around us and what is possible.  There will also be talks about inclusion, so it’s nice to see issues of disability included in general education.  And then there is the Exhibition Hall where I want to look at teaching materials as well as hardware, interactive boards, touch screens.  I want the orphans to get what the “rich kids” get.  Orphans need it even more.  They have scars on top of early deprivation and abandonment.  Sometimes that produces enormous barriers to learning.  So we have to be more innovative, we have to try harder.

The girls at Shishur Sevay study in “Bengali medium” which means all of their instruction and printed books are in Bengali, except for English.  One of our girls is switching to English medium learning, and is being homeschooled.  Therefore we must have at least one good English teacher. as she now has to catch up with English reading in all subjects.  Simultaneously I have been working with all the teachers on verbs and tense.  I’ve discovered the girls are confused about tense in English AND Bengali, and that they also lack an understanding of the formal and polite verb forms of Bengali.  So grammar and parts of speech are on our minds, and hopefully theirs at least some of the time.  Two years ago I tried but the Bengali teacher walked out instead of teaching tense and verb forms.  I believe this is about lower expectations by teachers because of the backgrounds of our girls.

Last week I let a teacher go because I discovered she did not know tense  in English, and didn’t really know parts of speech.  She mixed up nouns, adjectives, and verbs.   Today another English teacher, one with years of experience, was teaching how to write a letter.  She and the student spent most of the afternoon working on the letter.  At the end of the day I asked for the final product.  I was really shocked!  Please look and see if you can figure out the mistakes.  If you do, you win a teaching job at Shishur Sevay.  Remember this letter is the end result of three previous drafts.  The red marks indicate the teacher’s corrections.  The language style was provided by the teacher.  (the rule seems to be never to make the student struggle.) 

Find The Mistakes!

I asked the teacher to meet with me.  She could only say that she made mistakes.   I told her I could not have her teach my children if this is her standard.  No, this is not the first “mistake.”  I know exactly what is going on. 

1. She wants the girl to like her, and boasts that she is favored.  I have warned her over and over that this is a trap.

2. She has adjusted her expectations because the student is an orphan, and so this may have seemed “good enough.”

3. She did not expect me to look at the work.   In spite of my work load, I remain quite vigilant in all areas.  It’s how I keep standards from dropping.  Everyone knows my pattern but no one thinks they will be caught.

The pincode in the letter  is wrong (32 should be 38), but I had ignored it.  I learned later that there had been an argument over the pincode.   Gibi, Mrs. Jasvinder Kaur) who is our Vice President, and co-founder with me lives about ten houses away.  She monitors many of the classes.  But the teacher refused to believe her that the code was 38, and insisted that the student was right.  Again, this is an experienced teacher drawing an excellent salary from Shishur Sevay.  We don’t try to “save money” on teachers.   Last week this teacher had another girl in tears about her speech defect, made fun of her, said the others would laugh at her.  I spoke to her about it.  I’m sad about the speech defect because four years ago she was assessed by two experts who said she was fine and would outgrow it, but instead it is worse, especially when she is tense. 

The girls sometimes get very angry with me because I want work corrected until it is perfect.  It’s doable in an assignment like this.  We have had temper tantrums over having to redo work, but eventually it gets done and then the girls always feel good about having something perfect.  Remember, they are always fighting their sense of inadequacy.  It’s a really good feeling to get something right.  It takes work.  I want them to have this experience, the rush of getting it right. 

This evening the girls all went over the “letter” and had fun finding mistakes.    I’m consistent at least — I don’t accept from teachers what I don’t accept from the girls.  These are important lessons for the girls about standards, work behavior, expectations, and getting things right.

Finally, to my blog readers,

Thank King you

I remain

yours faithfully

Dr. Michelle Harrison

ShiShur Sevay school

I went to the park this afternoon just to put in an appearance and to reassure my childcare workers,  but the conflict had already been resolved.  There had been some meetings in the background, leading to the Councilor sending a message that we could use the park, but we would be responsible if anything were to break.  I refused.  I told the “messenger,” a local goonda, that no one else had to do this, and that this had become a white skin/money issue.  I sent him away.  Bijoy went back to the Councilor’s office and came back with the issue resolved.  If something broke, many people would be involved.  The councilor also added that no one should be harassing us as this was her domain, and if anyone had questions to just go to her.  Bijoy brokered peace in his own quiet way.  I’ve learned though that you can’t negotiate from a weak position.

It was a great afternoon for a photoshoot of large people on play equipment.

The complaint had been that this duo of childcare worker and child was too much for the swing.

The fragile link

Four Boys on the Back of the Swing seems to be OK

The self-appointed park keepers kept their eyes OFF us -- didn't seem to even notice we were there

These ladies took turns sitting on the swing, three at a time.

 

Mother and Child on Swing

Yesterday we were told that no one over 14 could use the play equipment. I wonder who "carded" this guy.

Well, it really was a nice afternoon in the park. 

As parks are meant to be

Kites in the stormy sky

Building the Puja Pandal in the park