Thanks for sharing your experience. My wife was a teacher and my neice who is a pharmacist in Australia and had similar experiance with the the rural schools in Chinchinim.
In a Municipal school she told the children i come from Australia. Do you know where it is ? The children shook their heads and said "No." She produced a world map and tried to explain. It was of little help. Then my wife interrupted and asked " Do you know who is the captain of the cricket team of Australia. The children - both boys shouted in unison "Ricky Ponting". My wife said. " See she comes from this great country. You must know more about it." The children come from parents who are illeterate and menial workers. Nothing much can be expected. The point is, how is the situation as compared to what it was say 10 years back ? They did not even go to school in those days. What is the situation today ? They can know what is a bank, they can read notices and sign boards. . They have learnt the 10 digits (0 to 9) and the 24 alphabets and can fill up a form and read and write. The girls are better in school than the boys and this is good as they will be able to educate their children in future. We must see the silver lining. We must be able to intereact with the children at their level and not confront them with books but questions which interest them and go down to their level of understanding. It only then we can expect to get their response. Our aim should not be to find out what they do not know but understand their problems, illiterate parents, a drunken father, disturbed family life, financial, work with a missionary zeal if we want to help these poor people and build the society. john-carmo
