Breaking educational patterns

The success of the C3STREAM Land (formerly called STEM Land) educational experiment at Udavi and Isai Ambalam schools would not have been possible without the efforts of a dedicated support team.

But how did they become involved, and why? What have they learned in the process? And what are the next steps in their personal development?

Sanjay is one of the latest additions to the team. He came to help set up a design team for C3STREAM Land Designs, the commercial wing of the experiment which is doing work for Aura Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd. But he admits that the main reason he joined was to further his personal development as he felt that had ‘plateaued’, that he needed to find a new direction. Saranya, Poovizhi and Ranjith, on the other hand, joined to learn more about electronics, programming or robotics, while Siva, who had been teaching in a college, was exploring educational alternatives.

In addition to their technical work, all of them are required to help in the education of the children at Udavi and Isai Ambalam schools. How challenging was this?

“Very challenging,” says Ranjith. “My first class was with the very young children. I was brought up in an educational system where everybody listens to and obeys the teacher.  But here the children are free to do anything, so when I asked them to sit together, nobody listened! At first I didn’t know what to do. But then I realised that I should do something that interested them to get their focus. 

That helped me change my whole perspective.”

Siva also learned to change his perspective. “In Isai Ambalam we do hands-on projects, and I noticed that the children who do not perform well in class are the ones who perform well in these projects. 

So then I realised it’s my mistake to see them as being less capable, and that I needed to create an environment where they, as well as the more academic ones, will prosper. I had to reconfigure my ideas.”

Saranya also found it difficult to break the mould of her own schooling. When the children asked her questions, she would immediately give them answers. But then she learned it is better to ask the children the right questions so that they come up with the answers themselves. 

Sanjay had been wrestling with the question of what education should be about since the age of 16 years. After attending the best colleges in both India and the U.S., he concluded that the form of education they provide is a ‘scam’. It was only when he was working on real electronics projects that he realized that hands-on experience was the missing factor in conventional education: “People should be actually making something, not baffling others with equations and theory. What really attracts me here is Sanjeev saying that those who are doing should teach, and those who are teaching should do.”

Consequently, when he joined the team in Udavi, he wanted the young people to learn electronics through building things that work. 

The children are clearly benefitting academically and in other ways from this unique learning environment. But what happens when these children move on to other schools, where they will be plunged into a conventional learning system?

Poovizhi points out that the team had similar questions, which is why they conducted a survey of children who had left the C3SL schools some years before and gone on to study in conventional schools. The survey revealed that all very much valued this unique educational experience which they found ‘joyful’ and which, among other things, greatly benefitted them in topics like maths, programming and computing. They found it difficult to be in a very different environment where they could not choose what they wanted to work on, where peer learning was not allowed and the teacher is king. However, they found ways of teaching to others what they had learned at STEM Land outside the classroom using alternative methods, like programming, practical geometry and solving Rubik’s Cube. 

The survey report concluded that interventions at C3SL “had not only short-term effects on improving 

attitude of children towards mathematics, but also longer-term impacts in their attitude towards how they understand themselves and how they learn. We term these as altered traits, indicating the impact of the few years they engaged in C3SL continues to have in their lives.”

How about their home environment? Was it supportive of the way they were developing, or did they encounter challenges from within their family?

Siva has many stories relating to this. Recently, for example, in Isai Ambalam school they staged a drama about adults not taking bribes in exchange for voting. A few days later, a real election happened in the village. “The father of one of the boys came and shouted at me,” says Siva. “He shouted, ‘You’re the one who is teaching that stupid thing to my son. Now he’s not allowing me to take a bribe to vote for someone, even though everyone else in the village is doing it.’ It wasn’t comfortable,” admits Siva, “but even so I was happy because the child was really holding the concept in his heart.” 

Poovizhi mentions a larger cultural shift. “This is a rural area and before many girls were not allowed to stay at night in schools to complete their work, even though the boys were allowed to do so. But now this has changed, and parents have accepted that girls can stay over the weekend to complete their projects.” She is also hopeful that the schools’ efforts to address casteism and gender discrimination by providing opportunities for everyone to learn will have long-term influence. 

What about the team? Have they also developed personally through their involvement with this experiment?

Sanjay admits that he used to be addicted to the internet. “But since I’ve come here I can spend all day working in the office without surfing the net, and even when I go to my room it happens much less. Now I meditate for two hours a day, I do more work and find more time for exercise. I don’t quite know why it happened, but for me that’s an incredible change.” 

And he has not stopped learning himself. Two of the youth he is helping can debug a circuit that doesn’t work using no mathematics, but if he asks them how, they can’t explain. “So my next challenge is to find out how they are doing it.”

Poovizhi feels she has developed not only new technical skills but has also grown personally.  “We have radical transformational leadership tools and we also do the Vipassana meditation so this has given me an opportunity to explore within myself and ask myself why I am doing what I’m doing. I also notice I’m not reacting any more to things that I don’t like, as I don’t react any longer out of fear.”

Siva says he had always assumed that he could only learn from elders, because only they had knowledge. “But since coming here I started learning from everybody, from the children and the youth. I see them stretching their boundaries and that’s inspiring. So now I feel if I am open, I can learn from anybody. This is a real change in me.” 

Ranjith admits that his weakness is that he never knew what to do next when it came to making an important decision, so he would make ‘random’ decisions or rely upon the advice of others. Now, although he still has this issue, he has learned to try to resolve it himself, and in resolving it take into consideration its impact upon others. 

All of the team feels they have much more to learn and to materialise. What do they want to work on in the next five years?

Siva recognizes that children have different needs, “but at the moment I am not to able to notice and provide for all of them. I need to find a way to provide the best physical and emotional environment for all children.” Sanjay has big plans, like forming a rocket club, as well as setting up a lab where kids can fix household items. On a personal level, he would like “to bring more and more awareness of what I am doing and of my purpose into my daily life”. 

Poovizhi was a student at Udavi School before STEM Land was established, and missed out on this way of education in her younger days. So now she would like to extend the experiment to allow many more children to experience this opportunity. Saranja would like to learn programming and, as a teacher, to find ways of providing activities for each individual to learn in his or her own way. 

Ranjith would like to launch a drone construction course for the children. Personally, he would like to experience different cultures, “because I’ve only experienced my own culture so far and not been open to others. Now I want to break that pattern.”

“Breaking the pattern” is a fine summation of the approach of this dedicated team that, like the children they interact with, finds joy in unending learning and progress.