Being "Flo Ma'am"

I’ve been teaching in the slum in Okhla, South Delhi, for 10 weeks now, where all the children call me "Ma'am" or "Flo Ma'am". I teach the same children everyday, so I’ve really had the chance to get to know them and they’re a brilliant group of kids: smart, funny, cheeky, loveable, loving, kind, naughty, chatty….

Seema and Sapna made me this very sweet card

I’ve been teaching mainly maths and English. As you probably know, I’m a bit of a maths geek, and so accordingly, I’m really enjoying teaching maths (it’s also what I will be doing when I return to the UK, so I’m glad I like it so far!). The biggest challenges I’ve faced with this have been that some students are really far behind on some basic methods that they should know. At their state school, the children are taught in classes of around 70, so they don’t get individual attention. Most of their parents are uneducated too, so they can’t get help at home. I think this means that if a student doesn’t get their head round something quickly enough, or if they miss a lesson, they just slip behind. One of the girls, called Pooja, is clearly bright, but she can’t do division, which makes it difficult to progress in other topics. I’m working hard to get everyone up to scratch on the basics, so they can do really well on the harder topics (like fractions and decimals). Pooja’s division is much better now, and she likes maths more and more!

I find English harder to teach, because I just take it for granted that I can speak the language! Breaking down the grammar is quite new to me, but important to the students. One thing that does come naturally to me is chatting! I’m one of the few fluent English speakers in these children’s lives, so I really encourage them to speak to me in English more; whether it’s about our lives in either India or England or a book we’re reading. At the state schools, English is taught how I imagine Latin is badly taught in England. The students learn long, difficult passages by rote, and regurgitate them in exams. I’ve looked through their exercise books and the level of writing in there, is way beyond their actual ability. It’s such a shame that at school the teachers aren’t focusing on what the children really need help with, but it’s so good that Project Why exists to give these children a chance at being good English speakers.

English lesson with some of the boys

Lately, I’ve been trying to encourage the students to be more creative. It’s actually a concept that’s really alien to them, and it came as a real shock to me. I think that in England a group of students would be very happy to get out of maths and English, in order to spend an hour drawing instead, but my students here have been so reluctant. They’re so concerned about having the “right answer” that drawing for fun is confusing for them. Now, some students still produce hardly anything when I get them drawing or will only draw what they’re familiar with (flowers), but some are opening up more and I’ve seen some really imaginative creations. Our latest efforts have been to design book covers and my favourite was the “The Dancing Elephant”. A boy called Viney drew an amazing picture of an elephant pulling some moves, complete with a man on a DJ deck in the background and I didn’t have to help him at all. I’m not totally naïve, I don’t think the children I teach are in a position to grow up to be designers and artists (although their prospects are still much, much better than the previous generation) but I still think it’s important they get a chance to be creative. For a start, I think it can really help with English, because art and design can always spark discussion. You can also link it to something relevant, as we did with the book covers. The special thing about Project Why is that it’s one of the few places where the children can go and spend time being children. Their homes are so small, that they don’t “hang out” there and they have a lot of responsibilities. Their only other place is the street. So it’s important that their time at Project Why is special and fun too, which is why we don’t just cover the topics they learn at school, and I think it’s a great opportunity to have fun doing an activity they’ll never do anywhere else. I’ve only got two more weeks, so I think I might do some messy painting with them, which is certainly in the spirit of upcoming Diwali!

Mehtab reveals his creative side...

I’ve learnt a hell of a lot from teaching here, and I really hope the students have too! I won’t forget them and I expect there might be some tears in two weeks time…