Students, especially the ones from low income background, are prone to summer setback. This is the loss of reading and math skills during summer holidays. To prevent or reduce this in my students, I have bought workbooks in English and Maths which they can work on during the summer holidays. I thought the impact of giving them these books at their house in front of their parents would be higher, instead of distributing them at school. On Sunday I bought all the books and on Monday I started the visits.
First visit was to John's house. For a change I found both his parents at home when I reached his house at 8.30 in the morning. As usual his parents are always ready to force feed me, even if I tell them 100 times that I have come after having my breakfast. Their comments were quite touching. His mother told me that, this is the first time he has ever got a teacher who has taught something which he understood. He doesn't need anyone to tell him to study when he comes home now a days. He does that on his own. I didn't need to take a promise from him to do his work everyday. I know he will do it.
Next is Prakash's house. He was waiting for me at the junction and he took me to his house. I have just enough place to sit inside with the other 4 women who are already there. Prakash's mother passed away 3 months back and he has not come out of it till now. So his elder sister listened to my instructions carefully. The other assorted grandmas and aunts asked me to be a bit lenient with him since he has just lost his mom, to whom he was extremely close. When I was about to leave, one of them called me back and told me to make sure Prakash is also taught some discipline and that he talks back to them when they are telling him something. I had one of my "think wrong or right before you do" session again with him and left.
I always referred to him as my dyslexic. But then when his mom got his IQ checked, it turned out to be 64, which means he has moderate mental retardation. Alex's mom picked me up midway as I have been banned by Alex from coming to his house all this while. He had just gotten up and taken bath when I reached there at 10.30. His mom is talking to 2 schools for slow learners, to move him. With moderate mental retardation his learning in a class with normal students is limited and also it affects his confidence negatively. He agreed to do the workbooks and also copy 20 lines from his text book to his notebook.
Farhan has passed in all the subjects but Marathi. They talk Gujarathi at home, it is no wonder that he is struggling with Marathi. But he has already repeated 4th standard once and he cannot do it once again. So his mother has agreed to teach him Marathi during the vacation. Major part of the conversation there was around the other kids in class teasing him calling 'gorilla' since he is extremely fair. He gets into a fight with them on that and this gets the kids tickled and they continue the act. So here again we went through the exercise of "think right or wrong before you do something and say sorry if you have, by mistake, done wrong". His mom also asked me to put him in another teachers class if he doesn't behave, so that he will know the difference.
Next to my special kid, Anita. Here instead of just giving instructions and the book, I made her to do one page in all the books. She did that. Her mom has been told already that she will have to repeat 4th. She came to my class just reading alphabets. Now she reads at 25 words per minute and is able to comprehend 2nd grade passages and sometimes above. But not enough for her to go to 5th standard. But her mother's argument is her age and size. How can she sit again in 4th standard! I told her that what matters is her skill level and not age. She told me that her father will not let the kid to go to school further if she fails. But then that is something I need to convince him about.
The last visit before I head back home is Meena's house. Her mom is ecstatic about the progress she has made over the year. She was shifted to my school since her old teacher has asked her mom to get her IQ checked and told that she might be slightly retarded. But from what I have seen Meena is an average kid. She improved in her English and Math skills 2 grade levels in one year. Now her mother is going to take the progress report and go to the old school and show it (throw it on their face, in her words) to the principal and the teacher and tell them that there is nothing wrong with Meena and it was their problem that they couldn't get Meena to learn anything.
At 41deg Celsius going around in the dry dry Pune can be punishing. So I head home, for some food and an hour of rest and then start again.
I get to my small little mouse's house. Anil is almost always sick, but he still had the 3rd highest attendance in class. His mom is worried that he has not studied this year as much as he has done previously after he has been shifted to my school. Also his elder sister complained that his work books are not completed. I again explained that I do not teach by giving question answers to be rot learnt. So next year his mom is planning to put him to tuition, and I agreed to talk to the tuition teacher. Also I suggested that he be sent to my house for some extra work twice a week. His Math skills has improved, but still not at 4th standard level, but I will take him to 5th as he just needs a few weeks of extra attention.
The last one for the day is Bhavya, the girl whose leg is disfigured. Here also the mom cannot stop talking about how the kid has changed over the year. She is an above average child, who was never taught anything earlier. She started the year reading at a speed of 7 words per minute and numbers till 100. She has also grown 2 grades and is almost always second in Math tests. She also showed me the channels which she watch and agreed to watch some English channels also (CN). Her mother was very anxious to know whether I will be teaching her next year also. I told her that I will be teaching Bhavya English and Maths next year, to her relief.
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