CHAPTER THREE: A Little To Take; A Little To Give.
To follow the story better, read CHAPTER TWO: Over-ripe, under-ripe students.
When I had signed up for this internship at Save The Children, I was certain about my duty: a teacher of the underprivileged children. However, as days passed and we interns began to know the faculty much better (Reshma Ma’am, Aruna Ma’am, Sachin Sir, Kondiba Bhaiya and Rahul Bhaiya), the internship turned into a rich two-way experience. It all started the day we translated case-studies from Marathi to English once the students had left. Reshma Ma’am told me how she wanted to be better at speaking and reading English and I was awed by her eagerness to learn. Stuck with a strong desire to give back to society, Ananya, Darshan (the third intern), and I started a half-an-hour long English class for all the staff members-after the day’s work was over.
The first day of teaching the staff made me realise that even to teach my favourite subject, I needed to go back to my first few years at school and recollect all the basic rules of grammar. Vowels, nouns, verbs, articles, conjunctions and prepositions were only a few of the items we had to check off the metaphorical Teach English Successfully List.
After a few classes with the staff, Ananya told Kondiba bhaiya that she would give him different kind of homework from the rest as we soon adapted to the different learning speeds and styles within our small classroom. Reshma ma’am and Aruna Ma’am had studied English in college and could therefore read the newspaper and find out the meaning of certain tough words as homework; Kondiba Bhaiya and Rahul Bhaiya needed more help with basic English; Sachin Sir was much better with English so he didn’t need to attend many of our classes and helped us with teaching the others.
The homework we assigned to our adult students was most fervently submitted by Reshma Ma’am. Rahul Bhaiya often tried to hurriedly make up for the incomplete homework during the working hours at the bus when we warned him about the repercussions of incomplete homework. Being young teachers of adults, there was much lighthearted fun poked at us but it was all gladly supported with their seriousness in mastering English. Seriousness is still a light word to explain their dedication towards the subject. Simply recollecting the burning desire of these 30-some-adults to make up for a lack in English skills made me remember all the teachers in school who had, along the way, made me able to spread the light. There is much we are privileged for and while there is much to take from others, there is much to give back.
CREATIVITY INKED 