curriculum at different schools

So far we've visited a government school, an international school, a kendriya vidyalaya, and an alternative school - and it is interesting to see how the curriculum plays out in the class.

Clearly, the curriculum stems from the vision that the schools have of themselves, as citizens of India, or of Karnataka, or of that of global leaders, or that of human beings with capacity for autonomy, and searching for self-actualization. If that ethos is clear, the curriculum's broad framework is set. After that, it is also a function of the school itself and how that particular school has turned out.

For example, I went to the government school with an idea that the curriculum would play out as text book, but thanks to a motivated teacher and a Nalli-Kalli program, the students were working with the material in an animated fashion.

The history teacher in the international school was not a strict follower of the text book, but some of the students in her class who were students from a different country, clearly did not take to the nuances of the caste system. I guess it was as alien to them as teaching the idea of snow to someone from Salem.At the same time, a pre-kindergarten teacher of Spanish origin, overcame the difficulties of teaching the idea of a cube to her extremely energetic wards, thanks to her patience and innovation. She presented the idea of a cube through a "magic" box filled with cubes of different textures and sizes, got the children to touch and feel and experience the idea of a cube as a 3-D figure with six sides.

In the alternative school, the idea of children as independent, and fearless worked its way into every aspect of the curriculum. It did not really matter that the teachers were perhaps of the same caliber in teaching as the others we met previously, but the driving philosophy made all the difference.