First School Visit

Today we all left Niketana at 7am for our first school visit. After driving about an hour through slums and bumpy dirt roads, we finally arrived to the rural Indian village where Montessori School was located. The school currently houses and feeds 300+ students. Each student was found begging on the streets, and offered enrollment into the school. During the day the rooms serve as class rooms, during the evenings they become the bedrooms. For every ten children sleeping in a room there is one adult. It is difficult to begin to describe the emotion that overwhelmed me as we stepped off our bus and were crowded by young Indian children craving attention and lots of pictures! They thought it was the most amazing thing that my camera could capture their faces...
Before each school day begins the students hold assembly in the court yard. It is during this time that they say their group prayer and then relocate for group meditation.
A former student of Vidya's decided w/ her parents to hold a fundraiser and donate all proceeds to and Indian school of Vidya's choice. They ended up raising over $1,700 which we were able to present to the school today.

We got to sit in on classes. Sara and I chose to sit in on a 4th grade class. There is zero instruction from the teacher, and the students are allowed to choose what they learn. This education system is far from the programs I was raised in, but the children were eager to learn. My initial reaction to the school was complete despair. My first 15 minutes with the kids I nearly had to step away to fight back the tears that were welling up in my eyes as I inspected their living conditions, noticed the fleas crawling in their hair, and smelling the urine soaked clothes that adorned their malnourished bodies. After class, we got to plant trees in the yard at the school. It was an amazing way to end a very difficult day.