Wishing you all a peaceful and meaningful 2020!
New buds of Thulir
This academic year, we had many inquiries from the parents about the admission process. We admit children only if they are above 4 yrs. Some of the parents, who couldn’t get the admission last year due to the age of their child, didn’t send them to any other school but waited for Thulir’s admission. We are grateful to these parents for their trust. This year fifteen children from the Sittilingi valley joined the thulir family. We started this academic year with 53 children.
Lessons learnt from the local community
We had a very severe water shortage this summer. The school well was completely dry! Various water saving measures were adopted. We learnt from the tribal team how to manage with whatever little was available. Cooking for 70 people, cleaning, washing was accomplished with less than 500 litres a day. No one complained! Work went on. That was a great lesson for all of us. A neighbour voluntarily and generously gave us water from his well when the condition became worse.
Parents Meetings
In July, during our first parents’ meeting this academic year, old parents welcomed the new parents in to the Thulir family and some of them spoke about their personal experiences with the school. They reassured the new parents that they needn’t compare this school with other schools as Thulir helps their child to learn in an atmosphere of freedom and joy. Couple of parents also admitted that their initial fears that the child isn’t writing A,B,C.., isn’t writing homework, were unfounded and they bore witness to their own children growing with solid foundation and a spirit of inquiry. We are grateful for the Parents’ trust in our school and team.
Holidays and transport issues were discussed in the meeting in September. We are very happy that for the last two years parents have collectively taken charge of transporting the children to school. But as with any collective action there are numerous adjustment issues. Sometimes the parents request some of us to intervene. Many meetings were held for this both at school and in the village.
Toy Maker@ Thulir
Our dear friend Sri. Arvind Gupta visited us in August. We are all great admirers of his work and his workshop for government school teachers at Gandhigram, 27 years ago, had inspired Anu and Krishna to step into the world of learning and education! Recently he was awarded Padmashri by our government. It was a privilege to have Sri. Arvind Gupta in Thulir along with his family.
We had organised a small event in our school and also invited Sittilingi govt school teachers/students to participate. We had arranged Arvind’s table in the centre and the childrens’ tables were in the periphery but once the session started children thronged to Arvind and their excitement knew no bounds. Plastic straws, old slippers, water bottles, CD ROMS, newspapers, matchsticks, marbles, magnets, wires etc. were his tools of trade. Right in front of our eyes he transformed an ordinary piece of rubbish to a wonderful toy.
The variety of caps using old newspapers was an immediate hit – Nurse, Policeman, cricket player, fire fighter and many more. All our children were seen sporting one or another variant of the newspaper caps. Children and teachers alike were quite thrilled in witnessing these creations and motivated in making our own.
Children tried creating some of the paper crafts, and tops with Sri. Arvind Gupta’s help. The next day he interacted with the junior doctors of the Tribal hospital and shared his life’s journey. We are grateful to Sri. Arvind Gupta for giving us a memorable experience.
Visit to Moola-Sittilingi
In June, our older group of children along with our teachers took part in conducting a survey in Moola sittilingi village (undertaken by Tribal Health Initiative) for two days. The purpose was to collect the demographic data about the village.
Our children walked alongside the THI staff and visited the houses in the fields one by one and observed the process of taking a survey. Slowly, our children also started asking questions about the food habits of the villagers, comparing what they ate in the past and now, the type of the roof/floor/walls in the village, crops and animals in the farm.
Everyday we started in the morning and by noon we were all very tired. In the classroom, we processed the collected data by tabulating and tried identifying trends by plotting graphs etc. It was a wonderful experience for all of us.
Sports day at Thulir
We celebrated Sports day at Thulir at the end of August. Thulir children and other children of the valley participated in the event. We had planned a 50m Sprint, high jump, long jump (childrens’ favourite murukku jump) for all the age groups. Before the event, our teachers and children worked on the playground clearing it for the tracks and for other events.
Children participated with great enthusiasm and some children were curious to know what prizes would be distributed. At Thulir, we don’t give prizes only for the winners as, we think, it fails to acknowledge the efforts of other children and seems to make children only compete for the prizes and compare. While it is important to appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of the winners, it shouldn’t also dampen the spirits of these very young children.
We normally give a prize to everyone who participates. But even in this, the focus shifts to the prize and not the sport. So this time we decided there wouldn’t be any prizes for anybody. We would all partake in a common celebratory lunch. Children wholeheartedly agreed to this arrangement. We all had great fun.
Bags from rags
Thejal from Mumbai visited Thulir after the Marudam craft week. Thejal is interested in recycling and innovative use of, what we generally consider as refuse, coconut shells, rags, leaves, paper etc. She works with these materials and creates beautiful toys, bags, plates, cups, ear rings, necklaces and many more. After meeting her at the craft week, our children and teachers were very excited about her visit and quite keen to learn from her.
Paper peacocks and charka
Mr. Madhav & Ms. Neelima from Pune visited us in November. For over a decade Mr. Madhav spins his charka everyday for 30 mins as a sadhana and uses the yarn to stitch his own clothes. He taught us to spin using the charka. Some of us struggled to keep the yarn going and he encouraged us to try and practice.
Ms. Neelima showed us the many possibilities and potentials in a piece of paper which we usually discard as rubbish. An old magazine paper was first made into a square and some folds here and some folds there, few cuts here and few cuts there, lo and behold, a peacock! Childrens’ excitement was visible. Neelima taught us how to make boxes, greeting cards, envelopes, stars, balls, peacocks, crows using paper.
The process of handwork, irrespective of being simple or complex, helps learning in many ways and conducive to the physical and cognitive development of all, regardless of age. Knowing the material, the rich sensorial experience of handling it in your hands, planning and sequencing the actions, the intent and motivation towards reaching an end, patience, perseverance in the face of failure and after all the hardship the joy of having created something. This entire process is self-directed/self-motivated and discipline issues never arise.
Children do not need expensive toys, which nowadays are made mostly of plastic. If we try, we can find many uses for the materials around us and this instills the value and respect for the material as opposed to the mere consumption of it.
Home and School – establishing bonds!
Teachers visited the different villages where the children come from, keeping in mind that our school is not an island but an important part of the community here. Visiting each child’s home and interacting with the parents helps us understand the child and her needs better.
Joy of giving/receiving
“This is the tastiest rice I have ever eaten in my life!” exclaimed child after child. During the 2018 cyclone in Kerala which affected the adivasi communities in Wyanad and the appeal for help from friends at the Gurukula botanical sanctuary, our children and teachers had responded with a gesture straight from their hearts.( Ref: >> newsletter June – Dec 2018) Though their contribution was small, their sister adivasi community at Wynad was touched by the gesture. They used this money to plant traditional varieties of paddy. And when the harvest came this year, they sent a portion of it for the children in our school. Of course their love, gratitude and solidarity made the rice tastier!
Tree planting
“Do you like the old school or the new school?” Most visitors ask our students. “The old school” comes the immediate reply! After spending enormous effort, attention and resources on the new school, we are a little disappointed with this response. But after a little probing we found out that the children did love the buildings. The lack of trees in the new campus was their problem.
Govinda and Leela from Marudam farm school came again with their previous gift of around 100 native tree saplings. This is the third year we are planting trees and despite the drought and severe water shortage most of the 150 trees from the previous years have survived.
Children’ s vegetable beds
It seems to be true that plants respond more readily to children. These vegetable beds are only 3 months old but they are already contributing considerably to our school lunches!
Ex- students take classes
It was a matter of great pride that ex students of Thulir volunteered in Thulir and took classes. They also recalled what they learnt here earlier and taught that too.
Bharathi Krishnan, who is studying his medical lab technology course in CMC Vellore, taught the students craft, songs and Kolattam (Tamil folk dance).
Anuradha, who is doing her at ANM course at Gudalur Adivasi hospital, taught children about nutrition.
Visit from Ananya School
In November, Santhosh, an old and good friend of Thulir, brought a group of children from Ananya school, Bangalore to Sittilingi. Ananya trust runs a school for underprivileged children from the urban areas. Our kids and teachers got along quite well with the group. Santhosh engaged the children with stories and sports activities. Thulir and Ananya kids went on a trek in the forest.
Marudam team visit
Govinda along with a group of participants from the ecological nurturance programme visited us in October. The participants of the programme were an interesting group from all walks of life.
They chose to stay in our school campus ( they were our first visitors to do so). We were initially worried about the lack of lodging facilities at the school campus but they gracefully adjusted with the basic facilities at the school.
The group, along with Govinda, worked on the school campus by building bunds, percolation ponds etc., Everyday they started early in the morning and worked at a stretch for 4, 5 hours! Their zeal and enthusiasm caught on with all of us – teachers and students, and we worked along with them.
Govt. Recognition
Our application to obtain the government recognition to our school is in progress. We have got clearances from all the departments and our application is currently pending at the state educational office.
Teacher training workshops at Fig Tree Learning Centre, Bangalore.
During Dec first week, the entire Thulir team travelled to Bangalore on a three day trip to visit Sita school. Some of our teachers brought their kids along. We took a train from Dharmapuri. It was the first train journey for some of us in our team. We packed our food & snacks and we all had a nice time travelling as a big group.
At Fig Tree, Jane and her team welcomed us and helped us to understand how learning, especially language learning, can be made organic and sensible to the child through ingenious use of books and materials, books and libraries, balance of languages, the role of personal motivation. We had a lively and interactive session with Mr. Roshan sahi about the role of Art in Education.
We also witnessed the wonderful creations of Sita school children over the years. It was a remarkable experience to witness 30, 40 year old artworks by children being preserved in excellent condition. Our entire team benefitted by this visit and our heartfelt thanks to Jane and the entire Sita school team for their warmth and hospitality.
On the last day, we visited Cubbon park, Visvesvaraya Science Museum and took a short trip in Bengaluru metro. We are grateful to Runners’ high team for helping us with the travel arrangements in Bangalore.
Clowns without borders
At the end of December, a group of four artists from ‘Clowns without borders’, Germany visited us. They are a group of clowns, acrobatic and performing artists who travel around the world on a voluntary basis to perform for the people, who otherwise wouldn’t have access to such events.
The event was a first of its kind in Sittilingi and we invited all the parents, hospital staff and other children of the valley. It was a spectacular show and an impressive performance by the artists. Children and adults thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Participation at Auroville Marathon
Sakthivel has been interacting and training with students from the Sittilingi government school. In February he took some of them to participate in the Marathon in Auroville!
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This newsletter was written and compiled by Ram. Photo Credits: Ms. Niharika and Staff of Thulir.