Are they teaching in NY about Kailash Satyarthi? To 6th and 7th graders? This is staggering. How far ahead in empathy and humanism are American schools? Why did I have a totally different impression about schools in the USA? Or is this an outlier?
Can anyone find me a lesson or a chapter from Indian books on child labour. I say, forget Satyarthi, just find me a reference to child labour in an Indian school book, even in a teacher training manual.
I have so many questions:
1. What do I know about American primary education?
2. From what sources do I know it?
3. Is teaching about a third world leader, however heroic, something they do regularly there? I mean, if we learn about a Nelson Mandela or a Kemal Ataturk, that’s already considered too much.
4. Is teaching about living people something that is common?
5. How acclaimed must Satyarthi be, and how important his work, for children in NY to learn about him and his work, and how fantastic it is for a 6th or 7th grader to read Brecht and to think of child labour, and where their bananas come from! And here we are, and we know nothing about this. How far back is the Indian primary education system?
6. How old are my sources of information and experience?
7. Can I be more amazed at this?
8. What else do I not know about this?
Mind = Blown.
