A few weeks ago, before the exams began and school was off for the winter break, Kara and I handed out a homework assignment aimed at helping our girls imagine what their lives might be like ten years from now. The worksheet was designed to look like the front page of a newspaper (in this case, the imaginary “Railway School Chronicle”), and dated “Thursday November 26th, 2020, with space for a Headline, a cover image, an image caption, and an article. We asked the girls to imagine themselves ten years from now, and to write an article about an accomplishment they’d achieved.

The students’ responses were incredibly creative and wonderful to read. The girls put a lot of effort into finding photos or making collages to match their stories, and their grand ambitions and dreams are evident in the articles they wrote about their future selves. Many of their imaginings are what you might consider the typical dreams of 13 year old girls around the world: surprise stardom, wealth, top athletic achievement, etc. However, if you consider that many of our students’ own mothers, older sisters, or Aunty’s are housewives, it is particularly heartening to see the girls’ desire for success shining through these stories. It is a large leap for some of the students to imagine a career that takes them beyond school and into adulthood – whether that career be in Bollywood, or on the Olympic field.

The class decided to use “Choices and Decision Making” as the theme for their final multimedia piece, and they are currently wrapping up a series of component projects that all touch upon this topic. I hope that by engaging the students in a variety of activities that catalyze creative and critical thought, we can help them explore the wonderful possibilities they can pursue in their future. It’s a well-worn phrase, but I believe it’s quite fitting: If you can perceive it, then you can achieve it!

Below are three students’ homework sheets – click each image to view a larger version on Flickr. To see more students’ “Railway School Chronicle” homework sheets, you can visit “The Railway School Chronicle” Homework Flickr album.