I remember researching this fellowship and reading over Kara and Ilana’s posts about last year’s Teacher’s Day. As a teacher myself at the time, I was struck by the pomp of the celebrations the previous fellows described in their blog posts. I read about the origins of teacher’s day, a holiday that is a tribute to the legacy of a great educator and statesman, who asked that on his birthday, people recognize their teachers instead of celebrating his personal achievements.

This stands in stark contrast to the view of many back home in the US. We need only look to the current debate about our education system to note that teaching can be a thankless job. Teachers are currently under fire at the center of a debate about a system that has been allowed to fester and fail countless children over the years. What people seem to continually overlook is that fact that teachers are only a part of this broken system. Various other factors come into play to explain the failure of our public schools, yet we have focused nearly all the attention of a long over-due reform movement on teachers. Thousands of miles away from my old school district, at a time when I would normally be setting up my classroom for a new school year, sleeping little with anticipation of meeting my new students and building a positive and nurturing culture in the coming weeks, I was at Railway’s Teacher’s Day function with a jumble of different thoughts and feelings running through my mind.

Focusing on the here and now, it was what I have come to know and expect of a Railway function. Our introduction to the formalities and the importance of Indian “functions” was Railway’s Independence Day performance. The program was full of honors for chief guests, the girls had rehearsed for weeks, the school had purchased costumes for thousands of rupees, and the HM and Prabhaker had been talking about it all month to make sure that we would be there with cameras to film the girls’ performance. You could not overlook the importance of functions for the girls and the school community. This emphasis on performance and school-wide celebrations has a lot to do with the palpable community culture at the school. The girls take pride in their school and work together to represent it favorably.

View from the roof of the girl's Independence Day performance.

Our program began with the customary arrival of the “chief guest.” He was greeted by a tunnel of pom-pom waving girls, and a smiling HM Janaki. Prabhaker hustled us into the computer lab to showcase some student work from TMS class, and then we all marched through the girl-tunnel to take our seats by the stage.

girl tunnel

The first act of the program was an amazing kuchipudi dance performance by our very own, Srilekha! After she blew us all away, Prabhaker commented that “although she was raised in the US, she made many Indians in the audience jealous” of her dancing skills.

The second highlight was a choreographed dance to the pop hit, “Sheila” by the tiny-tots. It was almost too cute.

tiny-tots!

It has felt strange to be here the past week, as my friends and colleagues are going back to the classroom. I’ve heard from some students as they head back to school and I’d be lying if I said that I never second-guessed my decision to leave all that behind and travel to India to embark on this experience. However, the warm reception by the students and teachers at Railway, as well as their kind words and gifts lifted my spirits. To Piya, past fellows, and my wonderful co-teachers, Stella and Srilekha, I wish you all a happy teachers’ day!