A few days ago I posted the video shot and planned by the girls of the Analadi Higher Secondary school about “Women in Sports.” In the days that followed, I’ve thought a lot about my misleadingly short and upbeat write up of that video and thought that the experience making it deserved further explanation.

What I failed to mention in the previous post was how in-adept the girls were at actually playing the sports that they so eagerly planned to describe in the video. While virtually the entire class agreed to make a video about women in sports, rather than discuss women’s education, teach the audience Tamil or present their school environment to a foreign audience, when it came time to film action sequences, the girls struggled endlessly to get a single competent shot. Because of time constraints and an unanticipated holiday that caused the girls to leave school and return to their home villages, we were unable to dedicate time to re-shooting a number of scenes and voice-overs that are inadequate.

I am not one to beat myself up for falling victim to circumstance, and I don’t dwell on the fact that the resulting video is not up to my standards. However, what I keep thinking about is what the film reveals about the half-baked nature of the girl’s education here. I am dwelling on the fact that the girls clearly have a desire to compete and participate in athletics, yet this interest is unfulfilled by their schooling.

I grew up in public schools in one of the worst school districts in the nation in Washington DC. Gym class was always an excellent example of the under-resourced status of the DCPS system, evidenced by crumbling, smelly, dank locker rooms, old and inadequate equipment and an overall unimaginative approach to teaching physical education. I will also be the first to admit that I was not always present in gym class, and when I was, I was not entirely engaged. However, I possess the basic skills and knowledge to demonstrate a volleyball serve, catch a fly ball in the air, make contact at bat, or kick a soccer ball. The girls of Analadi did not.

Their lack of skills was not for lack of trying. While one of my students looked lost, confused and somewhat terrified, the other three all exhibited signs of intense concentration and eagerness to please while we shot the footage of them playing basketball, volleyball and soccer. They were trying so hard, but their exposure to the rules and technique of formal sports had clearly been neglected.  The HM of the primary school tried to help supply them with information about the basics of these games, but her own knowledge was confused and incorrect (as I found out only too late while translating the footage after the fact).  A combination of rigid gender roles and a very near-sighted, tunnel vision approach to teaching focused on standardized testing are surely to blame for this ignorance.

Some people might not find this compelling.  So they’re not good at sports — what’s the big deal?  Aren’t academics more important? But for many students back home, athletics are the reason they come to school.  Kids push themselves in class because they have to keep up grades to play on a school team.  I’ve seen students at my former school turn their lives completely around because of the impact of sports.  Last June, I watched teary eyed as a student I’d known for three years accepted his diploma.  When I first had him in class in 2009, I asked him why he showed up only once every three weeks and he responded that he was always getting “locked up.”  Rugby came into his life one year later and I had the pleasure of having him in class last May for his final English credit.  Where once he had put his head down and fallen asleep or simply walked out of the class when bored, he now sat in the front row, focusing on the text we were reading with lazer concentration, always the first student to raise his hand to respond to my questions.  I can’t think of sports without thinking of Reverly.  But I digress…

I hadn’t realized how important athletics were to me personally until I came here to India.  When I couldn’t run outside because of the traffic and cultural norms, I realized that it was an essential part of my life that I am not willing to compromise.  I can’t imagine living without athletics, and it seems that many girls here have the desire to develop these skills too, but nowhere to help them in their efforts. If they aren’t introduced to sports through physical education at school, they won’t be able on their own to seek out the very few girls sports teams that exist — generally for upper class, westernized girls who attend private schools.

Analadi girls (and Stella) show off their ups

As is often the case, I see hope and an exception to the rule at Railway. When asked to write about their proudest moment for homework, a number of girls recounted experiences winning medals in track competitions.  Girls can be seen out on the grounds, skipping rope and running during their PE period.  So I conclude with an idea for next year’s fellows — TMS soccer team?