The purpose of this school is to develop the human resources potential of the children of illiterate parents, on the outskirts of the town of Kalimpong, located in the Himalayan foothill district of Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. It aims to give a good formal education and at the same time, through extra curricular activities and work projects, to have each child find out where his or her talents lie. The school is meant for children of scheduled castes, especially the indigenous tribals and other backward castes who because of family poverty or ignorance, are not able to go to other schools, and a few desperately poor others.
For the school to accomplish its purpose, a much longer school day than usual is needed. Three meals a day are provided in the school, which begins at 7.15am and continues through periods of vernacular language Nepali, English, maths, elementary science, music, drawing, dance and handcraft until 5pm or 7pm for classes five, six and seven.
At present, the school has 150 students (half girls, half boys) from classes one to seven. Present plans call for an additional class each year up to class eight and possibly higher.
These children live trapped in mentality of the "here and now". When the immediate needs of food and shelter are satisfied, real stimulus is gone and so too is thought of further advancement. For these children advancement can mean such simple things as reading, writing and sense of community and cooperation, basic cleanliness and health care.
Most importantly, in attending our school the children have for the first time in their lives made up their own minds to do something that is not dictated by immediate necessity of food or shelter. They have made up their mind to study, to think about what they want to be. Fate and passivity are no longer accepted. They no longer need to sit around their house and wait until they are old enough to go out and carry loads.
The underprivileged child's mentality is formed in circumstances far different from ours. There is no electricity, no clocks and no running water in the typical child's home, usually a home of just one room for an entire family. For us to suggest "Practice makes Perfect", a child might answer, "perfect what?" Similarly, punctuality has no meaning in a world without clocks. Many people in India think theses underprivileged children are simply not capable of taking on a good education, of competing, of excelling in "formal subjects".
Unfortunately, no one believes this more than the children themselves.
Our program aims to create an environment that develops an alternative to this mentality. Worry about immediate need is removed with three meals a day. Attention can now be given to new challenges that in each child can foster a deeply a human response to grow and learn. Opportunity is presented and involvement is encouraged.
Should you ever happen to be in this area, please come to visit us and see the program in progress.
Fr. Ed McGuire S.J.
Headmaster
|
