Literacy-based Summer Camp: Day 12

The morning began with Salim and his brother coming in early and helping me organise and re-paste children’s artifacts on the school wall for the exhibition on 23rd May. Sahil came in early today with his eyes all swollen up. He had not slept the whole night and had been crying. I had never seen him so vulnerable, and it was rather sad to see him that way. I asked him, and he mentioned he had pain in his eyes and could not sleep the whole night. Despite this, his father had gotten him to school. I had a feeling that there was more to it, which he did not want to share at this point. So, I let him be and told him that he could go home anytime. However, his mother was also working, so he could not be left at home alone. Through the day, however, he seemed to be feeling better and slowly began engaging in the activities.

Making the Poster on Canva

The day began with us discussing the poster details, and some children creating the poster on Canva.com. This was also a way to get them to engage more meaningfully online and develop new skills. While I wanted all children to create different digital artifacts throughout the camp, the limited computer devices, with internet, meant not everyone could develop these skills. When children had to share devices, they often lost interest. Some often drift away and engage themselves in other activities.
    For the ones who did engage, these included two groups: Salim and Shweta, Sahil and Karthik. We first began by discussing what a poster is. Various kinds of details that it should contain, and the way these should be positioned on the poster. See the image below.

Next, each group began designing the poster of their choice with their partner. I had to continue to assist children in the use of elements on the website, navigating their position and size on the poster. The most challenging of these was the text box, which appeared rather small on the poster and required continuous resizing. As tiring and long as this exercise was (for about an hour), the two groups of children continued to persist with some assistance and finally designed the following two posters. Sahil and Kathik were unable to finish the poster making on time. We eventually decided to select Salim and Shweta’s posters for circulation. Later, I edited the poster a little bit for spelling and resized a few details. Their credits were also added.

Sahil and Karthi's poster, created on Canva

                                           

Salim and Shweta's poster, created on Canva. Also the final poster circulated among the community for the upcoming exhibition. 

                                         

Uno Card Game: Mistaken case of gambling

Some of the girls had brought the Uno card game to class. The girls and five other boys, who did not have devices to work on, began to play the card game together. Since I had not separately planned anything for them, I let them be, and this also gave me the time to assist the other two groups working on the poster. However, about a few minutes into the game, a man, while talking on his phone, entered the classroom and began raising his voice and asking children if they were being taught to gamble. I immediately went up to him and confronted him. He was very rude and demanded clarification. I first asked him who he was. It turned out he was a parent of a 6-year-old in the class, participating in the Uno card game. The parent had come to school to pay his ward's fee and noticed children playing the card game. I was furious and lost my cool. The fact that he thought the school or any adult in school would teach children to gamble made me mad. I scolded him and first asked him to leave the classroom. I then told him that he needs to leave immediately and let me continue the work. Immediately after, Salim’s father came to class for a similar clarification from his two sons. The news had travelled within minutes.
    The principal in our previous private conversation had alluded to stereotypes as well as baseless notions that the community members often hold. Because of this, she had said that the school had to be very careful with the ideas children were introduced to or the resources they were given access to. As had happened in the past, like in my case, similar incidents had taken place in the past as well. The incident in my case was very small, but I can imagine how things could have gone out of hand.
    When I returned to the playing children, they were shaken, and the two girls were gathering the cards to keep them back in their bags. Clearly, they were scared. I asked them if that was the case. They nodded and said they were scared to play. I then reminded them that they were doing nothing wrong, as well as the fact that, if they had done nothing wrong, they should not be scared to speak and be courageous. (a topic we had taken up in our activities). Salim's brother then described a similar incident with his father and said he had spoken up while his brother had kept quiet. The children played a few rounds of the game, but then asked me to engage them in a different activity.
    This incident also brought to the fore the strict divisions around what “play” means for people and communities. Adults' notions around play and the values associated with it can have a strict moral code. For someone who is trying to disrupt these divisions and find spaces of literacy within them, the incidents reminded me to also be sensitive to communities’ strong moral notions around certain forms of activities and the very aggressive and violent reactions they can evoke. That, in turn, can disrupt a long process of trust building and pull children back from research engagement.
    Discussing this incident with Rakesh, he advised me to inform the principal about it, in case it's brought up again by a parent. The principal, who was more experienced than I in dealing with similar incidents, was very sympathetic and rather appalled that they might consider Uno cards as gambling cards. She also said that she will make sure no parents are allowed near classrooms during teaching hours. I was very grateful for her support and truly appreciated her understanding.

Name, place, Animal, Things

While the two groups continued to make their poster, I engaged the other eight children in a game of Name, Place, Animal, Thing. I divided them into two groups of four and gave each group a paper. Next, I gave them a letter, and each group had to finish filling in the aforementioned details on the paper. I was not sure if they would like the game; however, the children took to it instantly. Competing with each other, discussing with their respective groups about places or animals. After each letter, I checked each group’s answers and appreciated their efforts. Children relished in competing within groups and continued to time each other's responses. In some cases, children did not know an animal for a letter or a city. However, in some cases, I was surprised by the information they had and its source. For example, a boy who was 8 wrote the name of the city Chandigarh as a response to the letter “C”. When I probed him further, he said that his father was in the transport business and that they had recently ordered a car from that city. In fact, the number plate of the car still had CH on it.
    Once the children finished making the poster, Salim and Shweta also joined the other groups to continue the game. Salim, in response to the letter “P”, wrote Pakistan as a place. This led to a series of comments by children.

A child: Pakistan murda baad. (The child is from the minority community)

(Death to Pakistan)

Salim: Murdabad kaiye ko. Hum ko yaha say nikal deyenge to hum kaha jaayenge?

(Why so? If they kick us out of here, where will we go?)

Ekta: Kisi bhi desh ko murdad kyu karna hai, vaha par bhi toh log rehte hai. Salim, tum ko koi kyu nekalega? Aisa kise bola?

(Why do we need to wish death to any country? There are people like us who live there. Salim, what did you mean?)

Salim: (does not respond)


(Salim’s father was a religious head in the community, and clearly, there was a lot more that he had heard around him and absorbed. However, I did not want to push him further and make it an interview. I did make a mental note of it, in case I wanted to know more about his thoughts on the matter.


Games and Reflection


We ended the day with a few of the children’s favourite games like Simon Says and Pick up the handkerchief from the circle. In the latter, children were divided into groups, and children on each side were given the same number. When a number is called, children with the same number on either side come in the middle, and each tries to pick up the handkerchief before the other and runs back to their team before they are caught.
    Before going, I shared the agenda for the next day with the children and requested them to start preparing for the exhibition. Shweta, who takes her role as the director seriously, has often come up to me at the end of the day to discuss the details of the story and characters with me. Today she promised to finalise the story and characters by the next day to take the play forward.
    I have been sceptical of the exhibition and have continued to question myself about its benefits to the children. I also wonder if it might add undue pressure on them. One of the main reasons I am keen on the exhibition is to showcase to parents and teachers the way play and collaborative activities, where children have freedom to talk and discuss, can be very productive and help children’s expression. As I have noticed, teachers and parents around children continue to hold very rigid ideas about their capacities, what they think is learning or play. However, I continue to question if a mere exhibition will change any of it and if the process of putting it together itself is rather tedious.