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TMS Fellow Updates

Jan, 31

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Daily Updates, Photo Stories, Project Tracks, Reflections, TMS Fellow Updates

The Modern Story completes the first week of the Social Justice curriculum

Students of The Modern Story program in Hyderabad, India completed their first week of the social justice curriculum created using resources from The Liberation Curriculum Initiative of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. At Nalgonda, a school in a rural area 3 hours south of Hyderabad, students finished the week by practicing story boarding shots and using still photos in sequence to tell a story related to Ghandi and King’s principles. Most students used the Telangana issue to discuss ideas of non-violence.
“Turn the other cheek”

But one group insisted the most important issue related to non-violence in India is the uneasiness between Muslims and Hindus following the 26/11 attacks and relations with Pakistan.

“Let’s stop the violence.”

And what a fitting finish it was to end a week of teaching non-violence by having tea with India’s leading political analyst and veteran of Indian media, Mr. Jyotirmara Sharma. He is American Eloquence dressed in an overbearing Indian. To describe him physically, he resembles the professor from the antedated TV series, Sliders, the big guy. His casual genius would be embarrassing in a smaller man. He remarked at a recent meeting with civil servants in Hyderabad, ‘they told me there would be a lot less poverty if I would simply stop eating so much’ to many chuckles in the audience admiring the man’s display of Pillsbury wit.

Mr. Shamar said “the difference between Gandhi and Martin Luther King is that MLK pushed people to the brink of real violence, without which governments too easily co-opt resistance toward their own ends.’ He continued, ‘Indians assume democracy should be without friction’ and as a result ‘national myths go unchallenged’ even in the face of glaring government blunders and policy failures. One of his main points is that students should develop their own vocabularies when discussing ideas they’re interested in. Mr. Shamar then connected this discussion back to education. Especially education curriculum such as that of The Modern Story’s social justice program around Hyderabad. He said that if students are going to learn about non-violence and change, they must be allowed to develop their own vocabulary that is new, fresh and entirely their own. This was a convenient suggestion because earlier in the day I had a talk with Mr. Prosenjit Ganguly, an inspirational and leading figure in India’s animation sector. He said, ‘Animation is a language. It is a language first voiced by Charlie Chaplin. Animation is slapstick movement.’ Children use it best. And so I began to see a connection between the importance of language in politics and the artistry of animation that provides youth with a language that is all their own. Animation is a language of movement and is so easy to relate to. Animation expands the imagination in an education system that is often about regurgitation. Animation is, at the end of the day, a language spoken so frequently in India from Tollywood to Tom & Jerry that it is accessible enough to express ideas with a necessary and sufficiently fresh vocabulary for social change. Mr. Shamar continued saying new vocabulary, when applied to political action, must be constantly reinvented for social change to be convincing. Otherwise the mythic ‘Tolerant Hindu’ will speak with complacency where change is due.

The Modern Story Fellowship affords countless opportunities in Hyderabad to participate in a national and often global debate about the intersection between education, politics and social change. I am happy to be here. I hope you enjoy the multi-media materials we have produced so far this year and those to come. Despite swine flu, school changes, Telangana riots and an unexpected extended holiday we are carrying on!

Dec, 3

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Classroom News, Daily Updates, TMS Fellow Updates, Videos

Leading up to the Social Justice Unit – Women Empowerment

As Fellows, we were recently given the exciting opportunity to read over The Modern Story’s Social Justice Curriculum. The Modern Story Social Justice Unit was created using resources from The Liberation Curriculum Initiative of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. We will begin implementing the curriculum soon. But before we begin, the girls wanted to do a video on issues they felt concerned them more immediately before expanding to broader issues of social justice and non-violence.  The issue at the top of the list is Women Empowerment. The best researched and presented film topic was done by Spandana who pitched many women-oriented ideas to the class.

When students at The Modern Story chose Women Issues as the subject for their first film, Vidya and I responded by selecting a clip discussing the subject, gathered student responses, and brought the students into conversation with the film. In this film clip Kavita Ramdas, head of the Global Fund for Women, is asked a couple questions related to the issues facing women today. Harini responds to the first question about why women issues should be discussed and Spandana lists one issue she thinks is facing women locally – dowry deaths.

We have begun contacting local leaders in the non-profit, social service and government sectors for ideas and potential interviews as we approach the time for implementing the Social Justice curriculum. Stay tuned.

As the girls look toward making their own videos we put together a short clip that encourages young girls to watch movies actively instead of passively by paying attention to moving images, still images, color, sound and camera angles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKcZvkfJBBk

Nov, 30

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Classroom News, Daily Updates, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

Technology and Education develop a student’s sense of the self

The Modern Story based in Hyderabad, India is about to kick off its digital story projects on film. Digital narratives at The Modern Story (TMS) integrate technology into the classroom by teaching creative expression alongside computer literacy skills. One documentary currently underway at The Modern Story is highlighting the railway community´s influence in Hyderabad. The documentary focuses on a lowly employee in an area called Lallaguda who never attended school and was never formally educated. His daughters are now proud graduates from the Railway school where The Modern Story is teaching. One is on her way to becoming a lawyer and the other is enjoying success in college.

Their successes bring to mind a lesson learned from last week’s class. We were critiquing clips on the new iMac that The Modern Story purchased for Railway. In the clip, which touched upon child labor, a boy being interviewed in the street says, ‘No. I want to work. School is useless.’ All the girls immediately laughed at the boy’s statement. They attend a government school which could use some improvement but is successful considering its public status. Yet, all of the girls immediately saw the boy’s statement for what it was: a lie. During moments like these, when the girls are using a new iMac to watch the lives of other children unfold sadly in the streets, I am reminded of the importance of technology in education but for a reason I hadn’t thought of before. When the girls laughed at that boy they participated in the invention of the ‘other,’ conferring upon themselves a certain distinction- They have a chance for a different life than their parents had. Remember, most of these girls are first generation learners! (not first generation college students but actually the first person to attend any formal schooling from their family.)  There has been much talk lately about the relationship between invention and technology in entrepreneurship. See below for information about the Ashoka conference that will be coming to Hyderabad February 9-14, 2010. However, as I walk past the ‘vocational training room’ at Railway which is full of dusty sewing machines and enter the ‘Digital Equalizer Lab’ where we teach I can’t help but wonder if the most important link between technology and invention for some communities is the invention of the ‘other,’ a traditionally negative process that in our context gives the girls a sense of urgency in their education – ‘We must succeed!’ could easily have replaced the laughter at the boy on the streets. With this invention of the ‘other’ emerges a positive element in an otherwise divisive notion of students differentiating themselves from children working on the street. They may be their parents’ sons and daughters but they are not their choices. In the beginning of the year I performed a piece of spoken word for the class, called ‘Knock Knock’ by Daniel Beatty where the poet closes with just those lines:

“Knock knock with the knowledge that yes we are our fathers sons and daughters but we are not their choices for despite their absences we are still here still alive still breathing with the power to change this world one little boy and girl at a time. Knock knock! Who’s there? WE ARE!”

With the introduction of technology comes the invention of the ‘other,’ and perhaps, as Paul Auster would continue, the invention of solitude. But these girls have provided a forceful lesson and put an interesting spin on an otherwise unfortunate division between themselves and their fellow citizens: ‘I am therefore I think!’ A lesson that highlights how easily the ‘social’ in social entrepreneurship can be formed or left in the street.

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public are hosting Tech 4 Society, a conference exploring technology, invention and social change, in Hyderabad, India, in February 2009. Find out more about the conference here. This blog post is an entry in their competition to find the official blogger to travel to and cover the event. Danny is a 2009/2010 Fellow with The Modern Story

Oct, 22

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Daily Updates, Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

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Challenges to creative writing curriculum in India: Individuality, Borges, and the crowds of the city

Above the boy’s beds made of steel is written “The greatest men have always stood alone.” The quote, for me, lends weight to the tension between individuality and the teeming 1billion plus Indians in the subcontinent’s often overcrowded cities.  ‘Individuality,’ in reference to our students and their education, is often at odds with the overpopulated city and the lack of funds to provide enough teachers for individual learning. This week taught me the challenges of implementing a curriculum teaching individual expression, creativity, and a sense of individual value in our students in Nalgonda. A.P.R.S. boys school is a Muslim boarding school. Although they are not necessarily minorities in all parts of Hyderabad, there is a rich record of complementary and antagonistic histories between the many religions living side by side in the country’s urban centers. Whether or not they would express it themselves, it seems to me that religion plays into a sense of pride in both their identity and interests. They are fascinated by the pyramids and mosques of Cairo, tigers, Arabic and Urdu calligraphy, riddles and religious songs from childhood. So far they have been doing great individual and creative stories while in class. For homework, however, almost all the students copied poems out of their English readers claiming that they had written the poems themselves. For example, one boy claimed he was the original author of ‘The Road Not Taken.’

Plagiarism is not always an un-creative act. Some philosophers, such as those Jorge Luis Borges would often quote, believed that anyone who writes a line of Shakespeare is Shakespeare. One of Borges’ most famous stories is that of a man who tried writing the next great Don Quixote. Realizing his pride, the man decided instead to live his every thought as though he were Miguel de Cervantes until, without glancing at the text, his life would lead him to write Don Quixote word-for-word, exactly as the original. In most contexts, such a conjecture would seem ridiculous. However, in the teeming crowds of Hyderabad, the individuality of one person or one student can often get lost in the shuffle of government education. Plagiarism can also lead a teacher to suspend their belief in a student’s creativity. But this is not so much of an alarm for our classes. Yes, it was not easy for the students to internalize an emphasis on individual work, original ideas and creativity. But they have shown excellent promise while working in class. As supported by the America India Foundation’s Digital Equalizer Program, we as Fellows recognize the importance of bridging the digital divide but also recognize a more pressing issue  at the local level of our schools; the value ascribed to individual expression, and perhaps in proportion, individual worth.

There are daily news reports that emphasize a reduced value of human life in such a highly populated country; on-going fatalities on the highways, railroads, oppressive pollution hanging as thick as moss in front of pre-schools, the suicides after the Chief Minister died and the list goes on and is normalized. Granted, this is an outsiders perspective. Yet, on our daily rides home through the congested and chaotic streets of Hyderabad, I am reminded of the social context pressing in on the classroom once the bell rings and the day is over. For teachers, we return to our apartment in Abids. But the boys return to their metal beds and their walls where it is written: “The greatest men have always stood alone.” Success, it seems, comes when one has the privilege to live in a house with your own room, to ride in your own air conditioned car, to have the personal space to breath unpolluted air: indeed, it does seem the greatest men here strive to stand alone. There is a health related aspect to self-isolation. No wonder so many students perceive their solitude profiled in the city’s skyline; privacy is at a premium in India. Those who can’t afford it continue in the rush of the alley traffic beneath the high rises. Perhaps like our students they are fascinated by tigers, pyramids, and constructions of the mind that lead one man to believe, as Borges often dreamed, that he is any other man. For now, our challenge is to channel their energy into completing the assignments faithfully and honestly, doing their own work and showcasing their incredible capacity for wonder.

–Danny Thiemann
2009/2010 Fellow

Oct, 10

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Reflections, The Modern Story Fellowship, TMS Fellow Updates

Gearing up for The Modern Story and settling in Hyderabad

Despite delays in our classes, the first week in Hyderabad was an exciting one. The kids that live in our apartment are full of questions about the U.S. and our work in India. They have taken me to play cricket, badminton and catch. Some hope to be professional sports players. Yet, they have few resources and little space to exercise. Pollution shallows both their lungs and the sentiments they may harbor within them. They are bright. Many are strong and have a quick wit. Unfortunately, their frustrations are inherent in the circumstances in which they live: air pollution, water-borne diseases, troubled schools, limited access to higher education, and a dearth of athletic or academic scholarships.

On Tuesday we visited the Railway Girls School. They were the first children I met outside of my neighborhood. A girl read her poem, ‘Onset of Night.’ Her writing was exceptional and I hope her work is published more extensively on-line so that others can see the benefits of The Modern Story. The work focused on the traffic of hands, feet, and crowds that flood the city. It was an excellent exercise in creative writing and personal reflection. I couldn’t help but admire how she related what chaotic rhythms of the city beat within her own heart. She is smart, as are her classmates. While most, it seems, have dreamed in proportion to the school’s successes, I was struck with how The Modern Story allowed her to dream in proportion to her reach toward the self.

This week of delay has also given me the opportunity to befriend men who have children in the government education system of Hyderabad. One man, a translator of Hindi, Urdu and Arabic, expressed that while the schools are not terrible there is movement without momentum in their education – the children move up a grade but few can build on that knowledge to graduate from university. I asked him what, when he was a child, he wanted to be when ‘he grew up.’ He didn’t answer. A man with broken glasses, he was accustomed to a world view that could not focus him in it.  His friends joked with me. They said that, as I prepare for a 5 month program in Hyderabad. I should also prepare for a city that swirls with, in the spirit of Fitzgerald, the ‘secret griefs of wild, unknown men.’

On Wednesday I got lost in one of Hyderabad’s poorest districts within the city limits, 3 km west of Osmani Hospital. My autorickshaw driver picked up two schoolboys and let them ride for free. We passed a man handcuffed and pressed up against the walls like worn graffiti. The two boys got out asking the man, who was apparently a relative or father, what was happening. The mix of police sirens and the call to prayer rose a familiar music above the city, in what felt like more of a call to discontent than to communion before dissipating among the crowds. The autorickshaw driver reminded me not to be too quick in punishing students for not doing their homework if they come from troubled neighborhoods such as this. We haven’t started teaching yet, and while I don’t think that the circumstances can make for a direct comparison, there is a lesson to be learned that the students’ home situation must be kept in mind, especially in a city like Hyderabad.

Yes, I do hope the students learn valuable practical skills. However, I am more keen on developing the students’ awareness of their capacity for expression. The final product is important. Yet, so are the impulses, energy and drive that the program develops. A city as chaotic as Hyderabad can narrate a false biography into a young man, leading him to mistake the limitations of the city for his own.  Sometimes, it can be tiring to live in such a crowded city center. Because of these circumstances, the most important lesson we might reinforce is a sense of individual worth, perhaps best summarized by T.E. Lawrence who once wrote “there are no great lessons for the world, no disclosures to shock its peoples, partly so that no man mistake for history the bones from which someday a man might make history.”

Sep, 14

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Pre-Departure, TMS Fellow Updates

, 

Hello

There is a salsa chip on my left shoulder. Someone put it there before the photograph.

This is me.

Hey, my name is Danny Thiemann. I am excited to be working with TMS. I’m posting a brief video introduction telling a little about myself. I’m from Cincinnati. After studying International Relations at New York University I worked a little for Dr. Luis Derbez, the Foreign Minister of Mexico. Our group put together a simultaneous Second-Life and real-time conference on public diplomacy in conjunction with CivWorld and the USC Annenberg School for Communication. Later work includes inter-faith dialogue programs with a group in Lebanon. While in South Lebanon we conducted interviews with members of Hezbollah and student activist groups. Our group there also did peace murals on the highways with local artists, conducted research related to building civil-society relations in areas of armed conflict, and ran art therapy classes with U.N.R.W.A. refugees. Ensuing programs included peace building initiatives in Israel with Peace Players International, story telling programs in Palestine, documentary work on prisoners and the accused in Brazil, and youth mentorship programs Harlem. I’ve shifted from an emphasis and interest in military affairs to youth education and story telling projects. Recent programming experience includes working for the Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas festival in New York City. Did bookings for them. Brought in Adam Matta, a beatboxing extraordinaire who has performed with the likes of Kenny Muhammed and The Human BeatBox Orchestra. Also helped to write letters of admission and visa invitations for Iranian Singer Parissa and other MidEast performers.

I have a grandfather who still lives in San Jose, Costa Rica. He is the bomb.com. I visit in the Summers when I’m not working. Play afro-cuban salsa for piano and lacrosse.

Have a good one,

Danny

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQH8f8zeB7s]

Sep, 13

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Pre-Departure, TMS Fellow Updates

Hello!

Hello! My name is Vidya and I will be joining The Modern Story Project as a Fellow in Hyderabad next month.  I can’t wait to meet all of the wonderful students at Vijayanagar Colony School and APRS. To those of you reading, I appreciate your allowing me to share this experience with you.

I grew up in Mobile – a city on the Gulf Coast bordered by Mississippi to the west and Florida to the south. The good news is that my upbringing in Alabama has prepared me well for Hyderabadi heat!  I have two sisters, and we remain close despite all moving out of state to attend universities scattered throughout the US. One sister is finishing up her medical residency in Philadelphia, while my oldest sister is expecting a baby boy any day now (I’ll meet my nephew a couple of weeks before I board my flight to Hyderabad).

Vidya

Vidya


After bravely weathering twelve months of summer for eighteen years, I fled to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island for college. There I experienced three more seasons of weather (Fall and spring were incredible. Winter I could do without).  While at Brown, I was a Development Studies major and began to develop an interest in education. Pursuant to this interest, I spent a summer in Mumbai working with an organization that promotes alternative models of learning for improving literacy.  Since graduating in 2007, I’ve worked at two different public health organizations in New York City and Boston. I’m constantly reminded of the connections between education and public health, and am interested in exploring these further while in India.       

While my mother grew up in Chennai, my father grew up around Hyderabad, making The Modern Story Project especially significant.  Growing up, the stories of my parents’ past seemed far away from our home in Alabama. As an Indian American, I was always fascinated by friends who grew up in the same city as their parents; unlike me, they intimately knew the buildings and roads where their parents were raised.  Although I know that the Hyderabad my father knew no longer exists, I am anxious to observe its changes, and contribute to closing the gap between Hi-Tech City and the rest of the region.      

My sisters and I (I'm in the middle)

My sisters and I (I'm in the middle)


I can’t wait to begin this project, and hope that you will continue to follow as we post updates!