APV CHILDREN TRAIN TEACHERS

Our children have proved to be great myth breakers. They've proved that children can be as good or even better trainers than adults. They are training not only children from Uttarkashi and Gairsain but even Govt. school teachers.

SBMA-PLAN's "Model schools" programme proved to be a great opportunity for APV to prove that if we really want to create a better world through meaningful education, children need to be enabled and allowed to do so. Existing teachers need to be bypassed or kept on the periphery, so that children have the space to spread the light of genuine knowledge. Of course, really great teachers (like Vimla from Chinwa, Uttarkashi) need to be identified and encouraged. It's also important to keep the teachers involved and pleased in such a way that they are incapable of hampering the process of real training conducted by children.

The ashram lifestyle is rigorous. Days are packed with activity, starting very early, for some three in the morning, and ending late, for some eleven at night (see schedule below). All of the teachers contribute to the activities of the ashram, from chopping vegetables to chopping wood, building rock walls to cleaning toilets. This is on top of preparing for school and teaching six days a week, five to six hours a day. (See Shanti's schedule below to gather an idea of a typical school day) On their day off from school, the teachers spend the majority of the day working with their hands, farming, collecting wood from the forest, building stone walls for terraced farmland, etc., sometimes lasting up to twelve hours. The teachers use the remainder of the time to catch up on personal chores of washing clothes, tidying up room, etc., to play music, read, and write.

VISITORS

Heritage School Teachers visited APV in June and interacted with children and teachers for about 3 hours. Heritage teachers said "we too have a good philosophy and good ways of teaching but it's all forced on us ....... We are not free to explore things in our own ways". They were amazed by the fact that most of the innovative teaching techniques of APV were born through teachers' own explorations with the children.

Eight Students form Cambridge University (U.K) visited APV in September to conduct a 2 day drama-workshop for children. They were great singers and actors. We were surprised to learn that the innovative techniques of teaching that we use at APV are nowhere to be found in the best schools of UK !

FUND RAISING FOR APV Chad Robertson and Marc Alongy, who have become one with APV community, are currently exploring ways of generating funds from the right sources. Chad has made a film on APV which has already moved the hearts of several aware people/ communities in the US. Marc visited APV in July this year. He had been  saving as much  money as possible  from his salary for APV. Before he left in the beginning of August he bought three brand new computers for us. APV is proud of having friends like Chad and Marc who are revolutionaries in the deepest sense of the word. We can't improve the current human condition by providing food-clothes-shelter-entertainment and bookish education. What we need is a way of awakening the mind of people, especially the mind of children, so that they have an alert, aware, creative mind with 15 billion cells of the brain forming a healthy neural web.

APV CHILDREN AND THE OUTSIDE WORLD From the very beginning of APV experiment about five years ago our critics have been asking us. Y ou may be doing excellent education but how will these children be able to pass exams and compete with the outside world?

The answer came last month. Our children who passed 8 th grade from APV and are now in Anjanisain Govt. Inter college, wrote their first govt. exam for the 9 th grade. All of our APV children passed the exam and the child who came first was our Arun Kothari (ex. APV student). The student who came second in the class was more than 60 marks behind Arun!

Another great news came just three days ago. From the entire Jakhanidhar block only five students passed the scholarship examination which was held a few months ago and our the then 8 th graders had appeared in it. The two students in the higher marks range are both from APV- Arun Kothari and Deepali Bijlwan!

This news has silenced out critics. Of course, we don't believe in competition; we believe in excellence which means to keep on unfolding one's inherent potential irrespective of what the world expects. Some parents have begun to approach us with the request that APV should start NOS programme so that our 8 th graders continue studying in APV for the 10 th and possibly 12th grades.