Sagun, an 11th grader at Taktse International School, explained to us that when she returns home to her family during holidays, people have started telling her she is rude when she speaks up or asks a question or joins an adult conversation, all things that she has learned to do and are highly valued at Taktse International School.
The students here are being taught a way of growing up that involves initiative, assertiveness and the questioning of authority. At Taktse School it is alright to correct your teacher if you think they have said something wrong, you are expected to voice your opinion and to ask to change rules if you feel they are unfair. Action is the mode of learning, trying things and reflecting on the success or failure of what you tried is the methodology used to teach. The students are chastised for being quiet in class and there is no corporal punishment to keep the students in line.
Contrast that with something one of the parents in the school shared with me. He told me that he was taught to learn through quiet observation. No questions asked, watch your teacher, listen carefully, then you know how to do it yourself. The culture here seems to be one of observation, of sitting quietly and serenely, content to have no activity of the body, but perhaps great activity in the mind. There are many people of few words here, I imagine it is hard for them to be involved in a place that is so verbal and interactive at the core.
This all leads me to wonder about the choice to teach the students at Taktse a western, American way of learning. Where will that get them? Does it mean they outgrow their own culture? Are European and American schools their only option? What right do we at Taktse have to say that this way of learning -- through questioning and action and shared reflection -- is the best way to learn? There is a teacher here very interested in post-colonialism and the longterm impact of an imperial society that is supposed to live only in the past. Does Sagun have to give up her family culture to adopt the Taktse way? Is there a way to integrate the two? How does she avoid upsetting her family and still live as the person Taktse has encouraged her to be, the person she wants to be?
Students who transferred to Taktse have terrible stories of beatings for ridiculous infractions; they convey their own fear and loathing that built over time from that type of punishment. At Taktse there are no beatings. I can easily live with that different approach to discipline, but I struggle to fully believe that teaching students outside their way, when many of them will stay nearby and live within this culture, is the best thing to do for them.
The students here are being taught a way of growing up that involves initiative, assertiveness and the questioning of authority. At Taktse School it is alright to correct your teacher if you think they have said something wrong, you are expected to voice your opinion and to ask to change rules if you feel they are unfair. Action is the mode of learning, trying things and reflecting on the success or failure of what you tried is the methodology used to teach. The students are chastised for being quiet in class and there is no corporal punishment to keep the students in line.
Contrast that with something one of the parents in the school shared with me. He told me that he was taught to learn through quiet observation. No questions asked, watch your teacher, listen carefully, then you know how to do it yourself. The culture here seems to be one of observation, of sitting quietly and serenely, content to have no activity of the body, but perhaps great activity in the mind. There are many people of few words here, I imagine it is hard for them to be involved in a place that is so verbal and interactive at the core.
This all leads me to wonder about the choice to teach the students at Taktse a western, American way of learning. Where will that get them? Does it mean they outgrow their own culture? Are European and American schools their only option? What right do we at Taktse have to say that this way of learning -- through questioning and action and shared reflection -- is the best way to learn? There is a teacher here very interested in post-colonialism and the longterm impact of an imperial society that is supposed to live only in the past. Does Sagun have to give up her family culture to adopt the Taktse way? Is there a way to integrate the two? How does she avoid upsetting her family and still live as the person Taktse has encouraged her to be, the person she wants to be?
Students who transferred to Taktse have terrible stories of beatings for ridiculous infractions; they convey their own fear and loathing that built over time from that type of punishment. At Taktse there are no beatings. I can easily live with that different approach to discipline, but I struggle to fully believe that teaching students outside their way, when many of them will stay nearby and live within this culture, is the best thing to do for them.
