November 8, 2016 by chipbruce

The kindness of strangers

Children in my neighborhood

Susan and I met a Belgian couple in Patan. They were on their honeymoon on the way to Bhutan, because it was the happy country. When I told this story to Raj, a Nepali friend, he said that people here were not always happy, but that they were kind.

Panipuri maker

Setting aside the fact that no single label can apply to everyone in a nation, I’d have to agree that I see endless examples of Nepali kindness.

I was waiting for a small van to pick me up to go to King’s College this morning. The driver was a bit late and called to say that he would arrive in 15 or 30 minutes.

The eventual explanation was that when he picked up another passenger before me, they saw a blind woman in the neighborhood. They offered her a ride, which delayed things a little. Small acts like that happen all the time without question.

Progressive Education workshop at King’s College

By the way, I got to meet the woman and to watch her set out along the streets. Never again can I complain about the difficult urban walking here.

There are many such examples:

Children in my neighborhood invite me to join their games, despite the fact that I seem to be consistently inept.
I stopped in a bakery to buy bread and to ask whether they had a small coffee press. They didn’t. As I was walking away the clerk in the bakery came running after me. She suggested that the tea store across Lazimpat Road might have one (which turned out to be correct). I must have groaned at the continual but chaotic stream of traffic. So, she offered to walk me across the street. A bit shamed by that, I managed to brave the traffic, and made it across and back without incident.
Tihar preparations

Police and soldiers, even those assigned to maintain order for the Indian President’s visit, always seem ready to offer directions when I get lost, and even to lead me part way.
When I stopped to watch the making of panipuri, a man spoke to me and patiently explained what was in it, how much it cost, and how to eat it.
Climb to the temple in Bandipur

Participants in the Progressive Education workshop automatically take on helper roles with me and each other. In other situations, I’ve had to spend time with awkward requests like “does anyone know where we could get some paper and scissors for this activity?” or “could you help out this other group or individual who is having difficulty?” Here, I see the help before I’ve even fully recognized the need.
When early on I went for a walk to get groceries, I heard some music and stopped to look. I was invited in to join a Rotaract Club of Pashupati-KTM Tihar celebration. This included dancing with them, which I attempted in my clumsy way. I wonder whether it will be on their FB page.
I also see Nepalis helping one another. At one time, this is to negotiate impossibly narrow streets. At another, it’s a 10 year old boy carrying his 3 year old sister.

Experiences like these are difficult to capture in words or images. They lead to a feeling, one of trust that the fellow humans around are eager to help when they can in spite of difficult material circumstances.

November 6, 2016 by chipbruce

John Dewey in Nepal

Singing in multiple languages

If John Dewey were to return to visit US schools of today, he would surely be impressed with the buildings, AC, and new technologies. But he’d likely be disappointed to see that these modern affordances aren’t always used to enrich education as he envisaged. In fact, they often serve to reinforce the separation of schools from the life of the community and divorce children’s learning from the concrete reality of their own experiences.

Diorama with sand filter for rainwater tank

However, he might have a better experience at his eponymous school in Baluwater, Kathmandu. The principal and the teachers at the John Dewey School would be quick to tell you they have much to learn, but that desire to learn is part of what makes them an inspiring example.

Music and art are infused throughout the curriculum. For example, grade 5 students are learning Spanish. Encouraged to take charge of their own learning, they use computers to select and play Spanish songs, then choreograph dances for those.

Students work with an organic garden and a compost bin. They learn to recycle, which is not so common in Nepal, and extend that to their homes in the community.

I was able to see a grade 4 math class and to play magic squares with the students. Grade 1 students taught me a Nepali song and I shared Skitter-a-dink. Everywhere I saw examples of student work–drawings, writing, and more. They were learning with their hands as well as their heads.

Principal as instructional leader

Some students had made a diorama of a neighborhood area, complete with a huge rain barrel and the sand filters that are used with them. Other students had gone on learning walks a la Célestin Freinet and then had mapped the community. This suggests a possible collaboration with Kathmandu Living Labs.

Active learners

It would be easy to quibble: The school is private and available to only a few; its model is far from common; its activities are often quite conventional. But what i saw in the first of several planned visits is a school that I would have been glad to attend or to send my children to, and one that sees growth as the goal, not conformity, both for the children and for the school itself.

Some activities:

Discussion of US Presidential election

Learning Spanish through dance

Facilties:

Davanagari

Classroom library

November 6, 2016 by chipbruce

Schools for today

Learning Spanish through dance

Some people in the US judge the success of their local school by its performance on standardized tests, innovation by the incorporation of sophisticated electronic devices, and curriculum by the latest clever acronym.

Schools seek to meet high standards, which actually consign a large percentage of schools, teachers, and students to the category of “failing.” Even “successful” schools look more like efficient factories to produce high scores on the way to preparation for college and career. The school is separated from community life, and often from music, art, and play. Compliance and conformity often win out over creativity and critical thinking.

The vision of early 20th century progressives of the school as the social center of the community, students as critical, socially-engaged thinkers who are capable of shaping a just and equitable society, and learning as a means to nurture good and purpose-filled lives, is often lost.

Education in Nepal faces even more problems. For some the issue is whether they have a school at all or a teacher. Books, computers, and electricity are often lacking. Even private schools are under-resourced by US standards. Yet in my short time here I’ve seen numerous examples of creative approaches to teaching and learning that build on that progressive vision, and resist the factory model.

In my next few posts I’ll share some of these Nepali examples. None are perfect (as if that were a sensible goal), and none fully challenge today’s dominant education paradigm. However, they do show how vision, dialogue, and experimentalism can make progress, even when operating within enormous constraints.

[cross-posted on Progressive Educators Network Nepal]

November 3, 2016 by chipbruce

Views of Lazimpat

Views of Lazimpat, Kathmandu from the rooftop terrace of the apartments I’m staying in. Note the mountains, which are unusually clear, probably due to the slowdown of traffic following Tihar and the visit of Indian President Pranab Mukherjee with his Nepali counterpart, President Bidya Devi Bhandari, at the Sheetal Niwas (~White House).

You can see a little of the mix of urban and rural. However to fully appreciate that you need to walk the streets and back alleys.

Kathmandu city itself has about a million inhabitants, but the district and the valley hold several times that many. It’s an interesting mix of megacity (traffic, pollution, crowds) with country (dirt roads, poultry, open air living). I was awakened by roosters and a cat fight outside my window this morning. One can see cows lying in the middle of the densely traveled Ring Road.

In and around the Lazimpat Apartments.

Attached garden 1

Attached garden 2

Front gate

Tihar preparations.

Some of the many thangkas on display.

Neighborhood shots.

UL approved?

Poinsettia

November 2, 2016 by chipbruce

My stay in Lazimpat, Kathmandu

Welcoming elephant

Those of us in the US could learn from Nepalis (and others, as well) about hospitality. Despite having far less in material resources, my host country for a seven week stay has been uniformly friendly, helpful, and generous.

I’ve seen this at the institutional level (King’s College has supplied me with an overly large and nice apartment in a convenient and pleasant area), among friends and colleagues, in shops or touristy places, and among people I meet on the street. Even the towel in my apartment is welcoming.

Lazimpat Apartment, lit for the third day of Tihar

When I went for my first walk from the apartment, I heard some music and stopped to look. I was invited in to join the Rotaract Club of Pashupati-KTM, in their Tihar celebration. They asked me to dance with them, which I did in my clumsy way. Will that appear on their FB page?

This was an experience that can’t be captured in words or video, but confirmed my sense of being welcomed. There were many smiles and a lot of interest in who I was, but no pressure to explain myself or to interact in any way that didn’t feel comfortable.

Rangoli for Tihar

I’ve regularly been invited to join family gatherings, garland making sessions, or just to chat. One Tihar party even came to me, just outside my window. You can hear a snipper of that one here: Tihar party in the garden

There is a new manager of Lazimpat Apartment, who started the day I arrived. He wants to make the otherwise international style apartment look more Nepali. He’s placing Thangkas in every sitting room. These are Tibetan Buddhist paintings, in this case, on cotton. They usually depict a deity, scene, or mandala. You can see below, some not-so-good photos of those in my apartment.

October 31, 2016 by chipbruce

Jasna, Susan, and Nama

Jasna, Susan, and Nama outside a Chinese restaurant in Lazimpat, Kathmandu

October 31, 2016 by chipbruce

Bring on the flood

Imja Tsho

Today’s BBC News reports on an important development in Nepal, one which should be a warning to us all (Nepal drains dangerous Everest lake).

Nepal’s army has just completed lowering Lake Imja by 10 ft. This is because it was in danger of flooding downstream settlements with over 50,000 people.

Lake Imja, near Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) at 16,400 ft altitude, is one of thousands of such glacial lakes in the Himalayas. Many of the lakes are filling fast because of accelerated melting of glaciers due to rising temperatures.

The Himalaya region has been described as the third pole of the earth. It is melting, just as the Arctic and Antarctic are.

Lake Imja is a good example of that melting. It is a new lake, composed of glacial meltwater blocked by a terminal moraine. In 1962, it was 7.5 acres, and is now over 260.

I can only guess at the enormous cost of the six-month project, not just in dollars, but in terms of using up limited Nepali resources. It has been necessary to save lives, but sherpas in the region say there are many more lakes that endanger communities.

October 26, 2016 by chipbruce

High above the Trishuli Nadi

flower When Shiva had been walking for a long time in the mountains north of the Kathmandu Valley, he grew thirsty, but there was no water to be found. Angry at that, he drove his trishula, or trident, into the ground to create three springs, which in turn created a river.

Some say that the Trishuli begins with snow melt in the Langtang Himal. Other accounts, such as Wikipedia, say that the Trishuli River arises in Tibet, where it’s called Kirong Tsangpo.

In any case, Shiva’s river, the Trishuli, later joins the Bhote Kohsi that flows from Tibet and becomes a spectacular mountain river, with exciting rapids and impressive gorges. It is no surprise that it’s Nepal’s most popular rafting river. It looks like large parts of it could be canoed as well.

The Trishuli flows through mostly Buddhist regions then into Hindu areas. It is one of the major tributaries of the Narayani River, which eventually goes into India to join the Ganges.

At this moment, I’m sitting on a veranda looking out at a series of hills that we would call mountains in New England. The view is partially obscured by a profusion of bougainvillea, poinsettia trees, palms, and many tropical plants I can’t identify, Workers at this guest house where we are staying have to keep cutting back the gorgeous greenery that people in Massachusetts would struggle to nurture as tiny house plants.

Yes, the economic conditions are bad, the roads are full of surprises, the electricity is whimsical, and the effects of the 2015 quake are still felt, but all the people we meet are warm and generous. They use their adequate English to help me learn a few words of Nepali.

Locals directed us to a walk one way to see the hilltop village of Nuwakot with its durbar, or palace, square, now being restored; another to make a circuit of the hill behind with spectacular views; another to explore the farm with its geese, turkeys, donkeys, goats, and naturally organic vegetables.

But this evening seems like a time to stay on the veranda and take in the mountain air and the beautiful sunset silhouetting the hills.

October 21, 2016 by chipbruce

New beginnings in Nepal

Inaugural meeting at Hotel Vajra, Kathmandu

The list of remarkable things about Nepal is remarkably long.

You could start with the physical: It has 8 of the 10 highest mountains in the world with elevations ranging from 66 meters to 8,848 meters above sea level. It is a biodiversity hotspot deriving from the multiple ecoregions–arctic to tropical, including mountains, hills, and savannas. There is a corresponding diversity of flora and fauna, with gorgeous butterflies and birds. There are many cultural groups and over 125 languages spoken. The architecture, the food, the music, the arts, the history, the religions, and more are fascinating. The traffic in Kathmandu is a story in itself.

However, I experienced something perhaps even more remarkable. I was fortunate to be included in a group of young Nepalis who hope to build a movement to make education in Nepal more progressive, specifically to make it more relevant to people’s lives, more connected to community, and more supportive of inquiry that leads to sustained learning and creativity.

The group has the tentative name of Progressive Educators of Nepal Network (PENN). We met last Tuesday for early morning breakfast at Hotel Vajra in Kathmandu.

King;s College events — King’s College events

Those present represented four organizations. Shisir Khanal and Swastika Shrestha came from Teach for Nepal. Like Teach for America and similar organizations, TFN engages university graduates and young professionals who are committed to reduce education inequality. They emphasize community-based education, teaching in rural, public schools. Fellows work for two years, typically living in a community and staying in a home there.

Umes Shrestha and Narottam Aryal came from King’s College, a new college whose objective is making world-class education available to Nepali youths at home at an affordable cost. King’s College seeks to make its teaching more relevant for students and more inquiry-based.

Karkhana, meaning “factory,” is a company emphasizing experimentation, collaboration, and play for both makers and teachers. It started as a Saturday morning hacker hang-out and evolved into an innovation focused company that combines education and design of new products. See for example, the recent Kathmandu Mini Maker Faire. Pauvita Gautram represented Karkhana and its inquiry-based learning approach.

Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL) is a not-for-profit civic technology company. It has been mapping all the educational institutions, health facilities, road networks, tangled mesh of gallies, religious sites and other geographic features of Kathmandu Valley using OpenStreetMap. Secondary and college-level students participate through mapping workshops. Nama Budhathoki represented KLL and its effort to extend youth mapping work to education for full civic engagement. See KLL goal statement.

In November, this network of people, organizations, and interests will host a month long project to foster the development of educators who can become leaders in community–based education. I’ll lead initial workshops on progressive education, inquiry-based learning, and community inquiry. We’ll also travel to village sites to explore community-based education, then bring those experiences back to Kathmandu for a national meeting.

The work of this group can be important for Nepal, while also serving as a model for others. More to come on this exciting project.

October 4, 2016 by chipbruce

Time travel in west Texas

Sunrise out of the cabin

Ever since reading The Time Machine as a teenager, I, like most people, have wondered about time travel. And despite annoying naysaying from logicians and physicists, it still seems like an intriguing idea.

Wolf spider

Susan and I just spent a week in far west Texas, where we experienced something like time travel. We stayed in a cabin in a caldera near Fort Davis. Other than a barbed wire fence, a single electric line, and a narrow, rutted dirt road there were no signs of human habitation––no other buildings, no cell service, no flights overhead.

An astute rancher might have pointed out that the male cattle were steers, not bulls, and that the cattle and many turkeys around were probably being raised for market. Closer inspection would reveal that there were some planted trees, both for shade and for pecans, but on the whole the impression was of desert isolation.

In this land the people are hard to find, but we could see yucca, sotol, ocotillo, prickly pear, sagebrush, mesquite, live oak, and uncountable wildflowers. We saw buzzards, mockingbirds, huge spiders, whitetail and mule deer. These living friends were framed by gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, and unbelievable cloud formations.

1854 Fort Davis (reconstructed)

This all made me think of my early days in Fort Worth. We lived then in the new suburbs on the edge of ranchland. In our childhood explorations we could find tarantulas and horned toads, tumbleweeds and cockleburs, scorpions and butterflies. The land seemed to stretch forever into remoteness and romance. When we looked up we could see the Milky Way and thousands of stars.

Fort Davis felt like that Fort Worth of long ago. The contentious Presidential race was irrelevant. The old cashier at the local market wanted to share interesting stories rather than to ring up grocery items. The buildings and houses looked like stage props for an old Western, until you realized that they were still in use, probably by the same family that settled here a century or two ago.

Rhyolite porphyry in fantastic shapes from volcanoes 35 million years ago

Fort Davis itself lies at the base of a rhyolite cliff, the south side of the caldera, or box canyon, that held our cabin. With just a few steps we could reach the path to climb the cliff shown above. Without realizing it, we zoomed even further back in time, to an era of intense volcanic activity, which created the Davis Mountains. The rhyolite columns, tuff and pumice, volcanic peaks and domes, took us entirely away from the human world.

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the UT McDonald Observatory (from mcdonaldobservatory.org)

But not long after that we learned what time travel could really be. We went to the nearby University of Texas McDonald Observatory, which takes advantage of the clear mountain air.

Among many projects at McDonald is the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). This seeks to uncover the secrets of dark energy, using the large Hobby-Eberly Telescope and to survey the sky 10x faster than other facilities can do. It will eventually create the largest map of the Universe ever, with over a million galaxies. In doing so, HETDEX will look back in time 10 billion years.

If there is anything more amazing than the mind-stretching that Fort Davis does, it is that the area is so little visited. In addition to the sites mentioned above, there is a state park with numerous hiking trails, the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens, interesting towns such as Alpine and Marfa, and the world’s largest spring-fed swimming pool, under the trees at Balmorhea State Park, which takes one back to the wonderful CCC projects of the 1930s.