teaching

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Learning with limited resources

Café Swotha near Patan Durbar Square, Nepal

I’ll never forget a meeting over tea in 2016 at Cafe Swotha near where we stayed in Patan. 

Collaborative Schools Network in Nepal (CSN) was just getting underway with a novel approach to improving the poorest schools. We’ve since tried to support CSN, mostly as cheerleaders on the side, but also through visits to CSN schools, video meetings, collaboration on writing, editing curricula, as well as donations. This year marked the tenth year of operation for CSN and our collaboration.

Collaborative Schools Network

CSN works through a unique partnership agreement with local government. It manages all the day-to-day operations. Local government pays for up to 50% of the costs. Two of the team are appointed as School Leaders, who work in each (primary level) school as full-time members of the staff. School Leaders teach, coach, and lead a school improvement plan alongside the existing teachers and school principal.

The plan has four priorities: improving the quality of teaching, management, community relations, and infrastructure. It achieves systemic, scalable, and sustainable change by working within the existing public education system, alongside government and at a low cost.

This year CSN managed nine schools – six in Kathmandu and three in Abu Khaireni, a rural town four hours drive from the capital.

Impact

I’ve attached the latest CSN Impact Report. It shows that CSN has provided high quality education to around 10,000 children. Students make progress at almost twice the rate of students in comparable public schools. The impact is especially noticeable among the weakest students. 

Projects like this give me hope in the darkest times.

CSN Impact Report 2024-25 FINALDownload
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My musical gifts: Opportunity, teachers, and incompetence

To say that someone has a musical gift, or is gifted, usually means that they have unusual talent or can perform beautifully for others. I mean something quite different here.

When I say “musical gift” in this and the next two posts, I mean a gift to me, one that enhances my enjoyment of music. I was granted these through no effort on my own––no long, arduous hours of practice.

Opportunities to learn

My dad at his piano store c. 1954

The first of the three gifts is opportunity. It came in multiple ways.

My father sold pianos through his store. We always had a piano in the house; it was part of the store’s inventory. If anyone wanted that model he could sell it as a lightly used piano. That meant that we might discover that our much loved mahogany spinet might be suddenly hauled away and replaced by a large black upright, or in later years by an electronic keyboard.

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Reconnecting with students

There were many special aspects for me of a recent trip to Taiwan, including the countryside, Taipei, interesting conferences on museums in everyday life and technology in education, university visits, wonderful food, and museums.

Alex at Wistaria Tea House (紫藤廬; Zǐténg Lú)

Alex at Wistaria Tea House (紫藤廬; Zǐténg Lú)

Several of my students from Taiwan now live in the US, Canada, and other places, but many have returned to Taiwan to work and live. Reconnecting with them was a special treat, especially since some had to travel a long distance to meet.

Alex and Shihkuan introduced Susan and me to Taipei, including the Wistaria (or Wisteria) Tea House. This is a Japanese-style wooden house built in the 1920s, which is named for three wisteria vines planted in the front courtyard. The house served as a residence for the Governor-General of Taiwan under Japanese rule prior to 1945. It became a teahouse and was known as a venue for political dissidents during the 1980s. It continues as a meeting place for literati, artists, and academics and was used for the filming of Eat Drink Man Woman.

Shihkuan, Alex

Shihkuan, Alex

We had a wonderful lunch there and enjoyed a Gongfu cha (“making tea with effort”) ceremony. I proved to be the clumsiest at pouring tea properly.

In the evenings, I was fortunate to have dinners in excellent Taiwanese restaurants with many former doctoral students.

Shihkuan, Ruey-chuan, Yuangshan, Hsiu-Hsiang

Shihkuan, Ruey-chuan, Yuangshan, Hsiu-Hsiang

Yu-Hua, Min-Ling, Shihkuan, Yulan

Yu-Hua, Min-Ling, Shihkuan, Yulan

Yuangshan & family

Yuangshan & family