change – Shilpa's

And I took that step at 50 years. When many are thinking about retirement, it is nothing short of crazy that I am starting a new career. After raising a family for 15 years, and spending countless hours volunteering at schools, when it was time to think about career part two, education seemed like a natural transition. However, wanting to be a teacher and actually teaching are two very different wants, and so started my journey as a para educator. After working for 5 years as a para educator, I learned how to communicate with students and gain the skills of one on one teaching. Then came the pandemic and while it created havoc for many families, it was also the much needed pause education industry needed. The dichotomy and deficits of the education policies came forward, EdTech took leaps of innovation, and as parents struggled to balance work and kids at home, for the first time in many decades teachers were at the center and their work was now meaningful. Somewhere in this pandemic, I also took a leap of faith and made the decision to apply for teaching role. I had genuinely thought, HR will come back and tell me the gaps in my resume and then I will need to build it up, but to my surprise, I was offered a role at my neighborhood high school.

I remember my first day in Jan 2022 – here I was hyper excited, but my enthusiasm was short lived because many in the department even before working with me, concluded, I can’t do this job. I genuinely thought of going back and spoke to the admin who interviewed me, a seasoned educator himself, he told me to take the day off ,and said, tomorrow will be a new day. I will always be grateful to him for this advise. I took this day off to find my village and after debating with myself, I emailed a veteran teacher at the school. Ms. A (now retired) responded, my door is open, come on in, and then there was Ms. P and Ms. K. The next day, I met my program specialist, Dr. H, and, so started the journey. I am forever grateful, and thankful to these two ladies, for showing me the way, how to write my IEPs, and reassuring me that I can do this. Along the way, I now have Ms. K next door, a fellow believer in Pronoia and it’s been the best few months. Ms. P and Ms. K were the lifelines of the classroom and together, we slowly started moving forward.

June 2024, I completed my second year of teaching at the high school and it is also the season of graduations. , I paid my dues, and after 2 years of college studies, with intern teaching, I officially turned the nay’s into yay’s and am now an Ed.Specialist. This journey has been very hard, very rewarding and I saw Pronoia in action. There were days when I was bone tired, mentally exhausted, and yet I managed to write the reports, complete CTC portfolios and more. The Universe kept me sane, and introduced me to people who shared the same values. I know I am blowing my own trumpet but I am so proud of myself, and happy with myself for not listening to the negatives and moving forward with the positives.

This journey would not have been possible, had it not been for the ASAP family… Together, you inspire more than you will ever know, and thank you for being patient with all those weeks when dinner was a takeout or a left over meal. Husband dear, your whistles reassure that this crazy roller coaster life will sort itself out. To my children – let this journey be a reminder that it is never too late to take a u -turn or walk a different path, especially if it feels right to you. I hope as you evaluate your career choices, you will continue to find opportunities that inspire you to get up everyday with a bounce in your step and a smile on your face. To my parents, I hope somewhere in this journey, you saw the values and the grit you instilled in me, and to all who said a no to me, I owe you a special thank you, because your no to me, helped me find the grit in me to move forward, so thank you!

In this journey, I have often stood on the side and made my notes .. Musings of an Educator… soon to come. Until then, stay well and stay you.

Very Happy for ME!

Parenting is an interesting journey. As a new parent we swear not to make the mistakes our parents made and then with every passing day, we become our parents. We revisit the unfulfilled ambitions and hope our kids will fulfill them one day. We start teaching them to see the dreams we have for them, and there is absolutely nothing wrong in it, if your child agrees with you, for the most part, they don’t. This disagreement is what keeps the circle of life going. Imagine if every generation was like the generation before, we would probably still rubbing rocks to create fire.

This past weekend, November 6th, I saw the much talked about movie “Most Likely to Succeed.” This movie is a dauntless allegation proclaiming the failure of the education system. It is a wake up call to parents and schools for demanding change. Through interviews and perspectives of educators, innovators and the change guru’s it proves its point – the education system is failing and does not prepare our kids for the future that lies ahead of them.

Over the years as a parent, my observation has been that the education industry is the only industry in the world that makes sweeping changing in policies, its product and or process with absolutely no input from its final consumer base – the students. If the question to a student were, “would you like to present your knowledge or test it?” What do you think will the majority answer be? I will be very surprised and in some ways intrigued if the majority students come back saying, “test it.” The movie attempts to answer this question. Ted Dintersmith and Greg Whitely present historical data and follow the modern HighTech High School in San Diego, CA to understand this alternative approach to teaching where the traditional textbooks are chugged for project-based learning. The teachers of the school acknowledge that while the kids who go to High Tech High, may miss out on the breadth of topics learnt, they are definitely getting a better depth of knowledge and in addition they learn the soft skills of communicating, leadership and learning to fail while not giving up being one of the most important ones.

For me personally, the highlight of the movie was the split second shot of the student Brian smiling at the end of the movie. The movie showed us a very powerful image – Brian and his team were not able to complete the project assigned. They missed the deadline and yet the teachers acknowledge his vision, they give the student time to contemplate and understand that having a vision and implementation in a team setting requires grit and tenacity. The student had nothing to show and yet he was not penalized, he was given time to continue and succeed. This is a life skill that can only be learnt by experience.

The current education system lacks this very important concept – kids need room to fail and then they need tons of patience from their mentors to help them succeed. When everything from class participation to quizzes and tests are graded, there is no room to fail. One bad test grade and their grade for the quarter is ruined. How can that be right?

The opponents might argue that grades are what the colleges need. I agree, grades are needed and as long as there is demand from colleges for the GPA’s and grades, the system cannot change. This was a missing element in the movie. There was no feedback from the college admission personnel. Are they willing to chug the grades and base the selection process solely on interviews. Today, college application process is million-dollar industry. Parents are paying insane amounts to counselors so they can fine-tune the essays. The applications are engineered for success and thus killing the free spirit or creativity again.

Some movements can start at the grass roots while some start from the top; the change in education has to come from the universities. The universities have to step up and say, we don’t need GPA’s; we need students who can lead, who can communicate across personalities and nationalities. These are attributes that can only be seen and experienced.

124 years ago the Erudite designed the education system, hoping to create a world filled Candors, Amity and Abnegation. Together, the intelligent, honest, selfless and peace loving humans created a Divergent world. A world that is connected by invisible bridges. Bridges that connect many clouds of information. The student of today needs to know how to walk these bridges, gather information and bring it down to planet earth and create a better environment for all.

To serve the needs of this Divergent world, the education industry needs to break out of its allegiant model and evolve.

Tag: change

Pronoia!

Divergent Education