Thursday, March 08, 2007

Teaching bug

My teaching bug got the better of me today when I spent 6 hours teaching till i finally hoarse and could not talk anymore . I taught 3rd , 5th grade kids and engineering sophomores all in the same day and answered questions ranging from whether there is electricity in india to wrong transistor connections on a microcontroller circuit board .

You might wonder as to what it is that I am talking about ..well here is the deal ..I volunteer with the minnesota international center as a result of which I got to talk to 3 and 5 grade students about how life for a kid their age in india is ...I got to hip hop dance with those kids and teach them how to do a few bharatnatyam steps in return..and boy were those kids curious ..they had questions ranging from does it snow in india ...do they tie ppl with a rope when they get married ..(they were refer to the mangalsutra ..) ...do kids in india like watching tv,what about video games ..do they have video games , are roads of india made of clay ? how many gods do they have ..are shops in india really small , what jobs do they do ..do they have ramen noodles for lunch ..how much is one dollar in india ruppees , do they still have kings in india ...so on and so forth ...

By the time I had finished giving my fouth presentation , my voice was hoarse but all of it was washed away when I saw the smile on the kids and their eagerness to meet some one new ..it could not have been more rewarding ...

and then I was back with my sophomores trying to debug their circuits , though the ignorance of a child is not there , the gratitude and respect remains ..you may not be able to answer all their questions but the fact that you took the pains for being there for them itself is enough for them ..

getting knowledge is quite a rewarding experience but there is nothing like being able to share it others ...

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