| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 06-Aug-02 12:00 AM
Hi Where,
[Sorry that the other thread "best school in Kathmandu" took forever to download.
This is a resposne to your query. Hope this helps]
You say that you will be in Kathmandu for only a year.
That's a pretty short amount of time.
That being the case, if I were you (and no, I am neither married nor do I have kids :-)!),
I wouldn't waste my time trying out for admissions -- in the middle of the year -- at so-called best schools such as STX, SMS, Rato Bangala, Budhanilkantha and so on.
For only a year, have you considered -- quite radically -- 'home schooling' your kids in Kathmandu?
Here's how such an idea might work . . . for a year.
Home schooling is getting very popular in the US, and these days top colleges and universities in the US ROUTINELY accept students who have never been to a proper high school but have been educated only in their homes by their parents or by their community members.
[Do a search on google re: the home schooling movement]
You can talk to an educationist or two there in the US, and use his/her help in designing a year-long home-based curriculum for your kids.
Such a curriculum would emphasize writing, mathematical, artistic, decision-making and leadership skills -- skills that will only help the kids all the more. The educationist can help you come up with "assessment" criteria, to check whether, by the end of the year, your kids have picked up the skills or not.
In Kathmandu, you can always hire good tutors on a part-time basis and have them teach English, mathematics, art and so on to your kids. Taking initiatives, you can
spend your week-ends here, visiting the museums, art galleries, and by attending
various happenings in town here -- enriching your kids' social and cultural experiences
all the more. Plus, you can take your kids to places that are near Kathmandu on some week-ends on hiking/camping trips and so on and on.
Believe me, contrary to popular beliefm there's a lot to do in Kathmandu -- for a year anyway, and I would urge you to take advantage of many of the informally academic stuff that Kathmandu offers.
And so, do think twice before you, yes, 'imprison' your curious, lively, questioning
and full-of-fun kids in some name-brand school, where they'll struggle for half the time just getting adjusted, and by the time they get adjusted, it'd be time to leave!!
Like I said, if I were in your shoes, for a year, in Kathmandu, I would definitely 'home school' my kids. Makes the learning all the more fun and challenging, not to mention,
the strengthening of the bond between parents and the kids.
Then again, I am single. :-)
Oh, don't forget to do a search on google re: the home schooling movement.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 06-Aug-02 07:55 AM
Given the frequent chaos in our acadamic sector these days, homeschooling sounds
good to me even for other people.
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| sally |
Posted
on 06-Aug-02 09:23 AM
It's interesting that Ashu brought this up. I've often thought that I should be prepared to homeschool for at least a short time if we end up going back to Nepal, at least while we figure out the school question!
Homeschooling can certainly be terrific. (Just check out the test scores of homeschooled kids vs. their school-going peers.) My son is good friends with a couple of homeschooled kids. They're smart, polite, well-adjusted, and spend their "school days"--as Ashu suggested--at museums, the zoo, and doing home-based projects. They also participate in a lot of activities that school-going kids would call extracurricular, so they're not short-changed in socialization.
However, homeschooling is also very, very demanding. It means that one of the spouses has to stay at home--a big financial sacrifice--and has to be fully committed to the project, which presupposes a certain personality and inclinations. Most successful homeschoolers seem to have several closely spaced siblings, as well. It could get pretty lonely with only one kid.
Homeschooling in Kathmandu could also mean that the child/ren lose out on getting to know Nepali kids unless the parent is particularly resourceful, or has a lot of relatives or friends there. On the other hand, they'd probably learn a lot more about the city and its culture than school-going kids--and so would the parent doing the homeschooling!
If the poster is only in KTM for a year, probably they've got a school back home that they'll want their kids to be keeping up with, so rather than going to a lot of trouble consulting "educationists" to devise a unique program, they might just want to check out what the classes their kids would normally be in are doing. It should be pretty easy to keep up communication by Internet, in fact. They could write their class "letters from Nepal" that could be integrated into the US teacher's Social Studies curriculum, and gain computer skills by maintaing a Web page on Nepal for their school mates. All kinds of neat ideas come up, if the parent is so inclined.
Incidentally, if homeschooling seems too intimidating, all of the expat schools (Lincoln, British Primary) are accustomed to accepting short-term kids. But they're very expensive, and of course the experience would be very different.
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| Nams |
Posted
on 06-Aug-02 09:39 AM
It would be good if WHERE home schooled her kids becasue it's just for a year. But for the kids in US i don't think home schooling is good because they will not have the circle of friends which other kids will have. There will be aloof and anti-social. I think kids learn better when they are around people of their own age. I don't understand why people prefer homeschool when initally they have to sent their kids to college. For those kids, it will be hard to adjust in college as everything will be new. I think going to school is a way of knowing and co-operating with people besides in the real world more emphasis is given to group work....don't u think?
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| sally |
Posted
on 06-Aug-02 10:05 AM
Nams, I used to think the same way about homeschooling before I researched it. Actually, the kids don't tend to be anti-social--partly because most homeschoolers do in fact participate in groups with other homeschoolers (such as field trips and joint science lessons) and make a big effort not to isolate their kids. The fact that my non-homeschooled kid is friends with two homeschoolers is a case in point.
I agree that in the US, the choice is debatable. I could see making it under certain circumstances (if I lived in a bad school district, for instance) but certainly the socialization question is key.
Anyway, people have lots of reasons for their choices. There are two major homeschooling contingents: the free thinkers who think schools are too structured, and the religious fundamentalists who think schools are too UNstructured. Both tend to agree that kids learn negative values in American schools--like materialism and cruelty to others--and I think they've got a point, although I wouldn't make the choice they've made as a reaction to it.
Still, the kids tend to turn out fine. Its counterintuitive, maybe, but that's what the research shows.
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| Suna |
Posted
on 06-Aug-02 11:16 AM
Sally
I think you hit the nail on the head - being able to afford to homeschool your kids.
In the context of the US: A spouse is going to have to give up on one income to be able to homeschool. How many can actually afford this? Well maybe a family with many children whose schooling or preschooling or daycare will sum up to be more than the income of one person, then maybe its a good idea economically.
If we're talking about Nepal then here is a live example. A friend of mine went back to Nepal and they were being posted to a place outsideKTM. She decided to homeschool and took all the material with her. She found it to be so draining that she gave up on the idea. Plus, she felt that the kids were not interacting with the local children and were missing a great opportunity.
I think the concept of homeschooling is wonderful in developed countries like the US and Australia, I don't think the Nepalese population is quite ready technologically to advance the idea. We are still in the process of urbanization.
I think its a wonderful opportunity to learn of different teaching methods and cultures. Children can only be enriched. A few months or even a year of getting schooled in another school and a different cultural aspect would be an unforgetful experience. I wouldn't want to see my mother 24/7. I used to get sick of one teacher in the short span
of 45 minutes.
:)
Did I go on a tangent? oh well what do you expect from a kaamchor!
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| ashu |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 04:41 AM
Sally et al,
Interesting points.
Homeschooling is NOT for everyone, but it's certainly worth thinking about,
especially when one is coming back to Nepal with school-going kids for a
short time.
But, yes, the time, the commitment, the emotional/financial resources and so on
required to 'successfully' homeschool young kids are immensely daunting, but
NOT impossible to marshall, provided that the parental motivation is there.
The name-brand schools in Kathmandu are good, but I have my doubts whether
they do much to help young students be creative, questioning and critical-thinking and make learning fun in a skill-enhancing way.
(The so-called best students, I have met in Nepal, have dominantly been those who
can write good exams, and that's pretty much about it :-(
(Then again, I must confess -- quite contradictorily -- that today's kids in Kathmandu seem a lot smarter and more chalta-poorja than what my peers and I were at their
age 10-20 years ago!)
An aside: I myself became interested in 'homeschooling movement' after
-- becoming good friends with two of my American classmates in the US who had
been homeschooled all their lives before coming to college (PS: those two have done very well for themselves professionally)
and
-- also after seeing how one American friend in Boston was raising her obviously brilliant son (of school-going age) on a through-the-week 'diet' of Chinese-language lessons, piano lessons, art lessons, writing sessions, craft workshops, swimming, math lessons and so on and on.
Inspired by what little I saw there, I sit here and wonder: Are there risk-taking Nepali parents out there who would at least entertain or research the possibility of homeschooling their kids?
Just a thought.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Gokul |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 06:40 AM
Ashu,
I know at least two families in Kathmandu who have done home schooling and have been quite successful in their efforts. Ironically, they belong to the most traditional of families and they call it "Grihadhyaapan" .
They are: Nayaraj Pant's two sons. The youngest son never received school or college education. He was taught entirely by his father. Now he is a professor in Heidelberg (Germany).
Another family: Pramodvardhan Kaudinnyayan's family - great Vedic scholar family.
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| manashalu |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 08:58 AM
>>Now he is a professor in Heidelberg (Germany).
Professor Dinesh Raj Pant??
How about Vishnu Raj Atreya? Whose daughter Alka Atreya finished her Masters degree education at the age of 16(?), She has also been a SANSKRIT NewsReader in Radio Nepal. I heard that their whole family speaks Sanskrit among them. I think she must be also homeschooling student before.
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| Gokul |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 09:54 AM
Manashalu,
You are right. It's him.
I got the chance to listen to Alka's speech in sanskrit about 13/14 years ago (not sure) on the occasaion of Vishwa Hindu Sammelan in Ktm. It was wonderful. Her father is generally known as "Lato Saathi".
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| jim |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 12:15 PM
Homeskool = DumbSkool
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| NK |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 01:39 PM
In Heidelberg? I wish I knew this before. Amazing! I sometimes think of homeschooling my little girl. Well, who knows!
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| ! |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 02:46 PM
let the parents decide will you...they asked for a suggestion and not a lecture on how homeschooling is the best thing for you and your kids.... I am not against it but I have known pretty many ppl who go to school in Nepal for short term and fare pretty well... make friends...know how kids in Nepal live --first Hand and not study it inside the pretty walls of the house and imagine! not saying the kid will be totally secluded but the whole idea is going to school.... not to see if the kid is smart enough to be homeschooled or not! (for crying out loud!) the kid(s) will see the difference between the school system, how it goes in that side of the world...how teachers function...how students react (or supposed to react!)... gives a whole new prospective and totally worth experience!...
Well just giving you the other side of the story.... the Decision is yours!
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| where? |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 04:55 PM
Thank you for all the great suggestions. Ok this is the deal, I am a single working mother. Therefore, I cannot stay home and teach my kids. Since they are very young, they cannot stay home all day doing nothing, and then in the evenings I come home and teach them. The idea is very tempting. So like many of you mentioned, get them tutors, where would I find these tutors who are first of all, good, second, willing to come to my home during the afternoons, and teach them for a few hours? Thier curriculum would have to include all the basic subjects, english, math, science. The two girls are at different levels of education, so would I have to hire 2 teachers simultaneously? Then they also need to learn nepali, which they would both be begenners, so i guess they could do that together. And of course arts and cratfs, which are bother thier favorite subjects. My older girl also loves her Ballet classes, which I guess she'll have to pass on, or try Nepali dance? Are there any dance classes for young girl that they can go on weekends?The social studies part , would be under my instructions, and like you suggested, would include Museum, Zoo, Patan, Bhaktapur and other cultural tours(I love this idea in particular, and no matter what I finally decide, I will definately stick to this agenda). another problem, is not having peers. My girls will have many cousins to play with , who all live nearby, so I am not worried about play time so much. I am worried about them learning as individuals, what if they lose the notion of compitition and participation. Will they be able to adjust to a classroom setting on returning? How am I going to explain them why they arent going to school? I will definately look into this, I am now going to search the home education resources, if anyone has any ideas/suggestions/or resources related to Nepali education that would be of help , please let me know. Thank you Ashu for bringing up this info.
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| euta thita |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 05:18 PM
Homeschooled children don't have social life. Sure, you can go to field trips, but you don't do that everyday. These children by nature are timid, weak, asocial and introverted, things which will hurt him in his future endeavors, since, majority of jobs require you to be in contact with people of various backgrounds . Booklearning is just one aspect of child-development. I won't be surprised, if, someday I find out that a huge proportion of home-schooled children develop to be homosexuals( homosexuality is not always congenital, because many open homosexual have been able to change their lifestyle just by visiting priests). You need to be in contact with the opposite sex too. Living in isolation isn't a humanoid character at all. We are social animals, as the cliche goes.
Those who have taken the conventional path will have no trouble adjusting. They are more indepenent.
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| where? |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 05:52 PM
Euta thita,
Whats wrong with being homosexual? You see I would rather not send my children to Nepali schools if they are gonna turn out with your menatality, and not be tolerant towards other cultures! You talk about the importance of being able to interact with people from other backgrounds , but yet you , yourself are intolorent towards a growing population/ culture. Isnt that hypocritical. My children will have to grow up to be tolerant towards all people regards of race, ethnicity, sexual identity, and all the whole deal. And if they grow up to be lesbians, then that is thier choice!
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| GeoGods |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 06:50 PM
Looking at the schools in Kathmandu, all private schools except a very few
are like HomeSchools. The area (floor area per student, and open ground
per student) are far below any public schools outside Kathmandu have.
In this sense, all private schools except St. X and a few more, are homeschools
without any place to have lateral movement. In Nepal, the education system
lagged to monitor or provide a regulation that a student should have N sq. m.
of area at least. Under such circumstances, Home schooling seems far
better, and you can avoid the dust and lengthy bus ride to your kids.
A relative of mine, once joked on a school where used to sent his kids.
One day, his kids ride on the school bus at 8am in the morning, and
around 10am he was towards his office and went put gasoline in his
Motorbike in a gasoline station, suddenly he saw a bus looked like his
kids school bus, and after carefully looking inside the bus, his own kid
was waving his hand to himself "BYE BYE PAPA" .... .. The kid was
hanging inside the bus for 2 hours? amazing or disgusting? Then, he
immediately went to the school and dropped out his kids from the school.
What an disgusting education system we have? Who monitors it?
kids spend 4-6hours inside the bus? ARe we really serious about their
education? in the search of best schools? The schools don't have even
enough space pe student. WE are making the ghkante student. Under
such circumstances, Home Schooling is good at least avoid 4 hours
bus ride, can spend that time in some creative works, and if parents
are really serious, they can arrange some place for play in the evening hours.
Do you have to provide such time? sacrificing the filthy chat on politics?
Unfortunately, Kathmandu lacks free space, no parks, no passtime zones.
Keshab Sthapit could have made some free space for kids around Bagmati
river . . . as few thugs are going to register the free land around Bagmati.
So, homeschool providers should think of virtual or real play ground for
kids, otherwise, they are also like these JAIL like private schools. In this
sense, these days, there are many schools opening outside Kathmandu Municipality
(dhulikhel --- area) with enough play ground. They have 5 day boarder and
return kids on weekends. I think such schools will finally lead any other
private schools who lack thresold open area per student. If I am given
chances to create rules, I will ask all schools to provide some thresold open
area Y = MX + C (where X is number of student, M = minimum open area
per student, C = area that is essential to call a school with zero student).
Similarly, HomeSchooling should also be asked to offer minimum hours of
play on open ground, or the enrollment should be strictly restricted for
2 or 3 months, but, not for years. In the name of Homeschooling, the
students should not become DSAHAIN KO BHAKKU RANGO that is
put in dark area for few days and left on open sun making it crazy, when
it sees people around it "un-social attitude".
A friend of mine from Asutralia, once said to me that in Australia the kids who are
living in villages, learn at home using TV based teaching. In Kathmandu, too,
we can have TV (cable TV) based teaching to kids who want to avoid joining
school for short time. Use Internet to submit homework. If parents are
honest (not competeing to make their kid JASARI BHE PANI FIRST in the class)
then, cable TV with the aid of Internet can offer a best education in
current environment. It was disgusting to hear that CAB was bombed by
Maoist affliated ANNFSU and 6 peoples were injured. I am afraid that once
such HOmeschools get some recognition, they will be main target of Maoist
bombs. Well, at least you can minimize the possible injuries.
GeoGods
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| GeoGods |
Posted
on 08-Aug-02 07:15 PM
Euta thita speaks truth and the first part in his posting is what we have to
concentrate on. The HomeSchooling should not be a permanent solution,
just temporary for a couple of months, not even half year. He should not
be LATO, that looks at Kera like Monkey. I mean a kid at 13-14age might
fall into trouble, exactly what EUTA THITA tells in 2nd part. If s/he is not
in contact with opposite sex, he will no know how to deal with opposite
sex, and either he might end up SEXUALLY HARASSING opposite sex
"ekohoro hereko herai .... aha kasto ramo keta .. kasti ramri keti ....",
and s/he feel hungry for watching boys/girls of opposite sex when you
put your kids in Home School. I think the age of 12-15 requires co-ed
for kids, so that s/he can develop respect to opposite sex, and avoid
LATO LE KERA HERE JASTO on OPPOSITE SEX of same age. Thats why
guys who studied in co-ed are more open than who studied in uni-sex
schools. Let them have private level talks on opposite sex, well,
excess should be avoided. Who did not have such talks? Those who
tried hide such talks were the worst when it came to real life issues
as time passes, had double life. Co-ed allows them (we too?)
to learn what is tolerable and what is not tolerable. Biggest thing
real schooling teaches us is to learn what is tolerable, what is not
tolerable. In order to what is tolerable, kids need to learn what
the opponent thinks, and needs: flattery, logic, intimacy, help to anger.
Conventional education system does not
have real long term susbtitutes. Home schooling is just a temporary
solution, and especially, in country like Nepal which is conglomerate
of various race, religion, culture ... Our kids should be mixed up with
kids of other culture so that they start respecting others culture from
childhood. Segregated kids will remain most racists for the rest of their
life. Not only that they will hate their own parents when they grow up
for the reason of not having real friends. My own son who had already
moved to 5 schools before he completed 6th grade, says "I don't want to be
grown up as Friendless manche, if you keep on moving me from one school to
another every year. I want to make good friends for my rainy days".
HomeSchooling will make them friendless lonely unsocial creature like
Dashain ko Bhakku Rango. Don't do it.
GeoGods
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| sally |
Posted
on 09-Aug-02 01:59 PM
Leaving aside the question of the merits of homeschooling, it seems that Where? is a single mom and can't stay home, so the point is moot.
I don't see any advantages to pseudo-homeschooling with tutors. Most tutors are just regular teachers making extra rupees. So that could mean the WORST of both worlds: uninspired parrot-style learning as in a typical private school, minus the socialization and cultural experience. Without a parent at home to supervise, I have a feeling the tutors would just sit the kids down with some books to memorize, and maybe even hit them if they don't cooperative passively. Where? seems creative and open-minded, and I doubt that's the education she's got in mind for her kids!
My gut feeling, Where?, is that you might want to look into enrolling the kids in whatever school their cousins attend. That way they at least have instant friends, and perhaps a somewhat more connected experience. It might not be the "best" school, but the "best" schools aren't so darned terrific anyway. They're OK, and they shove kids through the grinder enough to get them to pass their SLCs, but that's not the goal for Where's kids. I bet if their cousins go to a reasonably good but not "famous" school--something like LMV in Patan or the suchlike--it would be fine for the short run, supplemented with extracurricular work at home.
The advantage would be the real experience of a Nepali school, the friendships they'd make, and the memories they'd have for the rest of their lives. In a few months, with supplemental work at home (and maybe Internet interaction with their regular classmates), it's not like they'd fall hopelessly behind their US counterparts--and they might even end up ahead, thanks to their knowledge of real Nepali life!
(Oooh, I love giving advice. It's always so much easier than facing these questions oneself. Anyway, Where?, I do hope you keep people up on what you decide, and how it works out. After all, for some of us, the notion of how to handle time in Nepal with Americanized kids isn't a totally theoretical consideration!)
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