Monday, September 21, 2015

Let's not be meritocratic? - Mentor experience by Parth Arora (Bangalore camp)

1. I think the kids were smarter in Bangalore. I had two 8th graders in the Delhi camp and two 6th graders here. And even then, the speed at which they were picking up what I was telling them here in Bangalore was much more than Delhi!

2. I liked the fact that the process this time was much more chiselled. We had a clearer idea of what we are supposed to do and could make the most of time in hand.

Few thoughts, I would like to share. I dont want this test to be a meritocratic exercise. We shouldnt test students beforehand and segregate them to offer the selected ones more to digest. I strongly feel that here the idea is for kids to learn a new way of thinking together. And often it is in instances like this, when average kids, paired up with brilliant ones, learn to calibrate themselves to a higher, better way of doing things and this learning sticks with them. I may sound like a socialist but I strongly believe the objective of this camp should be collective good in the sense I described earlier.

Also, I think we should slowly move upwards to target higher age groups. We could have a more elaborate exercise for the higher secondary students first. A lot of it is also contingent on our bandwidth also but I think there is a stronger need in the upper age band.

Thanks,
Parth

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