Last Day in Hyderabad

Getting a bindi on your head is a VIP welcome gift at schools.

A general science lab class learning about solutions, suspensions and colloids.

The super cute girls that gave us bindis.

Went to a pretty amazing school called Merdian High. Their principal is one of the most inspiring and motivating I’ve met. She has the awesome philosophy about teaching students to compete with themselves rather than with others. She feels that giving students life skills to cope with anything in life is more important than academics. This is completely different from all of the other schools and speakers that we’ve heard from the past 2 weeks. Completely abnormal from the picture we’ve been painted. This principal cares more about the wellbeing and happiness of each student. Ratings and scores mean nothing to her. In addition, her staff has built-in collaboration time 2hrs/week planning lessons and exchanging ideas. There are also workshops for parents on how to be supportive parents at home. Every Friday morning assembly, students mediate and are given a mini-lesson on confidence, peer pressure, or self esteem to build character. Pretty cool school. I was disappointed, though, to see classes taught the same way as other classes with ‘fill in the blank’ lectures, minimal to no wait time, and students furiously writing notes while the teacher asks, “Is it clear?” and no one answers the second after she asks, so she moves on. The overall philosophy of the school seems fabulous though. I hope their teaching methods change with the philosophy. If/when it does, what out world, Indians will be ruling us. Their dedication, work ethic and sense of nationalism if coupled with innovating teaching strategies would certainly make India the next superpower (I’d bet over China).

I didn’t feel like I got to know Hyderabad that much as a city. I saw very little outside what was planned. My sense is that it has large Muslim population and is moving towards becoming much more Western as the IT businesses move in. I hear the nickname is “Cyberabad.” We even met a bunch of Americans that just graduated from college that live in Hyderabad as Call Center employees that are teaching American accents. Perhaps Cyberabad will be the next Silicon Valley.