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 I am purposely not writing about this issue. The pictures speak for themselves. If you want to know what India is doing to eradicate poverty, I suggest researching Dr. Ashwin Mahesh and/or checking out An Online India.       Katha Lab School is an experimental school in a slum in Delhi. It is also quite possibly one of my favorite schools of the ones I visited in India. The rooms are text rich. Targeted skills, lessons, and special projects decorate the walls. Because lessons are theme-based, each subject is explored through the prism of the theme. Although this is a K-12 school, there is also a pre-school and a daycare. This allows the mothers in the neighborhood to work. To address some of the issues in gender and poverty, the school works hard to attract female students who historically stay home to help the family and keep male students who tend to leave school to join the work force. They do this through reduced tuition and job skills programs. Cooperative learning and multisensory lessons are part of the norm here. There is both a computer lab and a video lab. Students are responsible for gathering information, discussing it with their group, and rearranging it in a pleasing format to address each component of the project. Critical thinking skills are encouraged and enforced through the projects. 
 See the boy with the snake? Don't fret; the snake's fangs have been removed. The boy is helping his family by earning a few rupees. I gave him 500 rupees. That's ten dollars. It also makes me part of the problem.
The problem? This picture was taken on a Thursday. The boy should have been in school. In school he can gain the knowledge and skills he needs to get a better job - one with security and benefits. One million children in India still don't go to school. The current population in India is 1.27 billion. More than 50% is below the age of 25. The literacy rate just edges above 74%. It is estimated that about 22% of the population lives in poverty. Take another look at that young boy. See the look in his eyes? Is it anger? Fear? Sorrow?  Although my cohort Jesse and I enjoyed our time in Bangalore, we were both happy to arrive in Trivandrum to spend the week at our host school, St. Mary's Higher Secondary School. We were greeted with flowers and a banner. Our host Babu Louis proudly introduced us to the faculty and staff as we toured the campus. The physical campus reminded me of the Muslim Girl's Orphanage School. Because the teachers move from room to room, the walls are bare of the motivational and subject matter posters I and my colleagues use to decorate our rooms. The comparison ends there. Jesse and I were pleased to see the students engaged in activities which promoted critical thinking skills. Every student was engaged and learning.  The students treated us like rock stars. When asked for my autograph, I signed it with the same sentiment I have written in yearbooks for the past 23 years: Work Hard, Play Hard, Live Well. Although we were assigned to spend time with Standard 10, I also would go to the library when Standard 4 was slated to be there. During their library time, they would choose books in English from the shelf to read. I would help them sound out and understand the new words. We were present for the inauguration of the literary club. The self-named Lunch Bunch is a group of inspired teens who not only love reading but love to share what they have read. 
 On Thursday I presented a workshop on using writing workshop to develop writing skills. In an hour and a half I tried to give as many tools as I could to help the English teachers from several schools. I showed them how to use mentor texts, explained why and how to write with and for their students, and demonstrated how to develop rubrics for writing. 
In this private school, The day begins with physical exercise. As we drove up, we saw the kids playing an elaborate game of tag called khu khu. Some of us joined in. The students and teachers then gathered in a large room in the school to pray and sing. This is a private school with a different focus. The students here are trained in Sanskrit. Every class is wisdom-based. The lessons are designed to help the students experience the topic, so the children are gaining critical thinking skills. For each class, they have an introductory lesson, then are given a document which includes the activities and exercises they are to complete. They work in small groups to watch videos, discuss and answer questions, and complete projects to demonstrate skill and knowledge mastery. All of the electives are based on the students’ cultural heritage. In one classroom, you will see different activities happening since they all work at different paces. The children are engaged, curious, thoughtful, and friendly. All of the teachers are experts in the field they teach, and they are all here because they believe in the philosophy behind the school. 
Like all private schools in Bangalore, 25% of the students at this school are from the local area and attend tuition free. The majority of these are male. On the Saturday we toured the facility, about a third of the students in each class were absent. The younger students, like younger students everywhere, were easily distractible. The older students were engaged in the lesson being presented. In the Kannada class, the students eagerly sang back the responses. 
On Thursday Dr. Chiranjiv Singh of the Anand Foundation gave a presentation to introduce us to the history and culture of India. In his talk, he explained how karma was a binding agent which keeps this country of 3000 languages and dialects together. He told this tale of the scorpion and the man.
One morning, after he had finished his meditation, the old man opened his eyes and saw a scorpion floating helplessly in the water. As the scorpion was washed closer to the tree, the old man quickly stretched himself out on one of the long roots that branched out into the river and reached out to rescue the drowning creature. As soon as he touched it, the scorpion stung him. Instinctively the man withdrew his hand. A minute later, after he had regained his balance, he stretched himself out again on the roots to save the scorpion. This time the scorpion stung him so badly with its poisonous tail that his hand became swollen and bloody and his face contorted with pain. At that moment, a passerby saw the old man stretched out on the roots struggling with the scorpion and shouted: "Hey, stupid old man, what's wrong with you? Only a fool would risk his life for the sake of an ugly, evil creature. Don't you know you could kill yourself trying to save that ungrateful scorpion?" The old man turned his head. Looking into the stranger's eyes he said calmly, "My friend, just because it is the scorpion's nature to sting, that does not change my nature to save." Dr. Singh summed it up by saying that to save was the man’s karma, and to sting was the scorpion’s karma. Karma is your situation, and you move and act according to your karma. In family’s it is the parent’s karma to look after the children when they are young, and children’s karma to take care of their parents when they are old. Karma also affects your next life. So many people here who live in poverty take comfort in the fact that they will be more comfortable in their next life. Unlike western tradition, in India emphasis is not on the individual. There is a duality of the body and mind, and people are not seen as separate from God. This is reflected in social systems which are comprised of families and communities. Because of technology and education, today in India people are trying to synthesize Western views with Indian values. Currently the outcome is not known. I believe we should look at synthesizing our values with theirs. I like the idea of depending on family and communities, and this this is a weakness in our system. When you look at the current state of our systems designed to help those in need here in our country, you see many gaps caused by a lack of funds and bureaucracy. Maybe it is time for East to truly meet West on a philosophical level.
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