HAL Museum visit

These children have their home very close to the airport runway. They grow up with the sound & sights of all kind of flying machines. So, one saturday afternoon, after their classes, we decided to take the 7th std kids at Chalghatta school to the HAL museum. The kids were quite excited as usual. They wanted to skip their mid-day meal and start. I used that day to explain 'How airplanes & helicopters fly'......a quick read of the book HowStuffWorks early morning majorly helped. Simple concepts, how they move forward, upwards & turn were explained, 'Propeller, Engine, Wings, Rudder' were introduced. And soon, couple of students explained it to the class.

So, 22 of the students, 4 teaching staff, 7 volunteers landed at the museum soon. The museum authorities seemed to be very happy to see the children, and all thru they treated us warmly.

And for the next 2 hours the children looked at aeroplanes, touched them, heard about them, played simulator games, ran around joyusly and so on...

Mission accomplished.

As we went thru the place, a few things seem to attract the kids wildly.

1. The Fishes in the pond.

2. Mangoes on a tree: There was a wild run for it. (The Rose garden besides was majorly eyed, but we guyz were in sufficient force by then).

3. An Air Conditioned room we walked into, almost every one said 'AC...AC...'

As I watched the children running around & playing, some inevitable thoughts cropped up. Will they make it big ? Would they be an Engineer etc. What sort of jobs would they get into ?

Well, their learning levels have been a serious concern. Its quite bad, simply not comparable to others from private schools. They seem to belong to classes many rungs below. At times, the classes, resemble a creche, the kids simply come & go for years.

Government schools remain a challenge. How do we as volunteers transform the school. Get these children to fulfill their potential. How ??