Bubbly and slightly pretentious schooling

I'm quite frustrated with Kavita's new school as time has passed and, I acknowledge most of my reactions are aimed at the wider scenario of how things work. I'm hopelessly ill-informed about how teeny-bopper education works and, haven't really thought things through. I'm hopelessly ill-informed what a racket this preschool education is all about. Use big words, pretend you're in love with the kids, stroke the parents' egos, use gimmicks and charge and arm and leg for 'educating' children of hapless parents. 

For a couple of months I have just reacted: mental meltdowns, expressed shock and sarcasm and, frustration. I feel as if this 'school business' is a gimmick and really, just a business. 

I already explained how much higher the school fees are and, what a small fortune we are dishing out every month in this blog post: "School blues."

When the founder of the school (and known to us as a photographer, host/organiser/founder of the summer camp for kids) convinced me to give the school a try after the first couple of days, I tried my best to be positive. 

That didn't last too long because hardly a couple of weeks later, we were invited to a Meet and Greet and then a Parent-Teacher conference. I rolled my eyes at both events, incredulous that I would actually participate in all this formality for a 4-year old child. What was the purpose of these events, exchanges? Is Kavita really in proper school now? Is it me who cannot believe that Kavita is now so old that her teachers/school will give me feedback on her strengths, weaknesses, and how she is coping with school? 

The Meet and Greet (on 30 September) was quite well organised and, parents got to mingle, see the classrooms, and eat a few snacks. It started off by with all the parents in the Circle and the teachers and Shoana took us through the ABCs, songs, meditation/yoga, and Pre-School TV. 

The Pre-School TV was dominated by Kavita for the first few weeks. See the first episode, narrated by Kavita. She sounded cute while explaining what the kids were doing for the week. But it got tiring watching it after after a while. As much as I like seeing Kavita in action, I wasn't really interested in seeing other children in action per se. In fact, when I saw the other children hosting the Pre-School TV, I couldn't muster any enthusiasm and interest. Honestly, what's the point of this gimmick? Isn't it just a gimmick? And possibly worse, it's free marketing for the school?

During the Parent - Teacher conference we were told very nice things about Kavita. We were even told she is "gifted." This conference took place with the school principal (Wilmona) and founder/director (Shoana) and, hardly 2 or 3 weeks after school started. Haresh responded sarcastically by saying that back in India she would just be average. It was such an absurd conversation. I thought the school's praises were extremely insincere and, hollow. What was Kavita exactly gifted in? And, if she was so gifted, what could this school offer her to allow her gifts to thrive and grow?

During this Parent - Teacher conference, I said I was happy with the atmosphere and how they were exposing children to "music", "art", "science," "yoga,", etc but I think I said all that to be polite. I don't know how qualified the teachers are, what degrees they have or how they have even come to make these evaluations. I think the music teacher knows music and has taught music at the Cachelle Summer Camp but don't first hand his experience in teaching such young kids. I know Kavita's class teacher has most of her couple of years of experience only at Cachelle and, doubt she has a reputable degree in education or child psychology or any related subject. What are they basing these evaluations on?

October crept up on us and, lo and behold, there was a Costume Day, a euphemism for Halloween. Really? Kavita has to observe an American oddity? In art class, the first Creative Arts Preschool of Monrovia couldn't identify a Liberian, West African or even African artist to teach kids about but had to go for the easiest one: Van Gogh. I don't have anything against Halloween or Van Gogh but we are in Liberia, Africa's first independent black republic. We aren't in Europe or the United States. 

I noticed though the class teacher wasn't even ensuring Kavita was eating the food we were packing for her every day! I told her several times to help Kavita finish her food, time after time, Kavita would bring everything back. I politely told her a few times. Even told Kavita in front of her teacher to listen to her teacher and, finish her food. When I complained for the 3rd or 4th time, the teacher dodged the whole thing to say, "Kavita says the food is too spicy." I lost it and went to the school principal.

These are the dialogues I performed for the principal:

• For almost $ 400 a month and with hardly 5 children in class, the teacher couldn't even make sure the kids ate their food? 
• I don't feel the school teacher has more competence than my own Nanny who has often started to blame the whole thing on Kavita, as if Kavita is her boss. 
• Do we order pizza for our children if they don't like the food or, do we teach them to eat what we give them and when we give it to them? 
• I'm not into child worship and hoped discipline and manners were being stressed at the school. 

The Principal seemed to understand me (or at least that is the impression I got) but as I was leaving she handed me the phone and Shoana wanted to speak to me. We were on camera so she watched the whole thing and then wanted to speak to me. I got so annoyed and, said I didn't want to have another conversation about it.

Afterwards I received a long e-mail from Shoana apologising for having listened in (wish I had been told earlier that we were all on camera). She said they were trying their best but I seemed to prefer the previous school Kavita was in. She said she never forced her children to eat food and she wouldn't allow any child to be force fed at her school. She said  Reggio Emilia schools encourage children. She even went on to say that my complaints had brought a 'tear' to Kavita's teacher's eye! In the end, I was told that if I wasn't happy with the school, they would understand.  It was a very long insincere  e-mail.

Did I tell you they refer to the children as 'Artists' and the teachers as 'Mentors'? It's the generation we are currently in where words are just thrown around but they don't mean anything. How can a 4-year old have a Mentor? Alexander the Great needed a Mentor to advise and guide his military campaigns. What guidance and advise does a little kid need? Advice on which career to choose? And, what about 'Artist'? Are these children 'Artists'? I know some actual Liberian 'Artists' who sell their paintings for a living, trying to make ends meet. 

These liberal and idiotic use of words reminds me how fashionable it is now to buy carved out words like 'Eat' and put it in your dining room. Or to buy decorative pillows with the words 'Love'. It's this modern, superficial, insincere and disrespectful way of using language. I can't stand it. 

I replied back to Shoana saying I would write her a longer e-mail but could she tell me whether her teachers had teaching licenses. I haven't got a rely yet.

I was quite angry and incensed about the insincere e-mail from Shoana. I realised that throughout this 'experiment' with her new school, I was emotionally manipulated. Earlier in the year, she said Kavita was so 'gifted' and would do well at her new school. She specially called us to make sure we would enrol her. She said she 'loved' Kavita and was 'in tears' at how well she was doing. 

Best of all, the idea that it's not the teacher/Mentor's prerogative to make sure a 4-year child eats her food (for a class of hardly 5 kids) shows the school's approach has no sense of responsibility or attention. What is the role of a preschool? It's the grey area between formal school and babyhood. Eating properly falls into 'early education?' On one hand, the creative approach to pre schooling implies that focus on arts and expression is going to really nurture teeny boppers rather than rote learning. The school has an artificial introduction to yoga, music, art, French and even karate. Needless to say, they will not learn any of those comprehensively from 9 to 1 PM. They have all of this pretentious and elitist splattering of elitist aspirations but gosh, we don't force-feed children. We just have a lot of blah blah blah. Nothing solid. 

Kavita is still at the same school. She eagerly attends her school every morning and, only needs a few words of encouragement from Haresh to wake up. She comes back with stories and excitement. I don't think she's flourishing per se or learning something particularly mind blowing. In fact, they're still tracing letters. 

I carry on with my own routine with her where we draw, write, read books, converse, watch movies and cartoons, and so on. I've distanced myself from the school, trying to disinvest my emotional energy and, do some thinking in how things actually work.

Creative Arts Early Learning Center is definitely a pretentious school and for now, they have more style than substance.  At least I've finally realised what it is I find so irritating - it's pretentious. It's their first year and they hardly have 20 kids for their 2 classes. It's housed in the same place that is currently used for evening dance classes, spa, yoga, guesthouse, etc. It's a business within several other businesses. 

There a few children from the American Embassy attending this school so there's a sense that Kavita is attending a bubble school! 

It's ironic I say all this because most of my schooling was done in international American schools. Our schools were great but we were almost disconnected from the cities and countries we lived in. We didn't have any classes to learn about the countries we were living in : but how could you? We were following the American curriculum. I remember in Romania, we had one token class where we learned Romanian folklore. We had someone come in and read us fantastical Romanian stories. Our teachers of course took us on field trips to the local museums and we had a handful of Romanian students in our school. In Sénégal, we attended a Christian missionary school where Bible class was mandatory. By this time, I was in mid high school so I learned quite a lot about American history and literature. What about the country we lived in? Not much except for the French class. In Athens, again, we were preparing to enter universities in the UK or United States. 

I shared my experiences with my best friend, Chipo Nyambuya, on WhatsApp (she and I have extremely long chats and debates on this medium) and she said this about 'good private schools,' which was a good reminder 

The thing is, most 'good' private schools in any given place aspire to some imagined aspirational higher place of privilege...which is a reflection of a greater/broader access to privilege and power and not an affirmation of a local domestic culture or society. Think of the American and British schools around the world. The parochial schools are often the only ones that are about access and a harmonization of culture on the space.

Did I tell you Cachelle School signs every e-mail  as follows:

With Creativity

I shall sign off this blog post, inspired, with something.

With Stapler and Door Knob