mindfields :: a journal about ideas and alternative education

Liza Chowgule's Classroom Under the Sky

Liza Chowgule runs the ITTC school in Vasco da Gama, Goa.
Based on the Waldorf method, the school has grown to be a force to reckon with over the last fourteen years.

Text and Illustration: Amruta Patil

Mindfields 01 Contents

Starting at the beginning, What's your background been like?

My family was in Africa for the longest time. I've studied in a British primary school, then at the Presentation Convent in Kodaikanal, which was a traditional school, but untraditional in that we had a lot of say in what we wanted to learn and what we didn't – unusual for most schools even now.

After that, I studied Psychology at Sophia Polytechnic in Mumbai, attended a teacher training program. Then taught, first at Bangalore's Baldwin school (traumatizing) and The Valley school (good), followed by three years of studying the Waldorf Method in the UK.

Why did you decide to open a school in Vasco?

I always knew I wanted to do something on these lines. I moved to Goa after marrying Umaji Chowgule. His family manages an SSC board school, I worked with them for a while before starting a school of my own.

In Vasco, I have this image of being the strange person who does strange things. The perception is changing a little now after fourteen years now. The school has never had to do anything to advertise itself. People come… and they seem to stay.

Has there been a marked difference in the profile of students from the inception of the school until now?

There was a perception of the school being an elitist school, but it isn't true. Students pay what they can. It certainly does not make it easy for us as administrators, but we believe no one must be kept away from our school on the basis of not being able to pay the fee. No one should be denied an education.

What kind of curriculum do you follow?

We follow the Waldorf curriculum - which is more of a philosophy than a blueprint that instructs you what to do (see table). It adapts well with any sort of environment.

Most of the learning takes, say, a major festival (of any of the religions represented in our students) as a point of departure – and then uses various aspects of that as a way of learning things related to different subjects. For example, when learning about kite flying, students will learn about angles and the construction of kites, as well as the history behind them. All learning relates to life.

Are there any practical constraints to this idea?

It causes problems sometimes. Especially in higher grades when students' parents expect them to mingle back into the mainstream, answer formulaic exams – which are all about answering things in a specific way in one hour flat. How does one connect this process with what we teach our students… about all learning relating to life? It is a difficult question.

And the only answer I manage is that "this is the best we can manage given the circumstances we are in."

In the Waldorf method, the same teacher teaches a class from grades 1 through 7. How do you deal with areas that the teacher has some discomfort with?

The main subjects where we see this discomfort arise are Language and Mathematics. Typically, teachers swap for just those segments. When a teacher has completed her seven years with one grade, she takes a sabbatical during which she is expected to hone her skills in the area.

Some problems are typical to India because unlike in most Waldorf schools, teachers and students do not have a dialogue and instruction in their mother tongue.
Even well-intentioned alternative schools in metros run into a great paucity when it comes to teachers. How do you manage in a small town?

We train teachers here. They spend three or four weeks observing our strongest teachers conduct a class. Then they take a test class of their own and I observe how they do that.

It's obvious in the very first meeting - whether someone is appropriate for the job or not. It's really got nothing to do with the qualifications. You can tell from the way a person interacts with children - whether they treat them like a sea of people, or like individuals. In fact, the less qualified a teacher, the less she needs to unlearn before fitting in here.

Mainstream teachers have it harder, though we do have one or two who have transitioned to this system beautifully.

What do you feel about the attrition rate of teachers?

Many of our teachers have been wives of Navy officers (there is a large Naval Base in Vasco) with transferable jobs. By the time they get a hang of things, it is time for them to move cities. So long as a teacher takes her training to some school, she is making use of it, and children are going to benefit from it.

Teachers who have worked here in the past call and say, "We can't find a school like this." My answer to them is "Don't try to. Change the environment wherever you happen to be." An interesting thing is that the attrition rarely has anything to do with salaries. I wish we could afford to pay our teachers more than we do - they really deserve it.

There are definite pluses about being in Goa. Untainted natural surroundings, for one, But one of the things we do miss here are the public libraries and museum resources. How does a school like yours compensate for that?

I don't think we are managing to compensate quite enough. We try to do what we can - bring in guest lecturers from the fields of music or art. But the need for libraries and exhibitions remains.

Some years back, we tried to put together some sort of a mobile library, but the plan fell through. Ideally, I would like the mobile resource to be something that many schools in the area could utilize, not just our school. I don't want it to be just for us.

It must be tricky to have something so thoughtful happening in class with no scaffolding from the environment at home. What is the role of parents in the conceptual learning process?

This is delicate ground to tread. In terms of the actual conceptual learning itself, we do not place demands - whether in terms of projects or even homework - which the children cannot carry out without parental supervision. There might be the occasional survey, or activity that children do with their parents – like they taught their parents a recipe as one of their home assignments. Parents stepping into the actual learning process can be counterproductive.

Maybe one of the ways parents could contribute is by understanding and supporting the methodology of the school…

Yes. The results of a learning process such as this are not immediately tangible and measurable. You need to be patient, wait for years to see how things have worked out. And this is easier for parents who have had a non-traditional education themselves. For others, it is a leap of faith. It can be (and has been) very hard for some of them.

You mentioned that the Waldorf method is about the process, not about the result…

That is its biggest strength, and it is also its weakness. We need to constantly watch out for the trap of making creative beginnings and pathways that never lead into any conclusive results.

How do children who join the school in the middle of the program cope?

The drawback of mainstream schools is that they teach so many children at once that the children almost never learn to think for themselves. They don't learn how to analyze, enquire, research or question. And that is the backbone of our learning methodology. Children from mainstream schools, especially if they join in middle school or later, need to adjust a great deal to this.

What about your children. How do they cope while being around students from any other school…

Our children are a lot less reserved than most... and they are almost gentle to fault. They get along fine with younger children, say, street kids from an organization we work with. It's kids their own age group that can be a challenge.

So there is no interaction with the rest of the school community in Vasco?

We have tried to invite students over. Other schools like us to host competitions for which they can send their school children over to participate… I'm not very excited about these sort of competitions. Otherwise there is the usual excuse about the time table being so packed that there is no time for yet another 'event' to attend.

One of the most exciting exchanges we have managed is the annual football matches. We meet other schools, or anyone in town who would like to play a football match, and we mix the people up into two teams. So there is no pre-decided 'us' versus 'them'. The teams consist of boys and girls.

What are the big bureaucratic hurdles you face?

All kinds. Investigations about whether we are breaking any rules by the way we ran our school - this is true. They were willing to thumb through the entire rulebook to find out one that we have flouted! Then there is the constant struggle to get permissions for land. I have to say that the Chowgule name makes administrative potholes a little easier to ride over. Right now the school is operating in various independent bungalows that have been rented. I am waiting to have a unified campus for the school.

Your classrooms don't have the usual desk and chairs for the children. Why?

It makes for greater flexibility in the classroom to have low, wide tables that can be used as tables, stools, or be joined up to make a stage. When they need open floor space in class, they just stack the tables up. The other thing is that I personally believe it is good to sit on the floor… keeps you centered with the earth.

We notice that the cookie jars on the counter are full. And the cookies are excellent...

We give a lot of emphasis to food here. The making of it, not just the eating. Anytime there is a birthday in class, classmates bake or cook for the entire school, which is a lot of cooking.

Field trips?

Project-based learning keeps them on the field a lot. There are the usual local trips to Old Goa (for architecture), organic farms etc. But they also make trips out of town every year to visit a place that is connected with whatever they were studying. And so, in the past, groups have gone to Mumbai to study the planetarium, Kabini to study the wildlife and Tamil Nadu for its spice gardens.

In a school where all learning seems to be connected with having fun, its odd to ask about extra curricular activities…

One thing that needs mention is the theatre production we did two years back. It was an adaptation of Shakespearean plays and was called 'As We Like It'. It took two years to prepare, with large-scale sets, costumes, the works. We set up a whole façade of a Victorian house in front of which the children performed. It was beautiful. And it was open to public.

Your first twelfth grade student passed from the school last year and has joined St. Xaviers college, Mumbai. Is that a sigh of relief for the many people who wonder about what really happens to children who go to non-conventional schools?

Yes and no. We know that with the kind of grounding these children have, they will be at an advantage in life. But that does not translate into high percentages and school leaving certificates and grades and the other things that are also part and parcel of the system. What most Waldorf schools do is equip you with a portfolio of work that you can present to universities and be gauged on the basis of. That, obviously, is not an option here. So we have had to compromise a little bit and introduce Cambridge A Levels here from grade nine onwards.

There are some glaring loopholes in the further education system. Medical schools have an independent common entrance exam, but you are only eligible to sit for one if you have a school-leaving certificate!

So, realistically, there are some courses and places where a student from our school would fare better than in others (the fine and liberal arts and media, for example). If you ask me, I wouldn't have my son (in grade 11 of the ITTC school) answer any final exam for grade 12, but he insists on doing that, because he would like to undergo a different experience. Exams are a novelty for him!