Kindergarten in India

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to a school in India. This is a private school that parents pay for their kids to go to to get a good education. Kids walk from nearby villages to go to the school...some kids walk as long as 2 hours each morning just to get to school! The kids all wear uniforms and each age group has a classroom. I was most interested in the preschool and kindergarten classrooms. There are no toys or posters or art supplies...just dirt floors and tin walls. The kids sit at shared desks and work in workbooks or listen as the teacher teaches them something! We were welcomed by the 5th grade class that gave us traditional silk scarves and all stood to greet us in English. The rest of the classes were a bit shy. I even made one kindergarten buddy cry. I was able to go in and talk to each class (all of the kids giggled since I was talking in English and they don't know that much English!) and give them all candy! It amazed me how much the kids were learning though...even without pencils, pens, crayons and other things that we take for granted. I think that next year we will have to write letters to the kiddos at that school and send them some supplies! I also got to talk to the school's founder a bit and learned that at first there was not even a road leading up to the school. He had to work very hard to get one built so the kids could come to school.