The Link #26 - The 2006 Oak Grove School Trip to India

Each winter Oak Grove School’s twelfth-grade class spends a month visiting K schools in India. The following is an edited version of a report to supporters of the trip (the references to helping projects in India were meant for them), but we feel that others, too, may be interested. Dave Anter is a teacher at Oak Grove.

Never having been there before, Laura Davis, Kelly Pasco, and I faced a number of questions with regard to the journey of sixteen 12th-graders to India for a month. Are the students being nourished in body and mind? Have we got the travel plans right? What do our hosts at each of the four schools and the botanical sanctuary expect of us? Have we prepared the students adequately? Is communication happening?

At every turn our needs were met by happy and helpful people; our hosts everywhere made it possible for us to be well and to engage in meaningful activities with their lively school populations. These are the most amazing people. Our discussions about Krishnamurti’s intent in founding the schools were charged with the energy of inquiry into our human similarity. All of the students tried their best to convey to each other what they see as important in life.

at Rishi Valley School, we encountered two programs that could use support

While we never experienced anti- American sentiment toward or about us, it was interesting to observe people’s general attitudes and the Indian media’s perspectives on the role of the US in the world. How can all the people of these nations (the US included) give up their attachments to their traditions and to the politics of our differences? Are we not essentially similar? The only spray-painted wall we saw in all our travels in India read “Down with the USA.” That alone was a powerful image for our next graduating class. There were also many opportunities to observe and consider the disparity between having a great deal, materially, and having too little.

At Rishi Valley School we encountered two programs that could use support. The Rural Health Clinic plays a crucial role in attending to the out-patient needs of the local population. It provides primary-level diagnostic and curative health services, a comprehensive eye-care program, and education on various aspects of health. In addition, community health workers are trained to provide basic first-aid and to monitor those undergoing treatment. The Clinic is open 3 days per week, with an average of 70 patients per day being seen. As Dr. Kartik Kalyanram was telling us, “There are days when I am in the Clinic till late in the evening.” Word has spread about the quality of care provided, and people have started showing up from as far away as Cuddapah, a town 150 km from Rishi Valley. The School has existed for 70 years, providing employment for local people, so it is not surprising that they look to the place for help and guidance and have a great deal of respect for the work that the Clinic is carrying out. Please consider a financial contribution to support this work. Our students are committed to fundraising for this program.

The other incredible program we encountered at Rishi Valley School is the Rural Education Project, with its 15 small, one-teacher ‘satellite schools’ in nearby villages (within a 25 km radius). The aim of the project is to promote village-based education, to train teachers for multi-grade classrooms, to publish instructional materials for village schools, to draw working children into the school system, to create a green space around the schools for the conservation of bio-diversity in general and medicinal plants in particular, to establish adult literacy classes on the school premises, to raise awareness regarding health, nutrition and sanitation, and to actively involve the communities in the day-today management of the schools. The community may have donated the land for the school, sometimes as much as half an acre. With major input from them, the land has been fenced off, landscaped to prevent erosion, and planted with fruit trees, flowering shrubs and medicinal plants. After years of work, the land around each school is now a green public space in which all of the inhabitants of the village have a stake. And each school building, in addition to being a school, serves as the village resource center, where local arts also have a place. Again, this project could use any financial help and fundraising efforts we can give it.

Marcy, Alex, Niko, Tristan, Liza, Gabe, Edyn, Merry, Claire, Richard, Dylan, Erin, Myung Hee, Ian, Molly, and Juna must be commended for their openness and willingness to explore what can sometimes seem like another universe but otherwise feels like a familiar and timeless human experience. Their trust and confidence in each other and in each of the chaperones made the group function on the level we hope for in this kind of alternative education. Laura Davis was inspiring, as she communicates so clearly from the heart and shares so willingly her personal integrity. Kelly Pasco was also a great source of strength and endurance, with his energy and genuine inquisitiveness about life and the schools.

This trip made clear to me that there is one big Krishnamurti school with many campuses all over India, one in England, and the one I know best here in Ojai: one school with various populations but the same intent. Those who made the trip possible, the schools, the students of the schools, our teachers and our new graduating class, and everyone who wished us well and gave support – thank you.

Dave Anter, 2006