Testimony : ONE PERSON’S STORY ABOUT TEACHING : ‘Every Student Has Something to Offer’
Dilip Saxena was born in Washington, D.C., where his father, a diplomat from India, was stationed. The family soon returned to India where Saxena received a Master’s degree in Literature. He later returned to the United States and has taught sixth grade in Riverside County’s Corona-Norco Unified School District for the past eight years. This year he received the Bravo award from the L.A. Music Center for incorporating the fine arts and performing arts into his curriculum.
I believe that every student has something to offer and that the arts are a really good avenue to discover that something. Once we find it, they can develop self-confidence and project it into other areas.
There are so many different types of students. I have one student who knows no English and yet can participate in our drama productions. I have another from Japan who is newly arrived. Students who come from broken homes or have a nasty atmosphere at home are able to get away from that and express themselves through art rather than be bottled up and expected to memorize all of this information that doesn’t really mean very much to them.
Art helps them get in touch with themselves. A lot of times after having done a performance, even participating in a tiny little part, they will come and open up to you about various things they normally wouldn’t do. They come to realize that they can communicate to everybody there and to me and they end up feeling a little closer to me.
Our district is very innovative and encourages things like that. Not only does the administration let us do what we want, but they support us financially and there’s a lot of involvement of the PTA in our school and the community. Every time we put on one of these productions we invite the neighboring schools. So it becomes a pretty big thing and doesn’t get limited to something that you’re doing just in your classroom.
Everybody realizes the variety of information that’s being conveyed to the students. For example, when we do plays, one of the most important things is doing light and sound. Instead of just opening a book and asking what are the theories behind light and sound they actually learn how sound travels.
They know why they are learning--it’s not just because it’s in the book but because they actually can use this information. The emphasis is on what you can do with your education rather then learn it and get an A and that’s it.
Grading is not a problem. Cooperative learning is pretty big in our district. The kids do presentations and we have an oral language grade in our report card and that is pretty important. They use the information they have and do a presentation in front of the whole class.
They have to focus on an assigned area--say the plant life in the rain forest. They do overhead slides, and draw diagrams on the board labeling everything. I have told them I will be checking on how much information they have gathered on, for example, photosynthesis.
Every single student has something to offer. As a teacher its my job to find out what that thing is and to pull it out.
One of our lessons had to do with ancient Egypt. So I had one group working on Pharaoh’s court, another on how they would do things in the market place, another on what they believe about afterlife and a fourth group was working on gods and goddesses in ancient Egypt. The first step is for them to get together as a group and isolate information they find interesting. The second step was to get them to go to the library and get Egyptian music.
Once they get the information they use mime to the music and the rest of the class has to figure out what they are trying to convey. So they get on the tables while everybody else is watching them they act out, without any words, information they are trying to convey. While they are doing that the rest of the group is trying to write words for the mime. They are learning social studies but through spatial movements. They end up writing a script for a play.
This year we have talked about most of the Impressionist paintings and the kids not only try to interpret that art but also learn about the artists. It is interesting for them because they learn that many of the artists, when they were kids, had similar experiences to what a lot of these kids are going through.
In another instance they were reading John Lennon and he recalled his days sitting in the classroom wondering “when will these people realize what I have to offer--I have so much to offer but nobody seems to thinks I’m any good.” So we listen to Lennon’s music and then you tell the students this is how he felt how many of you have felt that way and they connect with it. We see the students excelling and then come back after junior high and it has worked for them. Ninety percent of what they watch on television news and elsewhere is so negative. We have to teach them to look for the positives in themselves.
