Students’ Cultural Performances

Santa Claus is dancing on stage at the moment, with Ganesh, Krishna, and several Sikh, Kashmiri and Keralan dancers waiting their turn! I’m standing under a palm tree on the school assembly grounds in Bangalore, witnessing an amazing kaleidoscope of cultural presentations. Each day during the 15-20 minute morning assembly, a different class presents a short skit, song, or dance. The full participation is quite impressive, and every kid that steps up to the microphone (on stage in front of 2400 students) has their lines, or speech perfectly memorized.

Today they have expanded the program, as each 7th, 8th, and 9th grade section was assigned a specific holiday, traditional costume, or ceremonial dance to share. We spent an extra 2 hours outside, and saw dances from the Punjab, Kerala, Kashmir, and Karnataka. Traditional clothing from Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu… Diwali, Christmas, Holi, Onam, Eid, and other holidays traditions were demonstrated. I was very impressed with the students’ preparation and excitement in making their presentations, and also struck by the incredible diversity of this country, and of the students at my school.

The Kendriya Vidyalaya system is said to be one of the largest school “districts” in the world, with almost 1,000 schools scattered across India, serving 1 million students. The KV schools cater to children of civil servants, government employees, and military personnel, and have a nationally standardized curriculum, textbooks, and schedule. In theory, any child that gets transferred around India to a new city or military base, will jump right in on the same chapter in the same classes at the next KV they attend. In my first week of teaching, I’ve already had 2 students leave, and found that about 10 of my kids have only joined our school in the last few weeks.

With all the transferring around, each KV is like a little slice of India, with families from every state, religion, and language group all lumped together into a wonderfully diverse mixture. Most of my students speak 3 languages (Hindi, English, and their “home language”), and some speak 4 or 5. Todays cultural presentations really demonstrated the diversity that surrounds me every day… All of these costumes & all the dance moves are certainly personal traditions of several kids in each section. It was a real treat to see them having so much fun, and taking such pride in celebrating each others cultures!