Our first panel intervention

Sunday, October 16, 2011















Today was our first intervention in a panel session called  “A broader and bolder education” where representatives from India, Singapore, UK, USA, Finland and we from Argentina, were able to express our experience about our own educational system and government policies.
I referred to present programs of “inclusion” in Argentina such as special education for students with disabilities, programs  for students who have left schools without getting a degree, special plans for those students who temporarily are unable to attend school due to health problems or because they have the necessity to help their parents who are unemployed, plans for students who live in the countryside, and special programs for adults to attend secondary school.
 
This night there was a welcome reception for all the resource teachers at one of the CMS. There we were received with a traditional ceremony of forehead painting. Once in India  you cannot leave without a stamp on your forehead called “bindi” that reads “Been to India.”
The bindi from the Sanskrit word 'bindu' or a drop, is perhaps the most visually fascinating of all forms of body decoration. Hindus attach great importance to this ornamental mark on the forehead between the two eyebrows, a spot considered a major nerve point in human body since ancient times, a big eye-catching round mark made on the forehead as adornment.
In southern India, girls choose to wear a bindi, while in other parts of India it is the prerogative of the married woman.  The following is a good site to learn about bindis and their meaning: http://hinduism.about.com/od/bindis/a/bindi.htm
We enjoyed the freshness and innocence of children performing for us, repeating with a special grace  “Thank youuuuu” 
Then pizza, yes...  pizza and some shopping.