Kalathilpady
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Kalathilpady (also spelt as Kalathilpadi) is an area on the suburbs of Kottayam town in the state of Kerala in south India. It is about 3 km from the town center located on the Kottayam Kumili (KK) road.
It is known for the three famous schools of Kottayam, Marian Junior, Pallikoodam (formerly called Corpus Christi High School) and Girideepam. The priests of the Order of the Imitation of Christ (OIC) run Girideepam. Kalathilpady is situated close to the town of Kanjikuzhy and is well connected by bus and taxis.
[edit] Pallikoodam school
Pallikoodam (n: translation - school in Malayalam) is an 'experimental' school in the small town of Kottayam in Kerala, South India. Mrs. Mary Roy, women’s rights activist and educator, established Pallikoodam in 1967 as Corpus Christi School (Name change c. 1999). The school grew in size and reputation over the following years with a self-proclaimed emphasis on all-round education, which was intended to be a departure from the academics-oriented education that was (and still tends to be) the norm in India.
Students at Pallikoodam are 'encouraged' to make music, dance, act, play and do everything that their hearts desire, in order to make them more complete, multi-faceted human beings. The main aim is to enrich the students with the true meaning of education, apart from textbook knowledge. Students, part of this society, are said to be able to survive in any situation. The extent of the success of this experiment is, of course, debatable, as the school has come under criticism for its lack of a clear plan of action regarding science education and its lack of emphasis on academic activities in general, making the entire learning experience skewed towards the non-academic. In particular, Pallikoodam's standard textbook approach to science education goes against its own claim of providing students with ways to learn beyond the limits of standard school curricula. This appears to be well removed from the school's handling of humanities subjects where projects, discussions and extra reading are preferred modes of learning. Another charge leveled against the school is that the entire extracurricular component of education is stage-managed, with students being arbitrarily assigned to various activities with little regard for interest or talent. A lack of aspiration for student achievement has also been alleged, as the vast majority of students have been observed to have had their 'fingers in too many pies', [spread thin from too many activities] while not having been able to focus on developing a particular skill to the point where it serves to contribute significantly to their growth as individuals. Critics have often pointed to the autocratic structure of the school as the primary reason for its "schizophrenic development."
Over the years, criticism notwithstanding, the school has come to be counted as one of the better educational institutions in the state of Kerala, if not all of India. Remarkable aspects of the school include a picturesque campus designed by noted architect Laurie Baker. Unlike 'traditional' school architecture, the classrooms are distributed about the campus and this provides a more comfortable learning environment for students, and top-of-the-line facilities for all things 'play' include a swimming pool, basketball and volleyball courts, a football field, an 800-seat auditorium, and various platforms for theater and other performing arts interspersed throughout the campus. The school has full-time faculty for sports, drama, music, dance and other arts. Eminent visitors who have contributed to Pallikoodam included Sanjana Kapoor and the Prithvi Players, Jaan Freeman, Atul Kumar, Phyllis Bose, Anila Malkani.
The school is known for its activism in areas such as the environment and women's rights. It has partnered with various activist organizations including Greenpeace, EXNORA, and several NGOs in Kerala for various projects. Victim relief efforts have been organized by the school in the wake of disasters such as the Orissa cyclones and the 2005 Tsunami. The school was a subject of a documentary by the Indian broadcaster Doordarshan entitled "Mary Roy and Corpus Christi." In addition to this, projects of the school have been featured on BBC World and Star News.
An 'upside' of the Pallikoodam/Corpus Christi experiment is the many notable alumni who have continued their educations not only at some of the finest institutions of higher education in India such as the IITs, the IIMs, St. Stephen's College, St. Xavier's College and NLSIU, but some of the most prominent institutions of higher education in the world such as Oxford, Cambridge, London School of Economics and Harvard University.
A 'downside' as suggested above is the belief among some of the school's alumni that given the extracurricular activities being fine, more emphasis on academics and a less skewed academic focus would help the school to be even better. It is a fact that the school library, although having a good collection of Malayalam and English fiction and general literature, is not very well stocked in world literature and popular science works. In addition, there are concerns that the "autocratic" functioning of the school neither allows students to develop true feelings of independence and self-confidence, nor to develop a true sense of responsibility for their actions. In recent times, the tendency of teachers to try to run every aspect of a child’s life has also caused concern. Concerns abound about Mrs. Roy's advancing age and the question of a worthy successor, and whether such an individual would be fit to take the school forward with the same dynamism and vigor she has shown. To resort to an oft-repeated cliché, 'only time will tell.'
Find here a testimony to the color and vibrance of Pallikoodam by Russell Parsons, OAM, Olympic torchbearer and acclaimed swimming coach, regarding his experience at Pallikoodam.
