Shishu Bharati
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Shishu Bharati
School of Languages and Culture of India |
|
 |
|
| Sarve Bhadrani Pashyantu
(Let Everyone See Good)
|
|
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Lexington, Massachusetts USA |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Private, Non-profit Institution |
| Grades | Class KG - 8 |
| Established | 1980 |
| Homepage | http://www.shishubharati.org |
SHISHU BHARATI is a non-profit and entirely volunteer-managed school in New England area of the United States of America. The three branches of Shishishu Bharati are located in Lexington, Massachusetts, Nashua, New Hampshire and Norwood, Massachusetts. Shishu Bharati offers a broad spectrum of educational programs in the languages and cultures of India for students of all ages. As of today, Shishu Bharati has been engaged in community service in Massachusetts and New England area for over 25 years.
Since inception, Shishu Bharati's objective has always been to develop a sense of well-informed cultural pride in the students by exposing them to the Indian arts, customs, languages, history, geography, and current events.
The curriculum consists of well-established programs in Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Sindhi, as well as a comprehensive program in Indian Culture. The school also offers a kindergarten class for young children and Yoga and Advanced Culture classes for adults.
Contents |
[edit] History
Shishu Bharati was founded by a small group of parents who had immigrated to the U.S. from India and wanted to pass on the knowledge of their mother tongue and rich cultural heritage to their children. The need for classes in the Indian languages had become apparent when the children growing up in the United States had to communicate with their relatives and friends (in U.S.A. or in India) who did not speak English. These parents formed a small study group for their children. It gathered every Sunday in the home of one of the parents. Volunteers taught the group about India's cultural heritage and Indian languages.
As the group grew, it moved to St. Anne's School in Arlington, Massachusetts. By this time, the school had become a registered non-profit organization and was named "Shishu Bharati School".
Indian culture is an important piece of the mosaic formed by the American scene today. Shishu Bharati is essentially a bridge between the cultures of America and India where ideas can be exchanged freely from either side.
[edit] Recognition and Honors
On the 57th Republic Day of India, January 26, 2007, Shishu Bharati was honored with a Plaque of Recognition, for their tireless and dedicated service to New England community for over 25 years, by India Association of Greater Boston, the premier Indian-American umbrella organization in New England area.
[edit] Article from Shishu Bharati Newsletter
The following short article describes the historic perspective of starting Telugu language classes at Shishu Bharati, and depicts the noteworthy dedication of teachers and parents alike that overcome the challenging obstacles. It is reproduced from Shishu Bharati Newsletter (January 2005, Editors: Dilip Gandhi, Deodatta Shenai, Neil Tembulkar and Shilpa Desai).
Once Upon a Telugu Class….
Amruta E Eswara, Culture-6&4 Teacher
One day a girl, actually a woman, called me to find out if there is a Telugu class in Shishu Bharati because she was interested in learning Telugu. She was about 29(?), she said and was an attorney working for the State of Mass. She came to this country when she was very young and had no opportunity to learn Telugu since then and forgot what ever she knew before she came here. Now she wants to learn enough Telugu to b able to converse with her grandmother. She wanted learn enough language to be able to read her letters in Telugu and hopefully reply to her grandmother in Telugu. This was about 10-11 years ago, when SB was still in Burlington High. Of course, there was no Telugu class in the school at the time. For a class to start, the school needs at least 5 students. That tuition will break even the expenses incurred to rent an additional class room for the whole year. The committee in its generosity and absolute consideration to start a new class agreed to have a Telugu Language class for a single Student! Burlington High in its benevolent mood gave a whole music class for our use - just me and her in a huge class room trying to crank up Telugu alphabets.
To her credit, she did attend the class diligently for the next 6-7 years. In fact we continued our class into summer one year because she forgot all she learned over the past year when she returned to school next year after a long summer gap. During that time of 6-7 years she got married, translated & published a Telugu short story in English and gave up law to become a full time writer!
Several children came and left during all this time. The exceptions are Sundarasri & Venkayya garu with their daughter Keertana, Anjana & Kamalakar garu with their daughter Prasanna, Bala & Krishnamurthy garu with their son Abhilash. For a few years they were the only children in the Telugu class. They continued to participate full throttle in all Shishu Bharati programs as well as representing the school in local Telugu associations. Telugu class is still small but they reached a new mile stone last year by creating text Books for all levels. Shailaja, Geetha, Ms. Devadas are a few names that come to mind along with others who have been serious with the language class & Teaching materials. The result is that Keerthana will be completing Level-6 Telugu this year and will be eligible to participate in Telugu Essay Writing Competition for the first time
It will be nice to have more students join every year to keep the class going but for now Quality & Commitment have won over Quantity in accomplishing the job on hand and keeping the Telugu class alive
The reasons to learn one’s own mother tongue will not be the same in future as they were for the current and previous generations because unlike the current and previous generations, the “grandmothers” of the future will be highly educated, professionally-successful, globe-trekking, multilingual powerhouses. Grandchildren do not need Telugu to communicate with the “Grandma”.
Then, what should be the driving force for a language to survive?
Between the fist clenching proponents and “can’t be bothered” opponents, language can be a strong divisive force. These extremes will only mask the enchanting road, a road showered with fragrant blossoms of poetry/prose and sparkling gems of wisdom the poet/writer (Kavi) has created for us to discover and experience (Anubhava) in each language. Thus, a Language has to be learnt for its own sake, for its beauty and for its legacy.
"Culture is a Rainbow. Each language brings its own hue to that spectrum When a language is diminished or destroyed by negligence and /or sheer foolishness, the Rainbows will be duller, World will be poorer and the Heavens will be sadder."
