Regional representation report 13 (Gismo - 9 / URGENT)
Hare Krsna dear Gurumaharaja
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada !
I apologize in advance, because this message will not be short. I have already sent my proposal for the BhVai questionnaire in Chapter 3 of the 2nd Canto to your e-mail. I hope it agree with what you have in mind. Please allow me to make the necessary corrections otherwise.
HpS - We hope that MOnkey and Piggy get to it and we can help! You class was wonderful. We sent the link to Atul, Yadu Swam et al. SO was Isvari's. We can help with ed. dev. in ISKCON at the highest of its levels.
If you are satisfied with the questions, I would ask you to allow me to continue with another chapter. Honestly I have learned many things from this experience and I have had a good time doing something that I really like which is research.
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On the other hand, and with regard to the education landscape in Peru and the region, I would like to share some ideas with you, as well as some doubts with the purpose of knowing your point of view.
Bhakti sastri :
- At the moment things are moving to the rhythm of their possibilities. Only a few online programs maintain their activities. I just had a conversation with Deva Deva Vyasa prabhu who starts a Bhakti Sastri course this weekend with 71 enrolled! ( wow ! if most of them finish the course, they will generate irreparable brain damage to our examiner!) The good thing about all this is that the devotee is willing to collaborate with the MOE and we periodically have conversations on Skype to clarify the doubts he may have. Their intentions are to continue with institutional policies and offer an official course. LAD and I continue with our program separately and everything is presented without further inconvenients. Both courses will be ending before the middle of next year.
- CMDD BS examiner record was rejected as she lacks training in Teacher Training Education courses 1, 2 and 3. Bhaktarupa prabhu asked me to at least she must take the TTC3 course. Her extensive teaching career is recognized, but BoEx devotees have raised the bar , with which I fully agree. Param Padam prabhu offers teachers recommended by the MOE 50% discount on any of their courses, so in the coming weeks LAD, CMDD, me, Rupa Gosai and Deva Deva from Bolivia will acquire this training. After obtaining the certificate, I will resubmit the file of our future examiner.
- Last minute news! Guayaquil is starting two BS courses next week (one line / classroom) with Rupa Gosai prabhu, I have just had a kind conversation with Guru Mangala prabhu who has shared with us their needs , expectations and concerns on education. He sends you greetings and his best wishes for your sankirtan program.
- The educational tide is pervading and nurturing each corner of this land of God, by the grace of Sri Sri Radha Madana Vihari. All glories to his Lordships! I'm so, so, so happy.
Pada Padma ( BhVai )
- LAD has formed a small but enthusiastic group of students that I am pleased to be part of. We started as a larger group but little by little we were reducing. The level of discussion is interesting and the commitment of the participants is serious. It may be necessary to work on the study material which seems to me, it does not have the level of the material developed for BS yet, but the effort is being made. This first official experience is meeting the expectations of the temple and the students.
Introduction to Bhakti- yoga
- Isvari Radha devi dasi is finishing the annual course with a small but highly motivated group with a strong inquisitive profile. Hopefully by the second half of this year we can start another group online. Very comprehensive study guides have been developed. The first five topics of the course were developed by me and the second five, by madre Isvari . The material is organized in the form of synoptic charts and diagrams and is serving as a model for the study guides I am developing for my Bhakti Sastri course . Later, we can put it all together in a database. The important thing is that this material is in Spanish entirely. My intention is to make it interactive and include hyperlinks that allow less linear and more dimensional access. Little by little I am working on this idea.
Strategies:
- I suggest to change certain paradigms regarding educational administration. The ISKCON Chosica temple can be the point of origin for these transformations that can then be replicated (as necessary) in the rest of the region. The administrators of some centers have a somewhat rural idea of what ISKCON development can represent, locally and globally. For decades, educational services have facilitated administrative issues, such as initiations, which generate labor for the practical services of the temple, which is what matters most to these sectors. The education of two or three devotees (no more) to teach the weekend classes is also part of their interests but without the intention of facilitating a platform for collective and personal growth for the majority of the members, according to their service. and position in the VAD. Therefore, since education becomes an instrument of political exploitation, they have no greater interest in understanding the possibilities of sustained growth for their communities.
- The old culture of the temple education officer appointed by the authorities is still very much in force. The temples have remained isolated from each other and the temple educator ran the universe for his congregation , and (literally) was unaware of what was going on in other spaces . There are devotees who have a hard time coordinating, I think it is important to meet to find ways to understand the purposes of the MOE. Only in this way, education in Peru and the region can be articulated with the ISKCON pedagogical current worldwide trend.
- The administration of the sastric courses (BS, Pada Padma - BhVai , Introduction to Bhakti Yoga (IBY) and Disciples Course) should be more orderly, locally speaking. BS has two teachers, an administrator and an examiner, I propose to replicate the model in the others. IBY also: administrator, examiner and one or two teachers, depending on demand. Pada Padma will conform to a similar scheme when we can access BhVai accreditation and the Disciples Course is examined by the same teachers but I also propose an administrator. The administrator should be responsible for overseeing compliance with course standards, providing content, and serving as a link between examiners and teachers.
- In this way, I strongly beleive a specialization should be developed in each course. Teachers must specialize in one course (or two at most, as it is done in the universities). Multi task teacher who gives 3 or 4 courses corresponds to an educational system of a smaller scale and of little scope. It seems to me that we must turn each course into a program, supervised by the MOE and the national education officer. This is what is being done globally.
- It may be necessary to give teachers more tools, although the TTC courses are not a panacea, they serve to organize a language and didactic and pedagogical standard. Param Padam prabhu wants to collaborate with the MOE, I will take him at his word.
- I do not know if it is possible to develop an online seminar program with MOE's accreditation, something like diplomas on various topics, given by devotees in two, three or four 2-hour sessions. These certificates can allow devotees to access specialized services in temples or abroad. I haven't fully developed the idea but I think it can be interesting. Would a MOE-certified program be possible? I'm presenting in short a project to you an TMd for its discussion, if you allow me, Gurudeva.
- It is necessary for devotees interested in children's education to hone their skills. For this I think that a network of early childhood education training can be developed that formally links educators in the region with educators in Dallas or Houston (or elsewhere) , that way they get enthused and can apply that knowledge in their own jobs (many of them work as teachers or education assistants in schools).
- What about the Sastra Mela in june? Which are the details or where can I look at them? It's an open invitation for all the regional teachers?
I regret the length of this message. I am looking forward to your opinions and recommendations, Gurumaharaja . May Lord Nrsimhadeva take care of your sankirtan .
Your servant
Gandharva das
OOOh!! Sri Sri Gaura Nityananda have given us their infinite mercy by allowing us to worship them at home, these two beautiful deities have come to light up our lives due to the generous heart of our beloved sister Nitya Kisori devi dasi, the Lord bless her always!!. Nitai Gaura Haribol !!!!
HpS - Gaura nitai Ki Jai!! We had to start scanning the letter and could not read everything. It is far to technically advanced for us. I don't see the institution being able to handle such a complicated system. Hmmm! It depends on how you can develop relations. I have a nice but simple relation with the BOEX now. I don't know how it will develop or disappear. Our ideas may be lost. ISKCON may fade away after 100-years and Krsna come again and start another. He will never give up.
- Who am I? Two Mantras are enough, first. Then on that BASIS how do other books fit in.
- SB class on some day. NOI evening on the other days. Is working well.
- Bonk.. We ge tired... Hare Krsna Hare Krsna!! Priorities. Personal relations then building systems that people THOSE people will maintain. Moltke, "No plan of battle survives after the first thirty minutes of serious contact with the enemy".
Thank you for this letter!!! Any close friends in these projects?
