My Remedial Experiences
What was my first impression of diksa?
At a time, when everything seemed very stressful, diksa was a welcome change. I met Sudha ma’am for the first time after a few months into grade 7. We got an appointment to meet her and to get my assessment done. When I first saw her I knew she was heading the place, I thought she would be strict. It’s still difficult to put the apprehension I felt into words. I thought it was going to be just like my other tuitions. But the way in which the place had been organized told me that it was going to be a lot different than what I had imagined. Contrary to all my expectations and previous perceptions, she was really kind and easy – going. She engaged me into a conversation about my hobbies and other interests. Shortly after that I was asked to go with Lalitha ma’am for an assessment. The assessment was easy, nothing too difficult. It involved a little bit of reading, dictation and math. But while I was out during the assessment, I was curious and worried about what my mother had to say to Sudha ma’am because often times even during our doctor visits I was always out when the adults talked. This was also because I hadn’t done too well at school since the start of that year.
But soon after the assessment was done I went back into the room. I saw that they were discussing my performance on the assessments. I didn’t quite know what to expect. Ma’am asked me what I thought about coming to diksa for classes thrice a week after school. In all honesty I was willing to do whatever it took to do better at school and so started my classes at diksa.
What was my experience of remedial classes a diksa? What did I do there? My time at diksa was probably the most comfortable. Being able to get, one on one with the teachers; the activities being simple yet challenging. I wouldn’t have to worry too much about the bell ringing or constantly having to check the clock to see how long I have to finish a certain task. The teachers were kind and welcoming. I was quite surprised initially. I didn’t think teachers could be kind considering how terrified I was of teachers or authority figures in general.
I was given tasks like comprehension, reading, sentence strategies, grammar, free writing and math (which I did not enjoy at all). Everything would be going fine until math was brought into the picture, I’d start whining the minute I saw the math book. Though Anuradha ma’am really tried her best to help me overcome my fear and dislike towards the subject, understanding math concepts was a battle.But somehow I couldn’t bring myself to like it, so I’d take it like a bitter pill.
I really enjoyed activities like pass prep and IE. With Instrumental enrichment especially it had a lot to do with thinking skills and perception. The instruments that I was given portrayed perspectives and pushed us to think in new ways. For instance, thinking before acting, why certain solutions aren’t ideal though it seems easy and being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes.
I attended diksa thrice a week for three and a half years.