A final cup of tea...

As we touched down at Heathrow just over a week ago Giles squeezed my knee and said, "babe, we're home". Bursting with excitement, we'd talked non-stop all the way about returning to friends, family, hot showers, a hair cut (which Giles is still resisting), roast dinners, a comfy bed, crisp white sheets, central heating, Cadbury's chocolate... things we'd been dreaming of for months.

It's great to be back, and Christmas with our families was as fun and overindulgent as we'd imagined. However, as I reflect from the comfort of a pocket-sprung mattress adorned with Egyptian cotton sheets and down duvet, the simple things we'd been dreaming of now feel like comparative luxuries.

The whole experience in India has been a real leveller; I now find myself questioning everything. For instance, who on earth who paid for the study that the BBC reported on last week revealing the positive correlation between families who sit down to enjoy meals together and the likelihood of the children consuming the recommended 5 a day? Surely this is the most basic form of common sense. There's no doubt that we live in a very different world, but have we actually got it right?

North India's fuss-free subsistence-style living might not be glamorous, but what they do have - and significantly provide for their children - are their most basic needs: love, nutrition and a close family bond. My teacher training highlighted the importance of these fundamentals, proved, obviously, by numerous (expensive) studies, and yet here in the developed world we compromise love and family time through our striving to run dual income homes to pay for 'essentials'.

Of course it's not this clear cut; many families here in the UK aren't lucky enough to have even one income, but look at the safety net that's there to catch them. Having no income in India renders you to the streets; a life so tough that we couldn't begin to imagine... even the badly disabled find themselves working, albeit begging. Imagine their faces if they saw what unemployment provides for families in this country... They wouldn't begin to comprehend that so much is available to those who do not or cannot work. This isn't a welfare rant, but all I ask is this: when we moan about being hard up, ask yourself whether you're missing an essential or a luxury.

An essential that we saw very few going without was food; abundant in our little corner of India! We almost had to rev ourselves up for the 3-times daily feed of rice and dal, mountains of which were generously loaded onto our plates. The staple diet in India is brilliantly healthy: pulses, rice, vegetables and the odd protein treat of eggs or sinewy meat. When we asked the kids about western-style treats such as burgers and chips, most had tried them and they all agreed that they tasted of very little. The low-fat spice infused curry was still their favourite, and we've subsequently discovered that the same is true for ourselves! Despite our fantasies of crispy sausages and sticky toffee pudding, we found ourselves at a bit of a loss when we got home as to what to make for lunch. Morrisons' extensive choice served to confuse rather than inspire and so we found ourselves making our much-loved watery lentil delight and enjoyed it with a huge plate of rice... The sausages still remain in the fridge!

As I think about the past 3 months I realise just how much we have learned. Giles and I went to India to teach, and yet it's us who received the real education. The door's always open in India, and within a couple of weeks we were an established part of the community. Not even our unusual skin tone or passion for running up massive hills in Lycra stood in the way of open invitations into the homes of complete strangers to be welcomed as friends. What we learned was that people prioritise people; they share what little they have with whomever is in their home. Likewise their family values are impeccable; old age isn't outsourced to a sterile clinic, they care for their relations from the beginning to the very end. The practicalities aren't an issue; it's simply a duty they'd never question.

Of course the teaching and general school assistance was what we really went to India for, and many perceived this decision as career suicide for a chemistry teacher in the making. Why turn down a job in a well resourced school in favour of the most basic teaching experience to date? Here's why...

For 3 months we ditched technology and regulation for the raw challenge of teaching without resources and boundaries. We wrote the rule book. Where there was no microscope we simply made cell models from pasta instead. Bicarb and vinegar gave the students their first chemical reaction; a tape measure was all we needed to introduce the concept of data collection, analysis and calculating averages. Our imaginations fired on all cylinders as we trawled Pedong's basic markets and took props from the surrounding environment in search of lesson inspiration.

Without the safety net of PowerPoint it's easy to feel a little exposed but wow, chalk is empowering! Even the most well-planned lessons spiralled into uncharted territory as the children became confident in asking questions, and I in answering them. Impromptu analogies flowed freely, and even memory rhymes were composed on the spot in an effort to make learning fun. No paper qualification can quantify what we have learned, but in pressing pause on the usual career trajectory I have honed some valuable skills.

What was great to see first-hand was the evidence that children really do learn best when empowered to think for themselves. Rote is so detrimental and really does serve only to produce parrots, not thinkers. As we gradually removed the 'repeat after me' ethos, we uncovered classes of thinkers and doers. Perhaps the best quote of all came from Prashant in class 4 when asked why rocks fall out of the sky during a lesson on gravity. He simply replied 'because they have no wings'! -We couldn't fault the logic!

I have never felt more motivated in my life. Every grain of effort was rewarded, and yet for the first time in my life I was working for nothing but job satisfaction. Teaching really is a vocation for those that want to make a difference, and with a classroom of smiling faces it's impossible to put anything but your best effort into every single lesson.

So what next? Well, Giles begins his career as a management consultant and I look forward to continuing teaching. Whether it's in this country, another, or even a bit of both still remains to be seen, but our continuing work with FutureSense is inevitable. Here's to the next cup of tea.... Happy new year to one and all, and thanks for following our adventures. I promise we're pressing pause and not stop.