Mrs. Adhikari is the English Humanities teacher in the Middle School and is known by past and present students as a beloved teacher who leaves a lasting impression on anyone who enters her classroom.
Mrs. Adhikari grew up in a small town called Jamshedpur. Jamshedpur is about 150 miles west from Calcutta (Kolkata). Adhikari went to Kolkata for her higher education and came to America in the January of 1988.
Mrs. Adhikari started at WIS in September 1989, making her time here at WIS amount to nearly 28 years. As I talk with her, she recounts how times have changed. Not only has the world changed so much, how children learn has changed. Her teachers at primary school through to high school taught the students through memorization. Students were expected to memorize everything thrown out them, while Adhikari says that at WIS, the English Humanities class learns humanities through understanding the how and why of the past.
“When I was in school, the teachers told us what they knew, and we would repeat the answers back to them. It was all about answers. But I want my students to ask questions, because once they ask the questions they can understand understand more in depth than just the basic facts,.” Adhikari said.“I want them to ask why, for example, resources are higher in China and what effect it has on another country, and how it fuels a major event in history.”
Understanding the subjects taught is more important to Adhikari than remembering the dates and times of history. Through understanding how and why an event occurred we can connect history to the present and the future. We can learn from the past, and use our knowledge and understanding of it to deal with the world today, to make sure history really doesn’t repeat itself.
An 8th grade presentation required students to focus on an event that is happening in the present, and to connect their event to the past. Through presenting, students realized how we have moved forward, and in some cases stayed in the same place we were in many years ago. This gave the students a chance to reflect on the world both in the present and in the past, to know how to carry on in the future
“You must realize that human beings have memory, so know what happened in the past. So we shouldn’t follow the same path again and again. We should hopefully move forward and be better, whatever better means.” said Adhikari
Mrs. Adhikhari’s students have many fond memories of her class. Josephine Alemkinders, a ninth grader who had left Adhikhari’s class just last year. Almekinders remembers a great environment in the classroom, and that there was never a day when the students weren’t laughing and having fun while learning.
“She was always in a good mood and always happy, she was friends with her students I guess. She wasn’t just teaching us, she would tell us about her trips to New York, and things like that” said Almekinders.