Chetan

Share your thoughts openly and encourage discussion. Then, ask who else would like to share what this means for them. “There is no right answer and we can all choose different ways to make the most out of our lives.”

“Does Chetan’s life look like what we imagined before watching the video? Why or why not?” If you haven’t already talked about assumptions as a group, ask if someone can define what the word means. Then ask, “What do we assume about Chetan’s life? Do we think he enjoys what he does? Do we think he has a family?” Help students understand what assumptions they might be making by asking them to give reasons behind the answers to these questions. It’s important that we all understand where our assumptions come from. Feel free to watch the rest of the video. Now, let’s break down those assumptions further and read, “I Am Chetan.” “What would people in our community think about Chetan? Are street musicians valued for their talents? Do we view this as a respectable profession? What do you consider a meaningful profession?” Explain that many people in Chetan’s community don’t think of street musicians as having a very respectable job. “How might this be influencing his life? What about his self-worth?”

To practice adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers, students can help Chetan calculate how much money he needs to make from his new source of income (massage) to cover current costs as well as the costs that will double as his children grow older. Note: these numbers are 4-digits; to work with just 3-digit numbers, drop the 0 off the end, or convert the amount to your own currency (if the conversion results in 3-digit numbers). Just be sure to tell the students why you’re doing this. You could work together as a class to come up with a budget for Chetan, drawing it out on a giant poster board or somewhere else visually engaging. To practice working with money and comparing with multiplication, look at the bottom of page 3. Chetan describes how he uses the sense of touch to determine which coins he has in his pocket. You could reenact Chetan’s experience by loaning coins of similar values (one, two and five) to students as they calculate how much money Chetan has in his pocket. Use this number of coins and values to practice writing sentences that compare values, such as “14 is two times as big as 7.” Experiment with all the different ways you can write these. You can also do some research as a class to determine the conversion rate between rupees and your currency, then calculate how much money Chetan would have in your community. “What could he use this money for here?”

How can we recognize the difference between legitimate barriers and excuses?” Have the class split up into groups of 3‐4 and dig into this question: “What’s the difference between a reason and an excuse?” Go around the room and guide the conversation. You can ask for them to give examples of each. After the time is up, ask for volunteers to share what their group discussed. *For more information on the organization that supports Chetan visit www.swaradhar.info.

Invite students to share their thoughts, describing “Why you do or do not consider it a talent.” Offer a few examples of skills that may not be considered “talent” in your mainstream culture. “Why might we not see these as talents? In what ways could they actually be talents? How could we shift the way people think about these skills?” In this lesson you’ll be striving to instill self-confidence in your students by learning from Chetan’s journey from beggar to artist.

Challenge assumptions by pointing out, “This is Chetan’s ‘normal’. Do you think he considers his abilities to be a form of talent?” There is no right or wrong answer, it is just important to think about our perspectives. You could also ask, “What are the benefits to considering something a talent?” Next, read “Chetan Dada the Artist” to learn more about his journey as a musician. On page 2, he describes how his shift in perspective towards his music ability helped him feel like an artist as opposed to a beggar. To facilitate deeper empathy with Chetan’s reality, facilitate a taste & smell test activity that will help students imagine life without eyesight. “If a person cannot see, they may rely more on other senses. Have you thought about how smell and taste are connected to your experience of food?” Select a few similar foods for the group to smell or taste while blindfolded. Ask them to describe its qualities, for example, sour, bitter, mushy texture, etc. Then, discuss how the activity was challenging or easier for certain foods. “How did the group use their senses to guess the correct food? How might the experience of eating be for someone who is blind? What other daily activities might you have a different relationship with if you had no eyesight?”

At the end of the story on page 3, Chetan describes the ratio of people who tend to give him money now perceptions have changed, providing an opportunity to work with fractions with denominators of 10 and 100 as well as to compare decimals. “Why might it be important for Chetan to pay attention to how this shift in perspective impacts the amount of people who give him money?” Once students conclude that it is important for him to calculate how much he needs to work to cover the bills, ask for their help calculating the number of people in terms of fractions and decimals. He describes the amount of people out of */10 and */100, so you can practice finding equivalent fractions, decompose the fractions, and adding the fractions. Use number lines and other visual aids, perhaps including blocks. “How might blocks assist Chetan when he is doing math? What else might help him?” Wrap up by converting the fractions into decimals, comparing the numbers, and illustrating accordingly. Work on critical thinking by asking, “What would we need to know to figure out how many days Chetan needs to work to pay his bills? How would we solve this?”

Is it even important to tell the difference? How might shifting our perspective to recognize a talent or to embrace our own personal norm impact us? How did it impact Chetan?”

As a class, assess whether one sense is overwhelmingly the favorite. “Why? Is there a sense that we didn’t value as much? Let’s find out why. What are our favorite things to experience with these senses?”

Once we’ve come to an answer, continue playing the rest of the video. “Despite Chetan not being able to see, what senses do you think he enjoys?” repare to guide students through a short mindfulness exercise, “We’re going to take a couple quiet moments to imagine what Chetan feels on a daily basis. Begin by finding a comfortable place in the classroom where you can still hear my voice and close your eyes.” Once students are settled in their spot, guide them through the exercise by encouraging them to take a couple deep breaths, and notice the sensation inside their body. Ask them to pay attention to what they hear. What they feel. Do they notice any tastes? Be creative and take your time. After the exercise, debrief by asking “What did you notice? What surprised you? What were you thinking about during this exercise?” Now let’s read more about how Chetan navigates his community. Read the Learning Journey story, Chetan’s Community. Use the green reflection questions posed by Chetan in the story to encourage critical thinking about helping others in your community and what it may be like to navigate without sight.

On page 1, Chetan describes how counting steps and memorizing routes helps him navigate familiar places, like his community. For quick practice converting between fractions and decimals, ask students to rewrite the amount of steps he has taken to the train station as a fraction and a decimal. To practice drawing lines, ask them to map out the points along the train station line he describes in the story. They can recognize that rays are missing. To work more in depth with these concepts, take on Chetan’s suggestion for students to map out their own favorite or important spots in their community using lines, line segments, rays, and angles. “Let’s step into Chetan’s shoes and practice mapping out our community they way he might in his head!” You could use your school building as the case-study, or students could imagine their own home, or the entire town in which they lie. Another option would be for students to imagine what Chetan’s community looks like based on the video and story, and create a fictional map accordingly. This could become very interactive, with students counting steps from their classroom to other places in the school, and marking distances in terms of steps with fractions and decimals on their map. For example, they could illustrate that the bathroom is along the same line as the lunch room, but .5 the amount of steps. Invite students to share their map in pairs, “describing it as you might to a new schoolmate/community member who you’re helping navigate their new territory!”

What might be some of the benefits of being blind? What are some of Chetan’s other traits and qualities? If you saw Chetan around town, what would you think of him? Would you feel sympathy or empathy? What’s the difference? Do you think people who are blind want us to feel sympathetic or empathetic?” Try to guide students toward recognizing that blindness is just one of many traits with which a person may live.