Today we attended the IQC meeting at the California Department of Education. It went fairly well. The board began by discussing each section of their new draft of an introductory paper which outlines: State Educational Assessment (testing); programs for English Language Learners (as CA has a large number of kids learning english); how to address special needs kids; and Professional Development for Teachers (describing how to approach and organize a subject they are teaching). Though not directly related to why we were there, it was a fantastic look at the depth and challenges of teaching and what goes in to guiding the State's approach to education at higher levels. The first few hours were primarily the board members making line by line suggested edits for it. 

Following that and a short lunch break, the board opened things up for public comment. This was another opportunity for groups to give their input on the upcoming draft narrative revision for History and Social Studies k-12. Arumuganathaswami gave testimony, giving examples of reoccurring problems in textbooks such as their presentation of caste as being the most important aspect of Hinduism. There were several Hindu groups at the meeting who all gave public testimony. Thankfully the HSS and HEF brought some of their children to testify, and they made some very powerful presentations. Each of the youth took on a different subject, such as the lack of inclusion of Yoga, Ayurveda, basic Hindu Philosophy, etc. in the current standards. One girl described how in her 6th grade class, the teacher had them do a role playing exercise of caste as described in the books. Students were assigned castes and those of higher caste were given the ability to cheat during the exercise. The whole thing portraying to all the students firsthand that Hinduism was an outdated, twisted and cruel religion, while totally avoiding philosophy of any kind. She described how this directly reflected in how her classmates treated her after that. They now thought that all her religion was about was blatant social inequality. In observing the board members, many were both shocked and disgusted that such thing could happen in a classroom today. So overall it was another good attempt to educate the board on what the problems we're facing really are. 

In the afternoon we made the long, four-hour drive down i-5 to northern Bakersfield (just above LA). It is a land of farm fields and flat, long, dusty roads. Very different from Kauai…

Taking a stroll through the monastery one can find many monks doing many things. Join us for a quick afternoon tour.