From: Uma Krishnaswami <uma>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 12:29:13 -0700

 From someone who was educated in India, where many English-medium schools were (at least 20 years ago) modeled willy-nilly on the Brit public ed structure, I'd like to point out that the houses are most likely just a take on the "houses" in a British public school. Haven't read the NYTBR article, so don't know if Pico Iyer (who also comes from an Indo-Brit experiential mix) addresses that at all. But -- no gang connotations as far as I can perceive. Just a belief, agree with it or not, that if you organize kids in teams to outperform each other on everything from sports to academics to service projects, they'll push themselves to realize their potential. The houses in my school, albeit sporting Indian names like Shanti and Vikas, carried almost exactly the same mindset as Griffindor, etc. Was it good education? Anybody's guess. Is it what Rowling's spoofing? No question in my mind!

All best,

Uma

Uma Krishnaswami Writer 765 County Road 3000 Aztec NM 87410 50525H17 uma at cyberport.com
Received on Thu 11 Nov 1999 01:29:13 PM CST