Bucks
Tat Moyer
Dear friends,
Good morning. “This is a calling for me,” Tat Moyer began. “I had to go back.” That’s how Theodora “Tat” Moyer, the Vice Chairman of the Palisades School Board described her teaching trips to rural India.
Tat’s been an educator throughout her life…most of it in the Palisades school district. Thirty of the 34 years have been with youngsters in kindergarten. “I was never bored,” she told me. “Kids can teach you so much.”
Four years ago, she agreed to teach for a month in an orphanage in India. And she spent $3,500 of her own money to do so. Tat had heard about Global Volunteers, a program headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota. “Global Volunteers sends teams of volunteers to work on short-term development projects world wide,” its website revealed. Global Volunteers connect folks who want to travel and serve with volunteers in various countries.
She told me a dazzling story about her experience with 100 children living in an orphanage in 2002. It was her first trip to India. “I was so loved in ’02, that I had to return,” Tat continued. “It’s a wonderful way to explore a different culture.”
She’s so inquisitive. You can understand why a kindergartner would get off to a splendid academic start with her in the classroom. I know adults who thank their lucky stars that Tat Moyer was their kindergarten teacher.
“I taught in a poor private [Indian] school,” she continued. “Parents pay 80 Rupees per month, the equivalent of $2. None of the children had ever spoken to an English speaking person before I got there.” Her assignment was to teach conversational English. The children could sound out words but they didn’t know what the words meant.
“You can’t have a conversation unless you have interesting things to talk about,” she quipped. “I’d have them tell me what they did last night after getting home from school,” Tat added, “or ask them what they saw on the way to school. It was so hard for them.” She took them on a hike to take pictures and then have the children describe the photos…a sort of photographic essay, she explained.
How did it go after three weeks, I asked?
“After much frustration, the kids came out with more fluid expressive English,” Tat replied.
She described life in the village where she taught. “Abject poverty is everywhere,” she began. “A typical house is just a ten by ten foot room with mats on the floor for sleeping. There’s an outhouse. Families cook outside. The house has one electric light, no windows and one door.” The families are small, she told me, generally with two children. With a population of one billion, India is obviously encouraging birth control.
“Families were so thrilled that I went to their homes,” Tat said. “I was the first American who actually visited their home.” In her four weeks in India, she worked with fifth graders. “The kids loved the picture dictionaries,” Tat smiled. “The key to it is to use kids’ energies positively.” She’s obviously learned much in her three decades of teaching youngsters.
I asked Tat about her love of travel. “I’m an interactive person,” she responded. “I can’t just travel and look.” She coined a term, “cultural anthropology,” as an academic discipline. Judging by her love of teaching and her willingness to share, I’d say Tat Moyer is the personification of cultural anthropology.
You can learn more about Global Volunteers by visiting its website on the Internet: www.globalvolunteers. Will Tat Moyer return to India in a few years? I have no doubt that she will. “But you do have to be watchful for cobras and scorpions,” she laughed.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith