“My Third Eye Sees” by our students

My third eye sees myself meeting Dev.
My third eye sees myself playing cricket.
My third eye sees myself dancing in front of the Taj Mahal.
My third eye sees myself meeting Koyel.
My third eye sees chow mein.
My third eye sees myself playing badminton.
My third eye sees myself playing football.
My third eye sees myself meeting Salman Khan.
My third eye sees myself playing cricket with Shahrukh Khan.
My third eye sees myself chewing Nimki.
My third eye sees myself reading Bengali books.
My third eye sees myself eating fruits.
My third eye sees myself eating chili chicken on top of a mountain.
My third eye sees myself riding an elevator in a tall building.
My third eye sees the Penn students visiting my house.
My third eye sees myself standing at the top of the Taj Mahal.
My third eye sees myself riding in a flying car.
My third eye sees myself riding a horse.
My third eye sees myself as a flying bird.
My third eye sees myself walking on the moon.
My third eye sees myself riding a ferry.

A few short comments:

This is an exercise I learned from Michelle Taransky while coordinating Write-On! last semester. The major similarity I see between West Philly middle school students and these students is their adoration of celebrities. This also highlights their focus on their technically possible dreams.

We told them from the beginning to focus on fantastic ideas, not things that they can do in this reality. We decided to thoroughly reemphasize that after they produced a chain of dreams about meeting celebrities and playing sports. The very next statement: “My third eye sees myself reading Bengali books.” With the way these kids have shown that they can learn, I have no doubt that many or most of them will be able to read Bengali books if they continue with school. Only about 50% will enter the government school system when their time at this schoolhouse ends.

I’m quite excited to ride elevators and eat fruit when I get home.

I’ll be posting a “My third eye sees…” by Pratit members in the near future.