Teaching Worldwide Anonymous

"Areh bache! Return to class!"

The teacher's booming voice couldn't stop them. The students, identically dressed in white polo shirts, navy shorts, and polished shoes, climbed on top of one another to see if they could catch a glimpse. "There it is!" a student yelled as he pointed at a robotic puppy running across the floor of the classroom. With an ultrasonic sensor fixed to its head, the puppy scanned the room, and "chose" to scurrying around the chairs, bumping into, then maneuvering around the legs of the principal, Ms. Sujata Kumar. I tried to study her face for a reaction. The kids gave a roaring applause, chanting, "More! More!" As the teachers hastily ushered the students back to class, I worried that my presentation had gone wrong. Was I too disruptive? Would she see my robotics curriculum as educational? The principal sternly surveyed the classroom, tables and seats ajar. Even the robotic puppy seemed nervous.

Let's take a step back for a moment.

"What's that?" Vihaan, a younger neighbor of mine, pointed at the First Lego League robotics table across my living room. The table had an inordinate number of robot parts, ranging from microcomputers to temperature sensors. Vihaan wanted to know everything about...