Part 2 of 26 in What I Want to Tell My School Teacher: An Indian Adaptation of Letter to a Teacher← Part 1Part 3 →
This chapter is a letter from children who are failed by school, especially those from working families or homes where the textbook language is unfamiliar. It helps teachers and families recognize that the problem is not a lack of intelligence or effort, but a school that gives up on children.
- Children are failed when school sends them into fields, factories, construction sites, shops, and kitchens.
- The boys of Barbiana challenged the belief that some children were not made for school.
- Many children struggle because they lack support, familiar language, and time to understand lessons.
- Children from ordinary families are not stupid or lazy, but need a school that refuses to give up.
- Families can recognize that this problem has a name and history, and that it can be changed.
Dear Teacher,
You will not remember my name. You have failed so many of us.
I have often thought about you, and about the other teachers, and about that institution you call “school,” and about the boys and girls that you fail. You fail us right out into the fields, the factories, the construction sites, the shops, and the kitchens, and there you forget us.
In 1967 the boys of Barbiana wrote almost these same words. They had been told, in one way or another, that they were not made for school. Their priest refused to accept that verdict. He opened a school that ran from morning until night, seven days a week when needed. Older boys taught younger ones. They wrote collectively. They read the newspaper every day. They produced a book that is still read around the world.
India has changed in many ways since then, yet the same sentence can still be written by millions of children. Call me Raju or Lakshmi or Santosh or Aisha or Meena. I am the child who sits at the back. I am the one whose parents work with their hands. I am the one whose home language is not the language of the textbook. I am the one who, by Class 5, still struggles to read a Class 2 text with understanding. I am the one who disappears somewhere between Class 8 and Class 10.
You say you fail only the stupid and the lazy. When we live close to one another we see that we are neither. We understand things when someone takes the time to explain them in words we already know. We work hard at the tasks that matter to our families. What we lack is not intelligence or effort. What we lack is a school that refuses to give up on us.
This book is what I want to tell you. It is written for every teacher who stands in front of children from ordinary families. It is also written so that those families can read it and know the problem has a name and a history, and that it can be changed.
Frequently asked questions
Who is this letter to the teacher about?
It is about children who sit at the back, whose parents work with their hands, or whose home language differs from the textbook language.
Why does the writer say teachers fail children?
The writer says schools fail children by giving up on them and sending them into fields, factories, construction sites, shops, and kitchens.
Are children struggling in school stupid or lazy?
No. The chapter says they understand when lessons are explained in familiar words and work hard at tasks that matter to their families.
What does the chapter say children need from school?
They need a school that refuses to give up on them.