Part 10 of 26 in What I Want to Tell My School Teacher: An Indian Adaptation of Letter to a Teacher← Part 9Part 11 →
This chapter offers practical ways teachers can support children who are behind, absent, or excluded by language and social assumptions. It helps teachers use their limited classroom power to protect dignity, connect lessons to children’s lives, and support real learning.
- Give children who are behind small, regular forms of extra support.
- Protect children’s dignity around home languages, accents, and non-standard language.
- Use familiar examples from children’s lives to teach abstract ideas.
- Let children discuss current events and disagree as practice for citizenship.
- Notice absence and make an effort to interrupt a child’s exit from school.
You are not the whole system. You are one adult in one room with a finite number of children. That is still considerable power.
Do not treat the child who is behind as already lost. Find small, regular ways to give extra time—ten minutes at the end of the day, a pairing with a stronger student, a short note to the parent that says exactly what the child can now do and what the next concrete step is. Promotion without learning helps no one; neither does failure that simply pushes the child out.
Protect the child’s dignity around language. If you do not speak the home language, learn a few words and use them. Let the child first explain an idea in the language of home, then help translate it into the language of the textbook. Never permit laughter at an accent or a non-standard form.
Anchor lessons in the child’s actual world. Percentages can be taught with the price of vegetables or the daily wage. History can begin with what grandparents remember of the village or the city. Science can start with the handpump, the mobile phone, the monsoon, or the bus that does not come. Abstract examples that assume a middle-class urban life exclude before they instruct.
Once a week, read a short item from a newspaper or a simple article and ask what the children think. Let them disagree with you and with each other. This is practice in the skills of citizenship that Barbiana placed at the centre.
Notice absence. A child who stops coming has usually not become lazy overnight. A phone call, a conversation with a sibling, or a visit can sometimes interrupt the exit. You will not succeed every time. The attempt itself teaches the remaining children that they are seen.
You cannot abolish the coaching industry or rewrite caste hierarchies from your classroom. You can refuse, in the hours you control, to treat the child in front of you as pre-sorted. You can decide that this child will learn something real today.
Frequently asked questions
How can a teacher help a child who is behind?
A teacher can give extra time, pair the child with a stronger student, and send a parent a note describing what the child can do and the next concrete step.
How should teachers support children who speak a different home language?
Teachers can learn a few words in the home language, let children explain ideas in that language first, and help translate them into the textbook language.
How can lessons connect with children’s actual lives?
Teachers can use examples such as vegetable prices, daily wages, grandparents’ memories, the handpump, the monsoon, or a bus that does not come.
What should a teacher do when a child stops attending school?
The teacher can make a phone call, speak with a sibling, or visit. The attempt may sometimes interrupt the child’s exit and shows remaining children that they are seen.