What I Want to Tell My School Teacher: An Indian Adaptation of Letter to a Teacher

Indian student walks through a school courtyard toward a teacher in an adaptation about education and unheard children
5 min read

Series · 26 partsStart with Part 1 →

You’re sitting in a classroom, feeling unheard, grappling with the weight of expectations that seem to crush rather than uplift. I’ve seen students like you, caught in a system that often prioritizes rote learning over genuine understanding. This series reflects my thoughts on education, inspired by the struggles and triumphs of real students. I want to share what I’ve learned from their stories and my own experiences. Each chapter addresses a different facet of our education system, aiming to spark a conversation about what truly matters. You might find some chapters resonate more than others; read them in whatever order speaks to you.

The accusation

  1. A Note to the Reader: This note introduces What I Want to Tell My School Teacher, an Indian adaptation of Letter to a Teacher.

  2. Chapter 1: Dear Teacher: 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.

  3. Chapter 2: Schools that Cure the Healthy: This chapter examines how schools can reward children who arrive prepared while leaving behind those facing language, attendance, family, or material barriers.

  4. Chapter 3: Raju and Aryan — Two Boys, One Country: This chapter compares the school experiences of Raju, a village child in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Aryan, a child in a gated community outside Delhi.

  5. Chapter 4: The Language of Power and the Language of Home: This chapter examines how school language can exclude children when formal or high-status languages replace the languages spoken at home.

  6. Chapter 5: The Exam Factory and the Coaching Industry: This chapter examines how Indian schooling and coaching turn learning into preparation for marks, ranks, and entrance examinations.

  7. Chapter 6: Stories from the Fields, the Bastis, and the Hills: This chapter shares stories of children whose schooling is shaped by illness, caste discrimination, language barriers, poverty, migration, and inadequate support.

  8. Chapter 7: What the Numbers Continue to Show: This chapter examines how schooling outcomes in India remain shaped by caste, tribe, class, location, and family resources.

A different school

  1. Chapter 8: What Barbiana Actually Did: This chapter describes the concrete teaching practices at Barbiana and the purpose behind them.

  2. Chapter 9: What I Want You to Do, Teacher: This chapter offers practical ways teachers can support children who are behind, absent, or excluded by language and social assumptions.

  3. Chapter 10: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Us Do This Better: This chapter explains how artificial intelligence can extend patient, adaptive learning support to more children in India.

  4. Chapter 11: To Parents and to Students: This chapter speaks to parents and students about understanding learning beyond report card marks.

  5. Chapter 12: A Final Word: This chapter closes What I Want to Tell My School Teacher with proposals for teachers, parents, and students who reject early failure.

From criticism to practice

  1. Afterword: On Publication and on AI: This afterword explains how the chapters can be read and published as a series, and invites responses from teachers, parents, students, and others.

  2. Chapter 13: Peer Teaching and the Power of Older Students: This chapter explains how older students can teach younger students, strengthening learning for both while giving teachers more time for advanced support.

  3. Chapter 14: Reading the Newspaper and Writing for Real Audiences: This chapter explains how reading newspapers and writing for real audiences can help students think critically, participate in civic life, and communicate clearly.

  4. Chapter 15: What Organised Parents and Students Can Do: This chapter explains how parents and students can work together to improve attendance and learning in their school.

  5. Chapter 16: Concrete Steps for the Next Thirty Days: This chapter offers practical steps that teachers, parent groups, students, and phone users can begin within thirty days.

  6. Chapter 17: The Hidden Curriculum of Humiliation and Belonging: This chapter examines the hidden lessons children learn at school about belonging, voice, language, caste, and gender.

  7. Chapter 18: Why “Merit” Often Measures Inherited Advantage: This chapter examines why examination ranks do not always measure individual talent alone.

  8. Chapter 19: AI in the Hands of the Children Who Need It Most: This chapter examines how AI tutors can support children who lack reliable academic help without increasing inequality.

  9. Chapter 20: A School That Refuses to Lose Children: This chapter describes a school that measures success by keeping children learning, not only by counting passes.

  10. Chapter 21: Lessons from Indian Experiments That Already Work: This chapter examines Indian schools and programmes that help children who are behind continue learning.

  11. Chapter 22: What Success Would Look Like in Five Years: This chapter describes what schools might look like after five years of applying the book’s approach.

  12. Chapter 23: A Letter You Can Copy and Send: This chapter offers a short letter that students or parents can adapt and send to a teacher or head teacher when learning feels difficult.

  13. Chapter 24: Closing the Circle: This chapter closes What I Want to Tell My School Teacher by connecting its proposals to the experience of children enrolled in school but absent from real learning.