Would they let a 24 year old with no experience or qualifications as a primary school teacher into a Mumbai Public School? Would the school management adapt to the radical changes that he’d bring, his fancy technology, his magical imagination, his burning desire to change every archaic thing from the word go? Most importantly would this 24 year old become more than a teacher, perhaps a leader to eliminate the most fundamental crisis in our Nation; inequity in education, where 1 in 3 children who begin primary school drop out before reaching 5th grade. Will this 24 year old be able to lead his country out of this crisis?
Two years have passed in two of Bombay’s worst classrooms where I worked full time attempting to amplify the potential of a group of India’s poorest children. While we had the extravagance of four walls and a ceiling we did not have an attitude, the resources or the desire to learn. We could not read, write or speak in English, our confidence was battered and our lives were stuck in status quo. We were more than four years behind our private school peers; we had a huge achievement gap that we needed to bridge. Where would we start? Where could we start?
We began with a sense of urgency. We realized that a mammoth world of magical possibilities awaits us. We understood that only hard work could get us there so we worked relentlessly. We celebrated spontaneity and differences, encouraged risk taking.
This was a challenging experience, to be patient and nurturing to 50 children every single day. To be humble around bitter school management and learn to control my emotions when I saw corporal punishment and various forms of abuse. To be resourceful when we needed a library or a field trip and to invest friends and strangers when I felt isolated in my journey. I also looked deeper within myself when my children were not showing progress, to re strategize when my class was destructive and disruptive. I persevered to understand that failure is so important, to re-evaluate what success means and to continually stay passionate and inspired. I learnt the virtue of patience and the lesson of never giving up on anyone; I learnt that my serving small serves nobody. I learnt the distinction between education and literacy; I learnt to walk into a slum over and over again to involve families, to invest them in their child’s incredible future. I learnt that change truly begins by re-engineering my internal dialogue, my prejudices and my limited mind set.
In my classroom I introduced my children to concepts such as love, peace, respect and unity, through art, literature, technology, out-door experiences or just by bringing the outside world into the classroom. The classroom soon seized to be an isolated space and it became a safe place to learn and play. Through this experience of enquiry, observation, discussion, demonstration and participation we learnt to balance academic excellence and holistic development.
Each of these children had one thing in common; they all had unconditional love. They live in Bombay’s darkest slums, amidst the sewage and the smell. They have families, large and bursting at the seams, where a patient ear, a loving word, a nurturing touch is a luxury. They see drugs at the curb, alcoholism in the house, they are victims of sexual abuse and physical violence, they see their grandparents being thrown out into the night and their mothers being mercilessly beaten, they use the same shoe for three years, they get the worst medical care yet find pristine joy in a one rupee packet of pickled berries. But just like the summer breeze blows cool of the Arabian Sea, after two years of intervention they’re definitely smarter and confident but most importantly they are beginning to trade their mediocrity for excellence, their indifference to education for the joy of learning.
Today more young leaders are walking into such classrooms, with their convictions intact, an immense sense of possibility and the honesty of intent, each day they thwart limited dreams, liberate our children’s ambitions, repair the lost faith in our country and truly ensure that one day all children attain an excellent education, because in our classrooms we don’t advocate discourse but we exhibit possibilities.
Abhik Bhattacherji
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