My experiences and learnings while teaching the underprivileged kids

Over the years as my classes have evolved, they have become synonymous with bright and gifted kids wanting to learn something over and above the school curriculum and in the process building a solid base for competitive exams. This has resulted in a bit of fame and reputation but access to it has remained restricted to the elite class due to the cost of tuition.

Last year I tried to change that by integrating underprivileged kids into my system by offering free tuition to them. The criteria were the same as what it was for the other kids. I.e. the student must be sincere and must be doing pretty well at school since I will not teach them the school curriculum. Instead, I would challenge them beyond the school curriculum, try to develop a fascination with math and science concepts and build rigor and discipline required to succeed in competitive exams.

First, I took up the cause for Shivam (Name changed), the son of a local roadside vegetable vendor. Shivam had just passed his class 6 and started class 7. Shivam was quite smart and doing very well at school. However, his knowledge levels compared to his more privileged peers coming from elite schools were low so it was hard to accommodate him in the same batch as them. I realized that he needed someone to sit with him and explain the intricacies of fractions, decimals, and integers to come to par with his peers. I didn't have the bandwidth to do that, so I offered a paid summer internship to one of my 10th-grade students. His job was to work with Shivam daily during the summers and plug those knowledge gaps. To my delight, they did a wonderful job fully committed to the cause. That gave me hope that this would work out.

But my hopes were dashed as Shivam was still significantly behind his peers, despite making some decent progress during summers. In simple terms, he needed more work before he could be integrated with my grade 7 batch. But by now the summers were done and dusted and my 10th-grade intern too didn't have the bandwidth to take up Shivam's cause any further. I told Shivam and his dad that despite my best efforts Shivam could not be integrated with my batch. I even offered to hire and sponsor another teacher who could look after Shivam. But both Shivam and his dad were a bit too disappointed and did not take any other option and left with the words "Tuition toh kahin bhee padhva lenge sir, aapke paas padhta toh kuch ban jaata".

The experience with Shivam was an eye-opener for me. I took my learnings and promised myself to do better next time such a situation arose. The fate was kind to me and presented an opportunity soon, this time Anu(Name changed), the kid of a home cook approached me. She was also a grade 7 student and harbingered the same aspirations as Shivam. Her mother approached me because she wanted her daughter to become something in life. Even Anu was smart kid and doing quite well at her school but just like Shivam she also had a lot of knowledge gaps compared to my regular 7th-grade batch students coming from elite schools.

This time I took it up as a personal challenge to train her, adjusted my class schedule to create bandwidth, and allocated 3 hrs a week to tutor her personally, independent of the batch. Being a quick learner she absorbed the concepts very quickly and things started on a great note. However, as we went deeper into the concepts we started having issues between us. Anu was ok learning the deeper concepts but was resistant to practice any of the stuff learned in class. As a result, she was unable to progress beyond a certain point. On checking with her mother I learned that being a class topper she feels that she does not need to learn anything over and above the school level. Hence does not want to put in extra effort. However, she still wants to continue coming to my classes, as she enjoys them. This was a tricky reply as enjoyment is not the sole purpose of my classes and any concept no matter how beautifully it's taught cannot be mastered without regular practice.

Not ready to give up easily I continued taking her classes hoping that at some point she would start putting in the effort to make the whole ordeal effective. However, that was not happening. Somewhere down the line, I also came to know that her mother was very upset with her for not using my classes effectively and used to scold her and sometimes even beat her. This was in stark contrast with the parenting I have come to know or practice. Realizing that this is not going anywhere and the child is under great duress ultimately I decided to stop the classes for her after spending close to 8 months on them.

Yet again having failed in my pursuit I realized that the problem with underprivileged kids cannot be solved by good teaching or good intentions alone. Instead, it requires a proper ecosystem that supports the kids in the class and also counsels the parents regularly about how to treat them during the time away from the class. Hoping to apply this learning if/when the next opportunity comes along. Any ideas/suggestions/experiences to share? Please share your experiences about working with such kids, so that I can improve my methods and do a better job next time such a situation presents itself.

Update: I stopped Anu's classes in the last week of February. But she reached out to me again on April 12th and we have resumed the classes, this time hoping for better outcomes, armed with learnings from the past.